Just when Charley Hull would have thought of resting her way into 2026, she found herself in a new problem worth a thousand dollars. Dropping a story on her Instagram, Hull announced that her golf bag, reportedly valued somewhere between $12k and $18k, had been stolen from Miami International Airport. Apparently, a thousand miles away from her bag, she had no choice but to turn to her fans for help.

“Seems someone just stole my clubs at Miami airport. They’d been checked in, but this is where they now are! Anyone got any ideas how I get them back?!” Hull wrote. The story featured a screenshot showing her AirTag’s location. Somewhere near a business called WinCo, with neighboring stores like Worldwide Perfumes and Zuma & Sons, the bag’s exact location blinked on the screen. 1,530 miles away, it was last at 10800 NW 103rd St, Miami, FL 3317.

This is not the first time Hull has suffered the brunt of a bag theft.

Just last year, during the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, her clubs were lost by British Airways when she was travelling from London to Seattle. That Tuesday, instead of practicing on the course, Hull spent her entire evening waiting for her stuff to come back. Now, a year later, she finds herself again in the same puddle. Now, this puddle is actually quite frequent in the golf world, as golfers travel with expensive clubs. Many times, several golfers have received a bag with broken clubs or a bag that has been torn into pieces. Theft, too, is a common issue.

It was this year that Nelly Korda lost her entire luggage while traveling to the Amundi Evian Championship on Delta. Luckily, they were recovered from nearby. Then, 3 years ago, her sister Jessica Korda had to play the AIG Women’s Open with borrowed clothes when her duffel bag went missing in transit.

As nightmarish as the overall situation is, this is not new for the Miami Airport. In recent years, it has earned a reputation for luggage being lost left, right, and center. Interestingly, the Miami International Airport (MIA) has been ranked as the worst airport for lost luggage, with 306 lost-and-found searches per million flights. For every 1000 passengers, there’s a luggage mishandling rate of 5.5. Between 2010 and 2014, the airport had $2.5 M worth of missing items.

As the problem persisted, with no signs of improvement, CNN jumped in to investigate. Reports show that there exists an airport-worker theft problem. To solve the issue, the Miami-Dade police installed multiple hidden cameras over the last decade. This did yield some results, as 31 baggage handlers and ramp workers were arrested for the nuisance.

It is not known if Hull has filed a complaint or not. If she has, and her bag isn’t found, she might receive liability coverage. But it would only amount to $3,000 – $5,000. That’s nowhere close to the actual reported value of the bag. An insurance cover can also refund some amount of money, but for any golfer, getting back the original equipment remains the priority, as all the gear is at times personalized for the player’s style.

In the end, Hull is now dependent on her fans for help. Let’s see if the fan-powered search ends up reuniting her with her bag. If the past is any indicator, and if Charley Hull has strong luck, then it might actually end up happening.

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Times when strangers emerged as golfers’ saviors

It might sound like a fictional movie, but yes, strangers have ended up helping people get back their lost gear. One such example is from 2023, when, from Briarwood Golf Club, Phoenix, 12 sets of golf clubs were stolen. General Manager Phil Stika then used his brain and somehow tracked the clubs with the help of their AirTags to a south Phoenix neighborhood.

The same year, Mark Majewski from Canada was on a trip to Mexico when his golf bag was lost by Flair Airlines. As his search failed, he decided to continue with his trip. Three weeks later, Majewski receives a text from a stranger named Stephanie. The message had his golf bag’s image, sitting at the airport in Cancun. As Mark Majewski struggled to get it back, Stephanie offered to help and shared the bag’s picture with the airline.

“A lovely lady named Stephanie from Barrie, Ont., sent me a photo of my bag,” Majewski told City News. “She was standing at the airport in Cancun, Mexico, saw my tag, and texted me a picture of my bag saying, ‘It’s right here.'” A week later, he reunited with his bag.

The fact that such cases happened is proof that Charley Hull, too, can end up receiving her golf bag. In her case, such an outcome is likely since she is a well-liked golfer with a massive following of 821k on her Instagram. The odds of one of those followers helping and finding her golf bag remain high. All she can do is hope with her fingers crossed.