A quiet English fairway once set the stage for a story Charley Hull will never forget. She was only seven, but her swing was steady and her mind sharper than many older players around her. So much better that she ended up defeating a 17-year-old boy. In a recent interview, Hull shared how she beat that boy that day; and the meltdown he had after.

Hull recounted the incident in a Sky Sports interview with Kelly Cates. Cates asked her, “Do you think that helped you to set your goals differently? The fact that you were playing with older boys. How did they react when you beat them?” And Hull replied, “Yeah, 100%. It kind of just like upped my game from a young age, cause obviously they hit it further than me. I remember when I was like seven years old, I beat a 17 year old boy, I think. And I think I was on like I think it might have been like the 15th or the 16th hole that I beat him on.”

What came next however, became the premise of Hull’s career: leaving her peers and observers shocked by her impeccable skills. Hull further added, “And he looked at me, swore at me, said something girls, and then got my ball and chucked it into the bushes. But I loved it. I thought it was really funny. I was like, “Yeah, I just beat you. I’d probably do the same. You should’ve been beat by a girl that’s like 10 years younger than you.”

Hull was always used to playing with boys more. She recounted that in a 2020 Golf Monthly interview, “I was always brought up with boys and I much preferred playing with them. The standard was a lot better and I really enjoyed it.” So, instead of being discouraged, she treated every round as a chance to improve, learning how to stay calm when opponents doubted her. That attitude became the foundation of her aggressive play style.

Moreover, having been exposed to stronger competition at a younger age made Charlie’s younger years a cake walk at times.

By 2013, Hull’s turned professional, became the youngest player ever in the Solheim Cup, and earned the Ladies European Tour Rookie of the Year award. Her career has since been filled with milestones. Two LPGA Tour wins: the 2016 CME Group Tour Championship and the 2022 Ascendant LPGA; plus four victories on the Ladies European Tour, including the 2014 Lalla Meryem Cup and the 2019 Fatima Bint Mubarak Ladies Open.

Hull’s record in the biggest events is equally strong. She owns ten top-10 finishes in major championships, finishing runner-up at the 2016 ANA Inspiration, the 2023 U.S. Women’s Open, and the 2023 AIG Women’s Open. She has represented Europe in seven Solheim Cups (2013–2024) with a 15-9-3 record and played for Great Britain in both the 2016 Rio Olympics (T7) and the 2024 Paris Olympics (T27).

Fellow English golfer Georgia Hall has praised Hull’s “fearless” approach, and many point to those early mixed-gender matches as key to her success. From the day a frustrated teenager tossed her ball into the bushes to the fairways of the LPGA Tour, Charley Hull has shown the same mindset: compete hard, laugh off the noise, and keep proving people wrong.

That same grit was on display again this summer; only this time it was her own body she had to outplay.

“Pain Is Only a Bloody Weakness of the Mind”- Charley Hull

After suffering a ligament tear at the PIF London Championship in early August, Charley Hull was told she might need nine weeks to recover. Instead, she returned to competition in just three. Wearing a moon boot during much of her recovery, she tied for second at last week’s Aramco Houston Championship and is now teeing it up at the Kroger Queen City Championship in Ohio, where 21 of this season’s LPGA winners are in the field. “They said it would probably be about nine weeks recovery time, but I cut it down to three,” Hull said in her pre-tournament press conference. “I am a little bit sore this week after playing last week.”

Despite the quick turnaround, the No. 8 player in the world hasn’t fully shaken the pain. “Yeah, today it hurt,” she admitted. “It’s just a lot of golf last week and then straight into this week. But pain is only a bloody weakness of the mind, so I’ll be all right.” Her summer has been riddled with health issues: a virus at the Amundi Evian Championship, a back injury from lifting a box the week of the British Open, and lingering cysts on her spine. Hull says she is still weighing whether to travel to Hawaii before the LPGA’s Asia swing, noting that long flights could do more harm than good.

Even with those setbacks, Hull remains focused on the weeks ahead, including the International Crown in South Korea next month, where she’ll join Lydia Ko, Brooke Henderson, and Wei-Ling Hsu on the World Team. True to form, she’s unfazed by the logistics: “No, haven’t even looked who is on the team, to be fair. I’ll just rock up that week and play some golf.”

Charley Hull’s journey blends grit with an unshakable love for competition. From a fearless seven-year-old outplaying older boys to an LPGA star defying medical timelines, she continues to prove that setbacks; whether on a driving range or in the treatment room, are just pauses, not barriers. Her mix of humor, resilience, and blunt honesty keeps her among golf’s most compelling figures, reminding fans that true toughness shows in the quiet refusal to slow down.