Jeeno Thitikul had the second win of her LPGA season in her grasp on Sunday at the Kroger Queen City Championship. Then, well, it all came apart for the World No. 1.
Thitikul and Charley Hull battled all weekend in Cincinnati. The lead yo-yoed back and forth between the two during the final round before Thitikul nudged ahead by one after Hull bogeyed No. 17.
But things unraveled for one of the LPGA’s best putters on the final hole. Thitikul reached the par-5 18th green in two, landing her second shot some 50 feet from the hole. She ran her eagle attempt five feet past the hole, but was still in good position to at least get to a playoff with Hull. Thitikul burned a lip with the birdie attempt and then pushed the four-foot par putt that would have secured a playoff with Hull.
Instead, Hull was left with a two-foot birdie putt to clinch her first LPGA Tour win since 2022.
“I thought I had to make eagle to be fair,” Hull said after the win. “I wasn’t really watching her putt for birdie because I thought she was going to hole it. I guess it’s not over until the fat lady sings but I was shaking over that last putt because I just didn’t expect it. But yeah, it feels great.”
It was just six weeks ago that Hull had a chance to win the AIG Women’s Open before two critical late bogeys cost her a chance at her first major championship. Then came a torn ligament in her ankle that she suffered after tripping over a curb in a parking lot. Hull scoffed at the initial diagnosis and returned last week, where she finished tied for second at the Ladies European Tour’s Aramco Houston Championship.
“Obviously, I tore a ligament completely in half in my ankle, so that was at a golf tournament after the British Open,” Hull said earlier this week in Ohio. “I had to pull [out]. They said it would probably be about nine weeks recovery time, but I cut it down to three. I am a little bit sore this week after playing last week.”
Add the torn ankle ligament to the virus that forced her to withdraw from the Amundi Evian Championship and the nagging back injury she suffered before the AIG Women’s Open, and Hull has had a rollercoaster, ailment-filled season. But she hasn’t let that slow her down.
“Obviously fainted at Evian and hurt my back after that when I was lifting a box into my car, and then like, tore the muscle,” Hull said. “And then obviously, tearing the ligament in my ankle, so it’s just gone one after another. Playing pretty decent golf, touch wood, and it’s just come at like an awkward point as well, and you just want to play loads of golf. But it’s life, and at the end of the day, I’m still breathing, so I’m fine.
“When I was younger, if I fell over my dad would always be like, you break anything? No? Well just stand back up then. I’d be like, yeah, true,” Hull later added.
Charley Hull got back up, and, with some unlikely help from the world’s best player, found herself in the winner’s circle again
