Article Author:
Reuters
South Africa's Ashley Buhai persevered through the playoff four holes and made the decisive sand on her fourth save to defeat South Korea's Ying Zi Chun at the AIG Women's in Gullane, Scotland on Sunday. At the Open, I won my first major tournament in my career.
Buhay entered the final round at historic Muirfield with her five strokes behind, but she ruined it with her par 75 over four overs. Chun's 1-under 70 was enough to tie with Buhay with a 10-under 274.
The pair played her par-4 18th hole repeatedly, and after 9 p.m. Buhay's fourth trip to a draw. local time. Chong's drive found a bunker on the right of the fairway, forcing her to lay up, and she reached the back of the green on three shots before finally making a bogey. Buhay's second shot landed in a greenside bunker, but she tapped-in par on an excellent third shot.
The 33-year-old not only won her first major title in her career, but also won her first LPGA event of any kind. She has three career wins in her European tour with her ladies.
She joined Sally Her Little in the Hall of Fame as the only South African woman to win a major her tournament. Little won two majors.
"This takes a lot of hard work and years of dedication," Buhai said at the trophy presentation. ``I know there are a lot of people with gray hair in South Africa right now. But he hit a tough triple-bogey 7 on the 15th hole to drop from 13-under to 10-under, leveling with Chong. Buhai struggled to get out of the hole's fairway bunker, shorting her long double-bogey putt.
She missed birdie her putt on her 18th and could have also won the event. Neither Buhai nor Chun were able to find a decisive putt on her first three holes of the playoffs.
Buhay misses her putts to birdie to win on her first playthrough, second bogeys both, Buhay misses birdie to win her third playoff on her hole I was a few inches short. That led to a dramatic fourth finish, and Buhay deftly saved himself from a bunker. Show me if you're number one in the bunker,'" said Buhayi.
In Chun's round of 70, the front scored a bogey on the 10th and she bogeyed on the 9th with her 3 birdies.
Third place went to Hinako Shibuno of Japan, who played a colorful card with a single eagle. She had 3 birdies, 3 bogeys and 1 double.
Ireland's Leona Her Maguire hit her 5-under 66 earlier in the day and went up to 7-under. That was enough for Maguire to make his first top five finish in the majors. It was his tie for fourth place with Sweden's Madelen Sugström (71 in the final round) and world number two Australia's Minjee Lee (69).
Canada's Brooke Henderson (70), New Zealand's Lydia Ko (68) and Thailand's Ataya Titikul (70) — world Nos. 4, 5 and 6 — won the championship with a 5-under draw. Nana Hataoka of Japan (68), Céline Boutier of France (67) and Steph Kyriacoo of Australia (71) finished seventh.
– Field Level Media
