[Photo: Andrew Redington]
Charley Hull had just birdied two of the previous three holes on Sunday at the Ladies European Tour’s PIF London Championship and was only one shot behind 17-year-old Anna Huang, who had already won three LET titles in the past year.
Hull striped her drive down the middle of the fairway on the par-4 16th at the Centurion Club, only about 45 minutes from her home in England. Huang then hit her drive well left, finding the water. Fifteen minutes later, Hull had made birdie from 30 feet and Huang saved bogey from 12 feet to head to the last two holes with Hull on top by a shot.
Then, what happened was almost unthinkable.
Both players found the green on the par-3 17th and Huang made an easy par. Hull, not so much; she four-putted from 30 feet. Her first attempt ran five feet by the hole, then she rolled that one four feet by the hole the other way. She tapped in from two feet for a double-bogey 5 to suddenly trail by one heading to the home hole.
On the par-5 18th hole both players found the green in two shots, but Hull two-putted for birdie and Huang made her eagle putt to win by two shots. She eagled the home hole all four days. Yes, she played it eight-under for the week, finishing the week at 22-under-par after shooting 67-68-65-70. Hull shot 74-62-67-69, making birdie on four of the last six holes Sunday, but the double-bogey was her undoing.
Hull, 30, is the sixth-ranked player in the world, and has nine professional victories to her credit, three on the LPGA Tour. None, however, have come in her native England, despite playing often on the Ladies European Tour over the years. Last week she tied for sixth place at the AIG Women’s Open at Royal Lytham & St Annes in north-west England. Last year at the Kroger Queen City Championship, Hull won outside Cincinnati when then No.1 Jeeno Thitikul four-putted the last hole to hand her the trophy.
For Huang, the 17-year-old Canadian, she now has four LET victories in the past 11 months. She secured LET status in December 2024 and her family moved from Vancouver to Florida because of the better weather. Then last year she first won the La Sella Open in Spain by seven shots and followed it with a victory at the Ladies French Open. Earlier this year she captured the Lalla Meryem Cup in Morocco.
A third-round 65 in England gave Huang a three-shot lead heading into the final round and she made birdies on holes six and eight to extend that lead. But a bogey on the ninth and a rash of birdies by Hull made the contest close down the stretch. She only lost the lead after the aforementioned bogey on the 16th hole but regained it on 17 and slammed the door shut with eagle on the last.
“That was the most thrilling round of golf in my life,” Huang said. “I’m just so shocked.”
Kelsey Bennett was the best of the Australians, closing with a 68 to finish alone in fifth place at 14-under.
