PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. — Charley Hull does not do subtlety. She arrived at Riviera Country Club for the final round of the 2026 U.S. Women’s Open with 10 strokes to make up in two days. She made nine of them. Then Nelly Korda made a birdie at the 17th, and Hull was left, once more, one shot short of the title that has eluded her across a decade of major contention.
“It’s just frustrating,” Hull said after completing her final-round 67 at Riviera. “Another second place. I think that’s five second-place finishes I’ve had in majors now. So, yeah, it’s pretty annoying.”
Pretty annoying, and yet somehow delivered with the blunt charisma that has made Hull one of the most compelling figures in women’s golf. She was not broken. She was furious, in the way that only someone who genuinely believes she is good enough to win gets furious — because she is.
A Weekend for the Ages
The 30-year-old from Kettering, England, opened the week with rounds of 73 and 72, leaving herself well outside the top 40 at the halfway mark. Most players in that position spend Sunday watching the final round from the clubhouse. Hull instead carded a course-record 65 on Saturday — the lowest round in the history of the U.S. Women’s Open at Riviera — and followed it with a 67 on Sunday to finish at seven under par, tied second alongside Mexico’s Gaby Lopez, one stroke behind champion Nelly Korda.
The weekend comeback of 10 combined strokes under par from a position of near-elimination was a reminder that Hull operates by her own logic. She explained her Saturday mindset plainly: she had been striking the ball well for the first two days without holing putts, so she resolved to abandon caution entirely. “Just thought, f*** it,” she said. “Just go for it. Everything. I had nothing to lose. I could just go at everything and play free golf like I do at home, and it’s more fun.”
The same philosophy governed Sunday. She set the clubhouse target at seven under, watching from the scorer’s tent as Korda birdied the 17th to move a shot clear. Hull had held the lead entering the back nine; a couple of missed putts in the wind ultimately separated her from the trophy.
“I was watching the scores but I was thinking if I get to 10 under, that should be good enough,” she said. “Obviously I didn’t get there, but I hit a great shot into the last hole.” She paused, then offered the compliment that victory demands: “Fair play to Nelly Korda for back-to-back wins.”
Five Times, No Title
Hull’s five major runner-up finishes now span more than a decade of LPGA competition. She has finished second at the Chevron Championship, twice at the U.S. Women’s Open, the AIG Women’s Open, and again at Riviera. Twelve major top-10 finishes in total. The pattern is almost cruel: Hull plays her most dazzling golf precisely when the pressure is highest, yet something — a missed putt, a rival’s birdie, an opening-round deficit too steep to fully erase — has always intervened.
She has made no secret of the frustration, nor of the conviction that sustains her. “It’s not over until the fat lady sings,” she said on Sunday, reprising the defiant optimism she has deployed after every near-miss. “Charley makes a charge on the weekend, so there you go. I just like chasing it down — I like stalking them down.”
She is also honest about what must change. The first two rounds remain her persistent vulnerability. At Riviera, opening scores of 73 and 72 left her too much ground to recover, as they have elsewhere. The weekend brilliance is real and repeatable; the Thursday-Friday discipline needed to keep pace with world-class fields has proved harder to sustain.
“I just love playing in the majors,” Hull said. “I love that feeling. It’ll be a massive comedown tomorrow — not because I came second, but because the adrenaline goes out of my body. But I love the feeling.”
The Season Continues
Three women’s majors remain on the 2026 calendar: the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, the Evian Championship, and the AIG Women’s Open. Hull enters each as one of the field’s most dangerous players — not despite her five runner-up finishes, but in some sense because of them. She has stood close enough to sense exactly what winning a major requires. The golf, at its best, is already there. The question of when, not whether, grows more insistent with every near-miss.
At Riviera, she came within a single Korda birdie of the answer. The wait continues — but not, one suspects, for much longer.
