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Ashleigh Buhai overcomes late hiccups, wins AIG Women’s Open in marathon playoff

By Veronica Elizabeth Bruno

South Africa's Ashleigh Buhai kisses the trophy after her playoff win over South Korea's Chun In-gee on day 4 of the 2022 Women's British Open Golf Championship at Muirfield golf course in Gullane, Scotland, on August 7, 2022. - South Africa's Ashleigh Buhai survived a disastrous 15th hole to claim victory in a marathon play-off against Chun In-gee in the Women's British Open at Muirfield on Sunday. Both players tied on 10 under par after 72 holes, and it was Buhai who eventually secured victory in the final major of the season with a par four at the fourth extra hole, the 18th. - RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE (Photo by Neil Hanna / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE (Photo by NEIL HANNA/AFP via Getty Images)
South Africa's Ashleigh Buhai kisses the trophy after her playoff win over South Korea's Chun In-gee on day 4 of the 2022 Women's British Open Golf Championship at Muirfield golf course in Gullane, Scotland, on August 7, 2022. - South Africa's Ashleigh Buhai survived a disastrous 15th hole to claim victory in a marathon play-off against Chun In-gee in the Women's British Open at Muirfield on Sunday. Both players tied on 10 under par after 72 holes, and it was Buhai who eventually secured victory in the final major of the season with a par four at the fourth extra hole, the 18th. - RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE (Photo by Neil Hanna / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE (Photo by NEIL HANNA/AFP via Getty Images) /
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Ashleigh Buhai overcomes late hiccups, wins AIG Women’s Open in marathon playoff.

After watching her lead of five shots erode, the AIG Women’s Open seemed to slip from Ashleigh Buhai’s grasp, but her brilliant bunker play in the dramatic playoff with In Gee Chun saved the day for her first major win, finishing with a -10 par 274 with 70, 65, 64, 75 scores.

South Africa’s Ashleigh Buhai had dominated the AIG Women’s Open, and starting out Sunday was not any different, setting the tone with a five-shot lead from the outset, earned with an impressive play that included a stunning eight birdies the day before (on top of five birdies and one eagle on Day 2). Despite hitting one birdie on the front nine, two bogeys on holes two and nine signaled concern on the final day.

Still heading into the back nine, the 33-year-old golfer was three strokes ahead. That is, until she came up to the 15th hole, where her lead crumbled after a triple bogey -4 par that allowed South Korea’s In Gee Chun to catch right up to her.

Both players made par on the 18th, setting the stage for the playoff.

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“I know there are a lot of people in South Africa with lots of gray hairs right now after that 15th hole,” Buhai said after she won the four-hole playoff by making par on the last hole, via ESPN. “But I’m very proud of myself, the way I dug deep and kept myself in it to get into that playoff.”

Buhai almost locked in the win at the third hole playoff, narrowly missing a beautifully executed putt by a few inches. After hitting an elegant drive that put her in contention at the fourth playoff hole, the Johannesburg native looked to be in trouble again with a mishit into the bucker while darkness was rapidly descending.

If Buhai was going to get it done, she knew she only had a small amount of time to steel her nerves. On a mission against the setting sun, she displayed the bunker skills she was famous for, hitting the shot of her life to set up a short putt on the -4 par 18th, which Chun bogeyed. The British Open would have been In Gee Chun’s fourth major, a missed opportunity for a golf grand slam (not a super slam).

“I was surprisingly calm,” Buhai said about her brilliant bunker shot on the 18th. “My caddie said to me on the last one, I don’t want to brag, but she said, ‘Show them why you’re No. 1 in bunkers this year.’ So, you know, she gave me the confidence. Maybe it’s got something to do with Muirfield and South Africans and bunker shots,” referencing her countryman, Ernie Els’ famous bunker shot playoff win at the 2002 Open Championship at the same course.

Cupping her face in her hands in disbelief, her husband David Buhai (who had telegraphed all the stress of those playoff holes) rushed to lift his wife, having patiently waited to congratulate her during the tense moments of the playoff, while friends and supporters drenched her in alcoholic beverages (and a little water).

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Her win comes with the bonus of a $1,095 million payout.

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Ashleigh Buhai amazingly snatched the win out of the jaws of defeat, to collect her first major at the Muirfield golf course, the first time the Women’s Open was played on a course that didn’t allow female golf members until 2019. Not only was it her first major, but her first LPGA title as well, having won three on the Ladies European Tour.

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