The lighthearted story landed just as Hull arrived at Royal Lytham chasing a long-awaited first major title. It also revealed the unusual mix of trust, nerves and money talk inside a player-caddie partnership.
Charley Hull tricked her caddie into thinking he had won the lottery on July 28, 2026, telling reporters at Royal Lytham and St. Annes how the prank on her caddie Adam Woodward began with a fake £100,000 lottery prize bought from a Blackpool joke shop. Hull tricked her longtime bagman as the AIG Women’s Open arrived this week at the Lancashire links, eight years after the championship was last staged there.
The joke was brief, brutal and oddly well-timed. Hull is trying to turn another major near-miss into a breakthrough, while Woodward briefly believed he had just landed the kind of windfall that might make a caddie consider taking the day off.
A fake ticket fooled Woodward
Hull’s story, reported by Golfweek and BBC Sport, started with fake scratch-off cards. According to BBC Sport, Hull bought the ticket in a Blackpool joke shop before giving one to Woodward at the start of Women’s Open week.
Woodward scratched away expecting nothing. Hull said he went from routine disbelief to full celebration when the card appeared to show a six-figure win.
BBC Sport reported the fake prize as £100,000. Golfweek’s account quoted Hull describing Woodward running around the players lounge saying he had won $100,000. The currency differed in the two reports, but the essential point did not: the ticket was a gag, and Woodward believed it long enough for the room to enjoy the fallout.
Hull said Woodward was sweating and shaking, taking off his hat and glasses as the realization seemed to hit. Then came the reveal: it was fake. Hull told reporters she felt bad afterward and joked that she now needs to watch for payback.
Why the prank landed
Golf can be a solitary sport on the scorecard, but elite players rarely operate alone. The caddie is part strategist, part psychologist, part logistics manager and part human shock absorber over four pressure-heavy days.
That makes the Woodward prank more than a throwaway clubhouse joke. Hull and Woodward have a long-running working relationship, and the trust required for that kind of partnership is exactly what made the fake ticket believable.
There is also a practical edge to why the gag hit so hard. Caddies can earn significant bonuses when their players win, but they also live on a very different financial plane from the stars whose bags they carry. A supposed £100,000 lottery prize would be life-changing money for plenty of people inside and outside golf.
Hull appeared to understand that once Woodward’s celebration turned real. Her line about feeling bad was part comic confession, part acknowledgment that the prank had worked almost too well.
A lighter start to major week
The timing matters because Hull did not tell the story during a quiet off-week. She did it as the AIG Women’s Open returned to Royal Lytham and St. Annes, one of the most recognizable links venues in women’s golf.
BBC Sport framed the week around the possibility of a home winner, with Hull and Lottie Woad among the British hopes. The venue has history on that front: Catriona Matthew won there in 2009, and Georgia Hall won when the championship was staged at Royal Lytham eight years ago.
Hull, from Kettering, has carried major expectations for years. BBC Sport noted she has five runner-up finishes in majors, a résumé that can be read two ways: proof she is close, or proof of how hard the final step remains.
The prank gave her a rare low-stakes moment before a high-stakes week. It also showed a version of Hull that has long made her popular with fans: blunt, mischievous and not especially interested in smoothing every edge for public consumption.
The purse added context
The lottery story surfaced after Hull was asked about prize money. Golfweek reported that the Women’s Open purse is $10 million, tripled from the last time the championship was held at Royal Lytham and St. Annes.
Hull’s answer was unusually direct. She said she likes playing for money and connected that motivation to her major performances, joking that birdies mean extra dollars for both her and Woodward.
That honesty is part of why the prank story traveled. Athletes often talk about legacy, process and staying present. Hull did not pretend money is irrelevant. In professional golf, especially in majors, the purse is part of the pressure and part of the reward.
For women’s golf, the $10 million figure is also part of a broader shift. Bigger purses signal commercial growth, but they also sharpen expectations for players at the top. Hull’s joke about a fake lottery win sat beside a very real conversation about how much is now available to earn on the course.
Hull’s pressure is real
The danger with a funny story is that it can make the week sound casual. For Hull, it is anything but. BBC Sport quoted her describing her major record as frustrating and saying outside pressure can build because she is human.
That is a revealing line from a player often praised for her confidence. Hull has been close often enough that every major becomes a fresh test of whether this is finally the one.
Her recent near-miss at the U.S. Open added to that feeling. BBC Sport reported that world No. 1 Nelly Korda held off Hull’s charge in June, another example of Hull doing enough to threaten but not enough to leave with the trophy.
At Royal Lytham, the setting increases the attention. A British contender at a historic British venue is an easy storyline. For Hull, that can mean louder support, but also heavier noise if the putts do not fall early.
Payback remains the subplot
Woodward’s next move is the unanswered part of the story. Hull said she may need to have her back up because she does not know what he will do in return.
That line gave the prank a second life. The first act was Woodward thinking he had won. The next may be whether he finds a way to even the score without disrupting a major week.
There is a limit to how much should be read into a joke-shop scratch card. It will not decide the Women’s Open, and it does not change the demands of Royal Lytham’s links test.
Still, it offered a useful snapshot before the serious golf begins: Hull is relaxed enough to laugh, Woodward is central enough to be the target, and the stakes around them are very real. The fake £100,000 prize vanished quickly. The chance for Hull to hit the jackpot on Sunday is the one that matters.
Leave a Reply