There is no hiding place on a golf course.
South Africa’s Ashleigh Buhai can testify to that, because where only a few weeks ago she was at the top of the wave after her victory in the ShopRite Classic tournament, she has experienced a nightmare in the last four days in the US Open golf tournament for women at Pebble Beach in California.
The 34-year-old Buhai shot 80 in the fourth and final round and finished in 68th place at 302 (+14).
After posting scores of 75 75 72 in the first three rounds, she was never in contention and finished 23 shots behind the leader.
The Open tournament was won by the American Allisen Corpuz who finished on 279 shots (-9). She was followed in second place by Ji-Yai Shin of Korea and Charley Hull of England, who finished together in the clubhouse on 282 (-6), with Nasa Hataoka of Japan and Bailey Tardy (America) joint fourth on 285 ( -3).
* At the Centurion Country Club outside London, South Africa’s Louis Oosthuizen finished fourth in the LIV tournament at -12.
Australian Cameron Smith completed the third and final round in 68 shots and finished in first place at -15. He was followed by the American Patrick Reed and the Aussie Marc Leisman (both at -14).
Of the other South Africans, Dean Burmester was 18th (-7), followed by Branden Grace (-6) and Charl Schwartzel (-3).
Oosthuizen nevertheless earned $1 million (about R18.9 million), while he and his teammates were able to pocket another R9.4 million after the Stinger team finished third (-24) behind the 4Aces (-34) and Ripper team (-33) ended.
* In the American PGA Series’ John Deere Classic tournament decided in Illinois, Sepp Straka of Austria walked away with the laurels at 263 (-21).
Straka shot 62 in the final round and finished two shots ahead of Americans Brendon Todd and Alex Smalley (both 265, -19).
Ludvig Aaberg of Sweden and Adam Schenk of America were joint fourth at 266 (-18) with six Americans and Chun-An Yu of Korea joint sixth.
South Africa’s Garrick Higgo (271, -13) and MJ Daffue (274, -10) will also share in the prize money.
* In the European series and the DP World Tour’s Made in Himmerland tournament played in Denmark, Rasmus Hojgaard of Denmark finished first after beating the Spaniard Ignacio Elvira (both 267, -13) in a fall ax battle.
Richie Ramsay (Scotland) was third on 268 (-12) with Alexander Bjork of Sweden, two more Scots, Robert MacIntyre and Marc Warren, and Kalle Simoja (Finland) together fourth.
Of the South Africans, Darren Fichardt (271) performed best, followed by Hennie du Plessis (273), Daniel van Tonder (274), Bryce Easton (275), Justin Walters (276), Thomas Aiken (277) and Louis the Hunter (280).
