Ashleigh Buhai cruises to Investec SA Women’s Open victory

She savoured the applause during the walk on to the 18th green at Steenberg Golf Club in Cape Town on Saturday, and Ashleigh Buhai rewarded the crowd gathered there with a birdie to clinch the Investec South African Women’s Open Championship by a four-stroke margin. 

In the end, the final round of Buhai’s fourth national title was something of a victory lap, as she started the day with a four-stroke edge. 

Her four-under-par 68 to finish the Sunshine Ladies Tour and Ladies European Tour’s co-sanctioned tournament meant the gap was still four after runner-up Ana Peláez Triviño of Spain also carded a 68. 

“I’m over the moon, obviously,” said Buhai. “Ecstatic to have gotten the job done. My goal was to come here and win this week. I tried to play it down, because I know it’s a lot of pressure and it was going to be difficult to do. But now that I’ve got it over the line, I’m really happy.” 

It hardly mattered that Buhai, the reigning Women’s Open champion, dropped two shots in three holes down the finishing stretch, because she made five birdies on her front nine as her lead stretched to as much as seven at one point. 

“It was great to start with a birdie on one, especially after making bogey there yesterday,” said Buhai. “I had good putts on two and three, and then made three in a row on four, five and six, and I just kept it going. And it was a good putt on nine for that birdie too. 

While the bogeys may have irritated Buhai on some deeply personal level. The reality is that she had done the heavy lifting in the first two rounds, and was able to do enough thereafter to simply preserve her lead for the rest of a week which was something of a celebratory homecoming. 

“On the back nine, I hit good shots, but I was kind of in between yardages,” she said, “and the wind got a little bit trickier. But luckily I had that big lead, and I could just hit it to the space on the greens and take my two putts. They had to come chasing and I did what I had to do to get the job done.” 

After her putter seemed to have mutinied during the second round, Buhai took it upon herself to put it in its place by hitting what seemed like every approach shot on the front nine to inside a few feet. 

Ashleigh Buhai of South Africa plays her third shot on the 16th hole during day three of the HSBC Women's World Championship at Sentosa Golf Club on 4 March 2023 in Singapore. (Photo: Ross Kinnaird / Getty Images)

Final result (SA stated)