Ashleigh Buhai of South Africa plays her shot from the fourth tee during the first round of the Kroger Queen City Championship presented by P&G 2024 at TPC River's Bend on September 19, 2024 in Maineville, Ohio Ashleigh Buhai claimed a one-stroke lead at the LPGA’s Quen City Championship on Thursday. Picture: Dylan Buell/Getty Images via AFP
Ashleigh Buhai fired a superb seven-under 65 to lead the Queen City Championship LPGA Tour event by one, after round one on Thursday.
Buhai’s round included eight birdies and just one bogey, as she put her injury problems behind her this year to edge ahead of Thailand’s Jeeno Thitkul and China’s Yan Liu.
A host of players were tied for fourth on five-under, including America’s Nelly Korda and New Zealand’s Lydia Ko.
The 35-year-old revealed the injuries she’s been struggling with this year, after her round.
Ashleigh Buhai wins the Investec South African Women's Open in commanding fashion! The South African fires a final round 68 to secure a four shot victory👏pic.twitter.com/v9kwQiUYyh
— Golf Monthly (@GolfMonthly) March 11, 2023
"There has been a few things happened to me this year — back injuries, broken toe,” said Buhai.
An almost flawless driving display saw Buhai find 13 of 14 fairways, and a hot putter helped the 2022 Women’s Open champion lead the stellar field.
"I think I was smart with when I could attack.
"There were a few pins out there where you had to still try to be aggressive, and the greens got a little firm and ran through, but I then made some good up and downs to keep me in it," Buhai said. I hit it great, putted well — that tends to add up to what it did.”
In fact, Buhai had just 26 putts for the round while she found 13 of 18 greens in regulation.
The round began with two birdies in a row for Buhai as she got off to a fast start. Two more gains before the turn saw the top-ranked South African go out in four-under. Coming home, four more birdies followed with her only blemish of the day being the bogey five at the 17th.