After Charley Hull’s Tough Aig Women’s Open Finish, 6 words said everything

Charley Hull did not expect that much of himself this week in the 2025 AIG Women’s open At Royal Porthcawl. She had taken over a virus that hit her out of the Amundi Evian championship, she tweak her back to getting a box from her car, she had hit it badly and she did not really at the atmosphere with left wave.

Due to two rounds in Wales, the prediction of Hull proved to be looking forward. She went back on Saturday 11 shots from Miyu Yamashita and didn’t look like she would be a weekend factor. But Hull found something in the third round, seven Birdies flowed into a six-round round to knock the rankings and to come within three of Yamashita.

On Sunday he left it along the coast of Rest Beach with the chance to track Yamashita and win her first major championship.

Hull came out and made three Birdies at the front nine. She Birdied 12 and rolled in a long bird on the treacherous 14th to trim Yamashita’s lead to one with four holes to play. Stretched by the pro-hul crowd in Wales, the 29-year-old star reached the teeth with a golden opportunity for her. If she could end strong, she could put pressure on the 24-year-old Yamashita, who was two groups behind and had not yet experienced the large Ketel championship.

Hull made a par in the 15th, but then things took a turn.

She tried to lie down 16th of the tee, but her ride found a fairway bunker, which led to a bogey. Another bogey followed at the age of 17 when the approach of Hull crossed the green and she missed the par putt. That dropped the hull to three back to the par-5 18th. Fireworks needed on the 72nd hole, Hull Blaart’s ride blows through the fairway, but left her approach to the green behind the bunker. She played a stylish throw over the bunker to 10 feet, but her attempt by Birdie missed low and she tapped in to finish the championship at nine, two shots behind Yamashita’s winning brand.

After she had lowered her fourth second place, Hull looked back on the week with pride. There was no mourning of a bad finish. All this was unexpected.

“By the end I didn’t even make a bad shot at 16,” Hull said after the round. “I hit a perfect tee shot, and only the wind cried from the left and didn’t even move like an centimeter, as if I hit it so pure. It was a bit unhappy. Then at 17, missed that putt. I hit a good putt with a good putt at the game. And then I was ashamed of the bunker, and I had it to be fine.”

Hull now has four number two and 10 top 10s in her most important career. She is still looking for that elusive first big win, but she does not leave Royal Portcawl for a golden opportunity that is missed. Although the end result will leave her with a different scars on her heart, it is the pride she showed in the fight that will stay with her.

“Listen, came in this week, I didn’t think I would make the cut. That’s the truth,” said Hull. “I wasn’t doing so well. I couldn’t prepare myself as well as I wanted because I was bad. I clearly deposited three times in the round in Evian, and I still didn’t feel good until Sunday last week. So I think I did pretty well and given my mentality in it, I am proud of myself.

“I really enjoyed it. I felt so under control of my game, and I know I didn’t get into my head – it’s not like I got a ride or kicked a shot. … I don’t feel that I actually complicated to mislead any shots that I think everyone can agree, you know what I mean?

On Sunday, while Hull makes his way around Royal Porthcawl, in an attempt to claw her way to Yamashita, she never looked at a classification. When she rolled for Birdie in the long putt at 14 to close the gap to one, she had no idea if she was in the lead or still with three pursuit. For Hull, the last round of Sunday was an exercise in process and discipline. That is a process that Hull is trying to return, something that helped her to win the CME Group Tour Championship in 2016.

While Yamashita was topped at the 18th Green in Champagne at Royal Porthcawl, Hull, the favorite of the fan who again left a big championship as a bridesmaid, tried to look at her latest Miss in just a positive light. It was similar to Rory McIlroy’s post-round statement after losing the 2023 US Open at Los Angeles Country Club.

She placed herself in the mix and gave herself a realistic chance of a Sunday with a major. You take that at any time and drop the cards where they can.

“Hundred percent, sure,” Hull said when he was asked if she would hurt, although she is proud of her performance. “But at the end of the day it’s just a game. That’s what I think about, and I enjoyed it, and I just love that adrenaline feeling. It’s so good. It’s like a huge hit.”

And yet, while Hull looked at her near-miss with perspective and class, one answer betrayed the rest of her five minutes debrief with the press. It was short, but it was the same shade of pain that the faces of Phil Mickelson, Xander Schauffele and others have adorned their heads to the big door countless times while trying to kick it down.

“I just look forward to building it off,” Hull said before he looked away as if he were looking back on what could have been the past hour.

“A second place in a big one, yes.”