Ashleigh Buhai pushed on from her solid start in the Meijer LPGA Classic for Simply Give on Friday as she carded a second-round four-under-par 68 to get to seven-under-par at the 36-hole mark at Blythefield Country Club in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Starting her round on the 10th, she was steady initially, but then three birdies in a row from the 14th to the 16th got things going, and a fourth birdie in her opening nine came on the 18th as she turned at four-under. Things were a little tougher on her homeward nine, with bogeys on the first and the ninth. But she made birdies on six and eight to make up for those drops.
“I feel like I’m starting to trend again in the right direction,” said Buhai. “I played nicely last week, just didn’t finish well. I feel my swing is where it needs to be. It’s just more about internal, believing in it. Had a good talk with my coach. The goal this week was to try to play with intent and back myself, and I feel I’ve done that well the last two days.”
She heads into the weekend in a share of 25th, eight shots off the hot pace being set by Ireland’s Leona Maguire, who went eight-under in the second round to move to 15-under for the tournament. Maguire leads by three from Su Oh of Australia, with American Lindsay Duncan in third on 11-under.
For Buhai, it was a case of being much more accurate than she was in the first round, as she hit 12 of 13 fairways off the tee, and 16 of 18 greens in regulation.
Paula Reto missed the cut by two shots, but she would have been pleased to have carded a second-round five-under 67 after she opened with a four-over 76.
The 26-year-old rookie Maguire is trying to become the first Irish winner in LPGA Tour history. “Everybody is going low. You know you have to go low,” Maguire said. “There is not really time to look around or even look behind. It’s sort of keep your foot down and keep going, make as many birdies as you can.”
