—Šaiǯs aŒor ˜i…tory tr—ps ͳͷ years oˆ ešpe…tation
GOLF
LAS VEGAS – Ashleigh Buhai overcame 15 years of expectation when she won the AIG Women’s Open in a four-hole sudden-death play-off on Sunday to become the major champion everyone always thought they knew she could be. Buhai became the second South African woman to win a major golf championship after Sally Little won the LPGA Championship in 1980, and the Du Maurier Championship in 1988.
Won
Alison Sheard won the Women’s Open in 1979 before it was considered a major championship. And when Buhai turned professional at the age of 18, there were many who believed she was ready to be South Africa’s next golfing superstar.
“It’s been a long journey,” said an emotional Buhai after her victory. “You know, I turned pro when I was 18. I was kind of expected… there was a lot of things expected of me. I won straight off the bat on the Ladies
European Tour. But this game has a way of giving you a hard time.
“I’m just so proud of how I’ve stuck it out. I have said the last four or five years, I’ve finally started to find my feet on the LPGA and felt I could compete, and although I’m 33 now, I feel I’m playing the best golf of my career.”
She turned professional in 2007 after a successful amateur career, during which she became the youngest player to win the Ladies’ South African Amateur Stroke Play and Match Play titles.
She won her third event as a professional, the 2007 Catalonia Ladies Masters, to become the youngest ever professional winner on the Ladies European Tour.
Victory
She secured her LPGA Tour card in 2014, and her closest taste of victory on that circuit came at the 2020 Cambia Portland Classic where she lost a play-off to Georgia Hall. Now, over 200 starts later on the LPGA Tour, the best golf of her career brought her her first title – and it was a major.
“My thought this week was 40 per cent to the top because that kept my rhythm and then everything else falls into place,” she said. “As long as I have soft hands and 40 per cent to the top, then I felt I was in control.”