Charley Hull weighs in on LPGA’s strict new slow play policy (and she even has a little tip for you)

It’s been the biggest talking point of 2025 so far across the PGA and LPGA Tours. The women’s circuit is taking action – and Charley Hull is on board.

Charley Hull is not one to shy away from a discussion on slow play in golf.

She’s even represented both ends of the debate, from shrugging her shoulders and saying she uses delays to snack and draw doodles in her notepad, to demanding repeat offenders have their tour cards taken away.

“I’m quite ruthless,” she remarked at The Annika as rounds toppled over the six-hour mark. “If you get three bad timings, every time it’s a two-shot penalty. If you have three of them you lose your tour card instantly. I’m sure that would hurry a lot of people up and they won’t want to lose their tour card. That would kill the slow play, but they would never do that.”

And while the LPGA didn’t quite go as far as Hull would have liked them to, they did reveal a strict new system that would see slow play punished with fines and penalty shots.

While the policy won’t come into effect until the Ford Championship at the end of March, the pace of play at the Founders Cup the week of the announcement was noticeably better. Or “lovely”, as Hull describes it.

Speaking ahead of this week’s HSBC Women’s World Championship in Singapore, Hull explained that she is fully on board. Why? Because, she said, “you need to have a very harsh punishment” in order “to keep people under wraps”.

She added: “You’re talking to the ultimate rule-breaker here. If the punishment isn’t unbelievably bad, you’re going to do it.”     

No prizes for guessing who she’s talking about.

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And while less extreme examples of slow play can be forgiven when you’re trying to make a living from the game, Hull also had some tips for club golfers who would like to get round a bit quicker.

“Just hit it, find it and hit it again,” Hull, who said she often plays 18 holes with a friend in 90 minutes when she’s at home, explained.

“If you’re in between a 5-iron and a 6-iron, if it’s a front pin, hit the 5 because you don’t want to be short. If it’s a back pin and you don’t want to go long, hit the 6.”

Before Hull left, there was even a rather surprising mention of retirement.

A number of high-profile LPGA players – notably Lexi Thompson – have hung up their clubs shortly after turning 30, but 28-year-old Hull has no such plans.

When one reporter said they had read an article of Hull’s impending retirement, she was keen to point out their mistake.

“I don’t think that’s about me,” she explained. “Lexi is retiring, but not me. Definitely not me.

“I’ll play golf until I’m on my deathbed.”

That’s that cleared up then.