Why Hull's US Open near-miss shows major win is close

Image source, Getty Images Image caption, Hull finished runner-up in a major for the fifth time in her career By Iain Carter Golf correspondent Published 24 minutes ago All-out attack is rarely a winning recipe in US Opens, but at the Riviera Country Club it very nearly paid off for Charley Hull. She is surely on course to break her major duck sometime soon and in California last Sunday it was only the brilliance of a dominant world number one that bettered the British star. In an exhilarating US Women's Open at Riviera Country Club, Hull posted a record-equalling weekend charge while finishing a shot shy of Nelly Korda's winning total. It is a familiar tale for Hull. She is no stranger to slow starts and rapid finishes in the game's biggest tournaments and there were echoes of Pebble Beach three years ago when she was joint runner-up to Allisen Corpuz. That was when the 30-year-old from Kettering adopted the mantra of "shy girls don't get sweets" and she ended up three shots behind. This time it was a more blunt, less family-friendly phrase that drove her "go for it" mentality. Hull followed her third-round 65, the lowest score of a thrilling week in Pacific Palisades, with an adrenaline-fuelled closing 67 that began with an eagle and a birdie inside the first three holes. "Just go for it," she said. "I love playing golf like that. "I feel like sometimes, the first two days, I'm in a keep my head in the game. You can't go for everything because it's just early on, but now I have nothing to lose. "I can just go at everything and play free golf like I do at home and it's more fun." Image source, Getty Images Her weekend total of 132 matched Meg Mallon's championship record set in 2004 and was largely down to a vastly improved performance on the greens. Hull, who hit 13 of 14 fairways last Friday, totalled 63 putts in the first two rounds. But she was 10 putts better in the final two circuits even with crucial misses at the ninth, 12th and 14th holes of the final round. Despite those there was still plenty to suggest Hull will one day soon make her major breakthrough. The way she played the closing hole, especially, inspires such optimism. Left with a must make 10-footer to set the clubhouse lead, Hull calmly and decisively slotted a putt that, at that moment, might have been for the title. Korda, of course, had other ideas and her brilliant up and down for birdie at the par-five 17th meant the world number one only needed a par at the last to make it two out of two in the majors this year. And it was a nerve-shredding putt from inside three feet that travelled most of the circumference of the hole before dropping that deservedly saw Korda home. An "ice cream swirl" she called it, after fearing she had blown her chance. Hull and Gabby Lopez, who also finished seven under par, had to share second place - Hull's fifth runner-up finish in the majors. She is knocking ever louder - two runner-up finishes in the past three majors and eight top-20s in the