It hasn’t even been 24 hours since Charley Hull broke the internet. A rather private person, Hull’s grappling relationship with John “Ozzie” Smith found light, minutes before she was set to tee off at the Grant Thornton Invitational. As she walked on the course, the noises around her were silenced. And helping her in that was her playing partner.

“I feel like we’re both pretty calm,” Hull shares about Michael Brennan. “He probably thought I was super nosy…But I was just learning. It was pretty calm out there.”

Hull is partnered up with 23-year-old Brennan, who is a last-minute replacement for Daniel Berger, the original pair. Berger withdrew from the Tiburon Golf Course for reasons unknown. Rumors are that it has something to do with his injury he’s suffered this year. Whatever it may be, the replacement has seemed to work for Hull and Brennan.

“I was kind of nervous to start,” says Brennan in the post-match presser. “I just didn’t want to let Charley down. It’s a different format…but…I felt like we kind of found our flow.”

The duo produced one of the most remarkable opening rounds in the history of the Invitational. As they played the scramble format, Hull-Brennan delivered a spectacular course record of 17-under 55. They broke the previous event’s record by a stroke! Currently, they are tied for first place with Lexi Thompson and Wyndham Clark.

All of this is insane if one thinks about the entire timing of the situation. Hull’s in-depth interview with The Athletic is probably going to close the 2025 golf season on a high note. It was the first time the otherwise brash Englishwoman spoke about her 2019 marriage to the MMA fighter.

The marriage didn’t even see two years before it ended. As Hull describes in the interview, the reason for the breakup was the manipulation and emotional instability she suffered at a young age. Hull was just 23 back then, 14 years younger than Smith.

“I could go back and say, I wish it never happened, Hull told Gabby Herzig of The Athletic. “But I actually feel like I’m glad it happened because it makes me the person I am today.”

This level of emotional maturity can only be expected from the 3-time LPGA Tour winner. And if it comes as a surprise to anyone — how she could perform exceptionally knowing fully well that the Internet might be gossiping about her — then you should know it’s not new for Hull. In the past, too, more specifically, in the very relationship in question, the Englishwoman was able to give her best whilst going through perhaps the biggest turmoil of her life.

“My best friend Georgia Hall said to me, ‘Charley, I don’t know how you can go out there and play unbelievable golf with the amount of s— you have going on, anyone else would be a mental wreck.’”

But as she reveals in the interview, golf is an escape for Hull. And that’s exactly how she was able to perform not just in R1 of the Grant Thornton Invitational, but also throughout her career. It carries more weight if one acknowledges the broader mental trauma Hull took home from that relationship.

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Charley Hull’s lifelong battle with ADHD

It was 2023 when the Englishwoman got diagnosed with ADHD, a condition she described as “quite severe” in her case. This was one of the many baggage of her ‘abusive relationship’ with Ozzie Smith. And considering Hull is a golfer, a sport that requires precise attention, the situation seemed troublesome.

A comparatively slow sport, golf can turn boring at times, and that, for Hull, is a big no-no. Boredom, she has said, is the fastest way for her concentration to crumple. Perhaps that’s why she has often been quite vocal against slow play.

Anyway, to counter that, Hull has relied on an organized structure. She has a tight routine with early-morning gym, sprint session (something she missed this year), and ice baths. These are what she calls her “caffeine.” Hull doesn’t take ADHD medications and instead relies on these alternative ways to soothe her nerves.

“Where I have such a tight schedule and certain things that I like to do, because then I know my ADHD won’t affect me… It’s like a checklist,” she has said in the past.

Another thing that affects her is the team format. Individually, Hull can play as per her own whims. But in a team format like the Solheim Cup, she has to depend on other people’s schedules, which can tend to get problematic. Despite that, in the Grant Thornton Invitational, Hull remained unwavering.

What presumably worked for her was the scramble format itself. It kept her mind actively involved in decision-making. She kept asking Brennan questions, maybe to keep herself focused and divert her brain from spiraling into boredom. Once they achieved early success, like the birdie on hole 3, they gained their momentum, or in their words, “flow.”