The 2025 U.S. Women’s Open is underway! And the first few days are packed with amazing featured groups delivering exciting stroke play. One of the most watched pairings is that of Nelly Korda, Charley Hull, and Lexi Thompson, who all teed off together on Thursday morning. They are the most popular golfers on the field for different reasons, but unfortunately, the dynamic between the two of them doesn’t seem to be as smooth-sailing as fans would have hoped for. Or maybe the drama is exactly what they wanted. Either way, it seems that Hull and Thompson are not getting along that well. Reason? The mighty slow play!
So, what happened is that after finishing on par in the 4-stroke 8th hole, the Englishwoman had two options. She could have waited for Thompson to complete her hole or moved on. Hull picked the latter and walked to the 9th hole to take a comfortable seat on the grass. The image of the 2-time LPGA Tour champion relaxing on the 9th hole tee was shared by Meg Adkins of Fried Egg Golf on X. This suggested that Hull was tired of waiting for her groupmate. Time and again, Hull has been quite vocal about her dislike for the slow pace of play in the past.
We all remember when Hull pleaded for the pros’ Tour card to be taken away at the CME Championship? “I’m quite ruthless, but I said, ‘ Listen, like, 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. Go back to Q School.’ Because I’m sure that would hurry a lot of people up, and they won’t want to lose their tour card. That’d kind of 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁 the slow play, but they’d never do that,” she said. Thompson agreed with Hull despite the suggestion being “bit of an aggressive comment.” “I don’t disagree with it [Hull]’s comments,” Thompson said. “It has to be done. Despite her rivalry with Korda, Hull also stated that the one thing common between the two is their hate for slow-playing LPGA Tour pros.
The post received a lot of negative reactions against the 29-year-old for her actions. Most questioned her motive behind disrespecting her playing partner. Others called her immature. There were a few who also showed love towards Hull and understood that it might be a “slow play protest.” Nonetheless, the English golfer’s actions spoke louder than anything she might say in the post-round interviews.
For a while now, Jay Monahan & Co. have been criticized for slow play. And they have been asked to learn from the LPGA Tour on how to deal with the issue. The management in the women’s league is strict about the pace of play policy and isn’t afraid to penalize its players with strokes. According to the memo, the LPGA had released this year, they fined 22 players for slow play in 2024 while nine players received two-shot penalties.
The only question is, did Lexi Thompson have a valid reason to take so long on the 8th hole? Her performance on the par-4 might give us a hint.
Was Charley Hull too harsh on Lexi Thompson?
Out of the three, Charley Hull had the roller coaster of a round up until the 8th hole, managing 3 bogeys and 2 birdies. She was sitting at 1-over par after finishing the 8th hole in 4 strokes. Nelly Korda had been quite consistent with only 1 bogey by then. However, Lexi Thompson was enduring a nightmare, considering that she had already managed 3 bogeys before teeing off on the penultimate hole in the front 9.
While both Korda and Hull ended the hole on par, Thompson had a shot at scoring a birdie. Her drive landed in the rough 160 yards from the hole. The semi-retired golfer hit an excellent approach stroke that helped her land just 6 feet and 10 inches from the hole. She took her sweet time on the 8th to ensure that she sunk the near 7-footer to bring her score down to +2. That she did as she rose the rankings after the excellent putt. However, despite the outstanding effort, she was still trailing both Nelly Korda and Charley Hull by 1 stroke.
In the end, was it worth the delay for Lexi Thompson to frustrate her groupmates? That will only be answered after the 2025 U.S. Women’s Open is completed.
