“Charley Hull’s Emotional Plea: ‘I Just Want to Go Home’ – Inside the Exhausting Grind of the LPGA Tour and Her Hard-Fought Return

“Charley Hull’s Emotional Plea: ‘I Just Want to Go Home’ – Inside the Exhausting Grind of the LPGA Tour and Her Hard-Fought Return to Victory”

 

Charley Hull, the English golf sensation with a reputation for bold play, has recently revealed a side few fans get to see—the toll of an unyielding schedule that leaves her feeling emotionally drained. This whirlwind of tournaments has brought Hull, along with many of her peers, to the breaking point, as the demands of the LPGA’s relentless global schedule force players to hop from one country to the next with little rest in between. Hull, who turned pro at the young age of 16, now finds herself at 28, yearning for the simple comforts of home.

 

Hull’s frustration was evident when she landed in Riyadh for the Aramco Team Series Championship. Fresh off a plane from Malaysia, where she had competed in the Maybank Championship, Hull’s exhaustion was palpable. In a candid interview, she expressed what many LPGA players have only hinted at before:

 

“I just want to go home. Unless it’s in the UK. Like, I can go from Evian to British to Scottish. I turned pro when I was 16 years old. Now I’m 28. I have to have a bit of a life in between,” Hull shared in a rare moment of vulnerability.

 

Alison Lee, another rising star on the LPGA Tour, echoed Hull’s sentiments, painting a vivid picture of the physical and emotional demands that the players face week after week. “I don’t think there’s one girl out there who says they love going to the airport every single day and going to tournaments every single week, because it’s hard, it’s really hard,” Lee confessed. She went on to describe the grueling process of packing, unpacking, and dragging heavy suitcases from one airport to the next.

 

“It’s hard on our bodies,” Lee continued. “Especially when we travel internationally and spend hours and hours on the road, packing, unpacking, and a lot of the time, a lot of us travel alone as well. So, if we’re going to the airport, we have two, three, four suitcases. Dragging it through the airport, slowly making our way to the next event, renting a car, getting to the hotel room. It can get pretty lonely at times.”

 

This year alone, Hull has competed in 15 tournaments across the globe, securing four top-10 finishes but spending countless hours in transit and away from her loved ones. The intensity of this commitment, with scarcely any rest between events, leaves players vulnerable to burnout—a topic rarely discussed in public but now surfacing among LPGA professionals.

 

Hull’s Long-Awaited Victory Breaks a Two-Year Drought

 

Despite the grueling schedule, Hull’s determination has not wavered. Recently, she managed to channel her frustrations into a triumphant victory at the Aramco Team Series in Riyadh, breaking a two-year drought. The win was a hard-fought one, ending with Hull three strokes ahead of Nicole Broch Estrup—a moment of redemption that Hull had been seeking since her last victory in 2022 at the Volunteers of America Classic.

 

Reflecting on her victory, Hull was visibly relieved. “Yeah, I felt really sharp, I played very solidly today. I made a bogey on the par five 17th and the par three, but that was just two three putts. So quite long putts, in all fairness, and they got away from me a little bit, but felt like I held my game together pretty well. And 18 under for three days is a pretty good score,” Hull shared, finally sounding content after years of relentless competition.

 

Her journey to this recent triumph was marked by a series of close calls, starting with her 2021 win at the Aramco Team Series-New York. That year, she narrowly edged out Nelly Korda by a single stroke. But Hull’s win in Riyadh was particularly significant, representing not only a victory on the scoreboard but a personal triumph over the exhaustion and sacrifices demanded by her career.

 

The tournament in Riyadh wasn’t just another win; it was a symbolic turning point for Hull, showcasing her resilience and mental fortitude in an industry that has recently seen more players speak out about their physical and emotional fatigue. The LPGA Tour, admired for its fierce competition and global appeal, comes with a cost that fans rarely see.

 

As Hull and other players continue to voice their concerns about the relentless pace of the tour, this victory serves as a reminder of the strength required to compete at such high levels—even when all they want is a moment to breathe and perhaps, finally, go home.