Charley Hull hoping Olympics smoking ban doesn’t make Paris tournament a drag

Charley Hull hopes a smoking ban at Le Golf National will not see her Olympic gold medal hopes go up in smoke.

The Team GB golfer smokes while out on the course and was dubbed the “female John Daly” by the American media at the US Open two months ago.

Hull also provoked a social media stir after signing autographs for a group of young children with a lit cigarette dangling from her lips at Lancaster Country Club in Pennsylvania.

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Team GB golfer Charley Hull has to quit her habit of smoking on the course at the Olympics this week (John Walton/PA)

“But I won’t do this week. I don’t think you’re allowed.”

Asked if the smoking ban would affect her, Hull replied: “Yeah, I think it will. Because it relaxes me a little bit. But it is what it is.”

On the extensive social media reaction to her smoking at the US Open, she added: “I don’t actually go on Instagram.

“I just concentrate on my golf and just hang out with Georgia (Hall) off the golf course.”

John Daly, who won the Open in 1995 at St Andrews, is known to stroll around the golf course with a cigarette in hand.

John Daly, wearing a flamboyant jacket. having a smoke at St Andrews in 2010.
John Daly having a smoke at St Andrews in 2010 (PA)

Hall, 28, is making her debut at the Games and says she has already felt the tournament being different to regular Ladies European Tour and LPGA Tour events.

“There’s a different type of mindset I think this week,” said the 2018 Women’s British Open champion from Bournemouth.

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Former British Women’s Open champion Georgia Hall is making her Olympic debut at Paris 2024 (John Walton/PA)

“You just know, any time you get to do that, it’s probably one of the best moments that you can have as a professional athlete.

“It’s been on my mind in the last few years to get into this team and win a medal.”

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