LPGA Tour star Charley Hull explained on Sunday the reaction to the viral video of her smoking a cigarette while signing autographs for fans led to a pick-up attempt from a male fan.

Hull was thrust into the spotlight after a practice session before the U.S. Women’s Open last week. She finished the tournament tied for 19th, shooting 6-over par.

“It’s actually quite funny. All over a cigarette I suppose,” Hull told reporters, via Golf.com. “I was generally, like, walking to the range. I had my hands full, someone asked me for an autograph, and I’m not gonna say no because I like signing autographs for them. Just having a cigarette in my mouth, signed (the autograph), then it’s gone viral.

“It’s been crazy, like, the fans have been shouting my name this week. Someone said I’ve dropped something and handed their phone number in my hand, on a piece of paper in my hand. And I thought it was so funny.”

Hull said she never texted the fan but thought the interaction was hilarious.

US WOMEN’S OPEN GOLFER STRIKES BIRD DURING TEE SHOT IN BIZARRE 1ST-ROUND SCENE

Charley Hull of England plays her shot from the second tee during the second round of the U.S. Women’s Open Presented by Ally at Lancaster Country Club on May 31, 2024 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. (Sarah Stier/Getty Images)

“It’s been a bit of a wild week.”

Hull went on to explain that she smokes and never really drinks.

“I was a bit stressed last year and I just kind of vaped. And I wanted to stop vaping, and even though smoking is not better than vaping, it’s just you can vape indoors all the time. I thought if I smoke, I’m going to go outside and smoke a cigarette.”

Charley Hull of England smokes a cigarette on the ninth tee during the first round of the U.S. Women’s Open Presented by Ally at Lancaster Country Club on May 30, 2024 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. (Sarah Stier/Getty Images)

Hull may not have won the first major of her career, but she quickly became a fan favorite and this tournament may have a lasting memory for everyone involved.

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The Dodgers are winning again.

They followed their sweep of the New York Mets by taking the last two games of their three-game series against the Colorado Rockies during the weekend.

Mookie Betts homered in their series finale against the Rockies, a 4-0 victory on Sunday at Dodger Stadium. Freddie Freeman also homered. Second-year right-hander Gavin Stone further cemented his place in the rotation by pitching five scoreless innings.

The Dodgers are 38-23, the second-best record in the National League. They have a 6½-game division lead over the second-place San Diego Padres.

Yet, none of this was convincing.

None of this answered the longstanding questions about them.

None of this felt like persuasive evidence for why they wouldn’t crash and burn in the postseason as they have in each of the previous three years.

They have identified a postseason Game 1 starter in Tyler Glasnow, but who comes after that?

One of the three pitchers who faced the Rockies this weekend — Stone, Yoshinobu Yamamoto or Walker Buehler — will likely have to establish himself as the No. 2 starter before October.

Stone, 25, is the most consistent but the least experienced.

Yamamoto is 5-1 with a 2.72 earned-run average over his last seven starts but pitched only once a week in Japan and manager Dave Roberts sounded as if the Dodgers were determined to keep him on a similar schedule this season. Yamamoto has yet to make a start on less than five-days’ rest.

“Sitting here, I think our priority is to make sure Yoshi stays on his sort of extra rest, so I don’t see that changing, even through October,” Roberts said.

Buehler has made only five starts since returning from his second reconstructive elbow operation and the Dodgers remain uncertain on what they have in him. In his most recent start, Buehler struck out seven batters in six innings — but he also gave up four runs — three earned — during a loss to the Rockies.

With James Paxton pitching relatively well, and Clayton Kershaw and Bobby Miller expected to return from their respective injuries, the Dodgers have pitching depth that should help them pile up regular-season wins. But just because a pitcher can beat a talent-depleted team such as the Mets or Rockies in a midweek game doesn’t mean he can win a game in October. Remember, Lance Lynn was a perfectly serviceable pitcher during the regular season last year. Lynn was crushed in the postseason.

The questions about pitching extend even to Glasnow. How will the Dodgers prepare him to pitch on four-days’ rest in the playoffs?

Glasnow has kept a schedule similar to Yamamoto’s, as the Dodgers are mindful of how the injury-prone right-hander has never pitched more than 120 innings during a season. Roberts said he envisioned Glasnow making starts on a traditional five-day cycle in August.

“It’s not an exact science,” Roberts said. “Tyler’s still gonna throw more than he’s ever thrown in quite some time.”

Equally, if not more, troublesome is the bottom of the lineup, which has made the Dodgers overly reliant on the Big Four of Betts, Freeman, Shohei Ohtani and Will Smith.

The combined batting averages of the Dodgers’ No. 6, 7, 8 and 9 hitters was a combined .204 entering the series finale against the Rockies, which ranked fourth-worst in baseball.

Chris Taylor is batting .108, Kike Hernandez .198 and Gavin Lux .209.

Chris Taylor hits during an exhibition game against Team Korea in March.

(Lee Jin-man / Associated Press)

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Max Muncy’s oblique injury has further magnified this problem, as Muncy’s move from the middle of the order to the injured list has shortened the lineup. It’s no coincidence that shortly after Muncy’s injury, the team went on a five-game losing streak.

The Dodgers will have to address this problem between now and the trade deadline.

If all of this comes across as overly critical of a first-place team, well, that’s because of the prism through which this team is viewed.

In what is a testament to their ownership group, the Dodgers have made the regular season unimportant. They have reached the playoffs in 11 consecutive seasons and won their division 10 times in that stretch, making October baseball feel as if it’s a given.

Maybe this isn’t fair to them.

Maybe observers shouldn’t let the specter of the playoffs diminish their appreciation of regular-season developments, such as Stone’s emergence as a legitimate major league starter or catcher Smith’s improvement throwing out potential base stealers.

But this is the Dodgers’ reality.

The Dodgers are held to a different standard than every other team in baseball, with the New York Yankees being the one possible exception. For the Dodgers, success is measured in championships, and everything they do — or don’t do — is judged by how it could affect them in the postseason.

And at this stage, questions remain.

One night after their controversial game against the Chicago Sky, the Indiana Fever got blown out on the road by the New York Liberty, 104-68, on Sunday. 

And Caitlin Clark, the subject of the controversy, struggled mightily at Barclays Center during the team’s latest defeat.

Clark scored three points, shooting 1 of 10 from the field, including 1 of 7 from three-point territory. She also collected five assists, two rebounds, two steals and one block.

Meanwhile, the Liberty saw their stars cook up on home court as Breanna Stewart (13 points, six rebounds, five assists), Sabrina Ionescu (16 points, six assists, six rebounds), Jonquel Jones (18 points, 13 rebounds, four assists, two steals) and Betnijah Laney-Hamilton (20 points, five assists, two rebounds, two steals) led the way for New York.

The Fever were fresh off a tough win over the Sky, 71-70, the night before, and it wasn’t even 24 hours since controversy and tension brewed between those two squads.

Sky guard Chennedy Carter was seen hip-checking Clark during the game, and her Sky teammate, Angel Reese, clapped for the hard foul that turned into a flagrant 1 violation after the WNBA reviewed it on Sunday.

SKY’S CHENNEDY CARTER RIPS CAITLIN CLARK AFTER REFUSING TO ANSWER QUESTIONS ABOUT FOUL

After the game, Carter avoided questions about Clark, but her thoughts about the No. 1 overall pick of this year’s draft were confirmed with likes and reposted defenses of her actions on X.

Carter, then, posted on Threads Sunday where she ripped into Clark.

“& that’s that on that cause beside three point shooting what does she bring to the table man,” Carter wrote in reply to a post about her postgame press conference.

In a separate post on Threads, Carter also responded to the clip of Reese celebrating the hard foul on Clark during a timeout, saying, “my dawg fasho, got all my teammates.

Caitlin Clark of the Indiana Fever, left, and Kayla Thornton of the New York Liberty fight for a loose ball during the first half at Barclays Center in New York City on June 2, 2024. (Luke Hales/Getty Images)

Amid news the league was upgrading Carter’s foul to a flagrant, it also fined Reese $1,000 for skipping her postgame press conference. The Sky was also fined $5,000.

Clark was asked about Carter’s foul after the game, and she replied, “I wasn’t expecting it. It is what it is. It’s a physical game. Go make the free throw and execute on offense, and I feel like that’s kind of what we did.”

While Clark took the high road, her GM, Lin Dunn, and head coach Christie Sides spoke their minds.

“There’s a difference between tough defense and unnecessary – targeting actions!” Dunn wrote in a post on X. “It needs to stop! The league needs to ‘cleanup’ (sic) the c–p! That’s NOT who this league is!!”

Sides added, “I’m trying not to get fined. I’m just going to keep sending these possessions to the league and these plays. Hopefully, they’ll start to … take a better look at some of the things we see happening or we think is happening.”

Caitlin Clark of the Indiana Fever is shown during the fourth quarter against the Chicago Sky at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis on June 1, 2024. (Andy Lyons/Getty Images)

Clark fans have seemed to go after Carter on social media, singling her out for what happened on the floor, though it appeared both of them had words prior to the hip check. But Carter posted on her Instagram Story as well, saying, “I’d rather you hate me then (sic) love me and I mean that on my dead aunt.” She prefaced that by saying “I grew up with all brothers,” so she loves “the hate more than the love.”

Carter also suggested Clark flopped on the play, making the hip check look worse than it was.

Either way, Clark knows there’s a target on her back, and subsequently the Fever, entering her rookie season as she generated tons of hype and new viewership for the WNBA after her illustrious college career at Iowa.

How she responds to “welcome to the show” moments like the one Saturday is what really matters, but it wasn’t her best performance on the back-to-back against the Liberty.

Caitlin Clark of the Indiana Fever is shown during the first quarter against the Liberty at Barclays Center in New York City on June 2, 2024. (Luke Hales/Getty Images)

Despite the poor start to the season by the Fever (2-9), Clark is the second player in WNBA history to have at least 100 points, 50 rebounds and 50 assists in their first 10 games, joining Ionescu in that feat. She did so after collecting 11 points, eight rebounds and three assists in the win over Chicago.

Fox News’ Ryan Gaydos contributed to this report.

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