Up ahead of her, the drama came from a hole-in-one and a birdie run from the two players battling it out for the title on Saturday, but Ashleigh Buhai steadied her ship to card a level-par 70 in the third round of the Pelican Women’s Championship on the LPGA Tour to move into the top 10.
The hole-in-one came from America’s Ally McDonald, who aced the 12th to move to within one stroke of Korean Sei Young Kim’s lead. The world number two responded with a run of four consecutive birdies from the 14th to the 17th to stretch to 14-under for the tournament, while a bogey on 16 saw McDonald slip back to nine-under and a five-stroke deficit heading into the final round.
Buhai, who is ranked 72 in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings, started her third round with a birdie, but immediately gave that shot back with a bogey on two. Birdies on four and seven took her to four-under for the tournament. She was unable to improve on that as she made bogeys on eight and 10. However, she made it home from that point in level-par to share 10th place with four other players.