South Africa’s Ashleigh Buhai is the one to catch after the first-round lead in the AIG Women’s British Open at Woburn Golf Club.
The 30-year-old from Johannesburg carded a solid seven-under-par 65 on the Marquess’ Course in perfect scoring conditions on Thursday, to finish the day a stroke ahead of Japan’s Hinako Shibuno and American Danielle Kang.
The three-time LET tournament winner, who is looking for her first major title, said: ‘Obviously I’m really chuffed to get in at 7-under.
‘I lipped out on my first hole for birdie, holed a good putt on my second, and on the third, I actually hit it in the right rough, had to punch it out, but a good bounce, rolled up to like four-feet, so we’ll take that one and then I just played really steady.
‘I hit a bit of a wobble in the middle of my round, and to finish with three birdies and come in strong — I had a goal when I saw the lead was 6 to get to 7, so I holed like a 30-footer on the 16th hole and that got me to 7, so very happy.’
She enjoyed the challenge of playing a much longer course than when the championship was last played at Woburn in 2016, as the greens were much more receptive after heavy rainfall earlier in the week.
‘I felt I’ve been swinging it well, I’m hitting the targets and into the zones that my coach and I talk about, and holing some really good putts. I’m feeling really confident with the putter, and it’s been good the last few weeks, and today I managed to just hit a few more greens and rolled in the putts.’
Buhai tied for 37th in the Evian Championship last week and added: ‘Last week Evian was playing super tough, I found. The rough if you missed the fairways, it was brutal. I played very steady, and I brought that game into here. The driving, it’s a little bit easier this week, so it’s a little more forgiving, and you can still make a score if you miss the fairway, so I was really happy with the way I got around today.’
After a successful amateur career, she first won on the LET as an 18-year-old in the Catalonia Ladies Masters in 2007 and then won the 2011 Portugal Open four years later, playing under her maiden name Simon. She won the Investec Women’s South African Open at Westlake in Cape Town in March last year and feels that she has been swinging it well, but recent work on her short game has made the difference this week.
‘I think the last few weeks I’ve just been trying to be a lot calmer, and when I’ve felt the pressure under the gun, I’ve just tried to stay a lot calmer and have some better thoughts, and it seems to be working.’
Shibuno, a two-time winner on the LPGA of Japan this year and Kang, the 2017 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship winner, also had a solitary bogey in their rounds.
Woburn member Charley Hull, Sung Hyun Park, Megan Khang and Moriya Jutanugarn are tied for fourth place on five-under-par, while Moriya’s sister Ariya, the champion at Woburn three years ago, is tied for eighth place with the new world No.1 Jin-Young Ko, a two-time major champion this year and the recently crowned US Women’s Open champion, Jeongeun Lee6.
The defending champion, Georgia Hall, is part of a 10-way tie for 11th position after opening with a solid three-under-par 69.
