Charley Hull's huge Team Europe Solheim Cup boost vs USA thanks to rule banned from Olympics

Charley Hull has been handed a significant boost ahead of the Solheim Cup with the 28-year-old allowed to smoke on the fairway, which was banned at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.

Brit Hull is hoping to help Team Europe to glory in the US, where she will face world No. 1 Nelly Korda in the opening match in Virginia on Friday. Hull isn't a stranger to smoking on the fairway and revealed it helps with controlling her ADHD.

She also picked up the habit to stop vaping. However, at the Paris Games, she was banned from lighting up on the fairway, and she later finished tied for 27th place with a score of one over par.

She admitted before competing in Paris that she believed not smoking would work against her. "It's a habit now, but I won't do it this week [at the Olympics ] because you're not allowed to," she said. "I think it could affect me because smoking relaxes me a little bit. But I’ll just have to concentrate even harder on my golf."

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She will not contend with a smoking ban in Virginia, though, captain Suzann Petersen revealed. "It’s nice to get Charley going, she doesn’t like to sit around and wait,” said Pettersen. "And she has interacted well with the home fans here this week. She’s having a ball. Charley’s old enough to make those decisions [smoking].”

Hull wasted little to no time too, borrowing a lighter from a spectator during Wednesday’s practice round as others watched on.

Hull will take on Korda and Petersen is confident the Brit can help Team Europe lift a historic fourth consecutive Solheim Cup. “Charley’s in fine form,” Pettersen added. “She’s flying high, doing her own thing.

"I actually think she’s in great spirits. She loves the Solheim a lot. Thankfully, we only have one of her on our team because imagine having 12 of her. That would be kind of a handful.”

Hull has become a social media celebrity over the last two years. She has 625,000 followers on Instagram. “Well, I’m just myself,” Hull said at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club.

“If I like things, I like it for myself. If other people don’t like it, well, it’s not their life. I live me. I live my life the way I want to live it, not how anyone else wants me to live it. I think just literally just live like a normal person.”