As the sun dropped behind the horizon and darkness crept over the seaside town of Gullane on Sunday evening, two of the best golfers in the world dueled over four extra holes for the honor of being named the first female to win a major at Muirfield. Women waited nearly three centuries for the chance to compete on the storied venue belonging to The Honorable Company of Edinburgh Golfers. And as the shadows grew long across the final hole they played as if they never wanted the day to end.
On the fourth playoff hole, it was Ashleigh Buhai who wrote the next chapter for women at Muirfield. With a bunker shot for the ages, the 33-year-old journeywoman pulled off a spectacular sand save at the closing par four to edge out three-time major champion In Gee Chun and win the AIG Women’s Open. Buhai became the first woman to win a major championship at Muirfield in its 275-year history. She etches her name beside South Africans Ernie Els and Gary Player as winners at the venue.
“It's a huge honor,” Buhai said about joining her fellow countryman. “To follow those two greats, two of my idols growing up, and for us to play here for the first time at Muirfield, making history, I'm very, very honored and very, very proud to be South African right now.”
It was strangely fitting that Buhai would be the one to make the much-anticipated history at Muirfield given her own long and winding path to major glory.
Winner of the South African Open at the age of 14, much was presumed of Buhai when she turned professional at the age of 18. But since joining the LPGA Tour more than a dozen years ago she just once cracked the top 10 in a major championship, three years ago at the AIG Women’s Open, and it’s only been in the years since that Buhai has really found her footing as a professional. A three-time winner on the Ladies European Tour, her win on Sunday marked not just her maiden major title but her first win on the LPGA Tour in her 221st start.
“It's been a long journey, but man, it's all worth it right now,” Buhai said after her victory.
The showdown between Buhai and Chun made the long wait to see the AIG Women’s Open at Muirfield well worth it.
Chun, who was already a major winner in 2022, wrote her own comeback story in recent months as her victory marked her first win in four years. Sunday, she came from five-stroke back to force a playoff with Buhai as she sought to make history of her own. Chun was chasing the third leg of the career Grand Sam and hoping to become the first since Jin Young Ko in 2019 to win two majors in a single season. But the day belonged to Buhai, whose all-world sand save in fading daylight meant that Chun’s history-making moment would have to wait.
The AIG Women’s Open marks the third in a four week stretch of events in Europe, which caps off with this week’s visit to Northern Ireland for the ISPS Handa World Invitational presented by AVIV Clinics. It’s a first of its kind, a tri-sanctioned event, that brings together the best from the LPGA, Ladies European Tour, and DP World Tour to showcase the young boys and girls of Northern Ireland what professional golf is all about. Pajaree Anannarukarn saw her dreams realized in Northern Ireland last summer when she outlasted Emma Talley in a playoff to win for the first time on the LPGA Tour. The duo returns for the second edition of the event along with major champions Georgia Hall and Laura Davies, as well as Northern Ireland’s own Stephanie Meadow.
As the sun set over Muirfield on Sunday, The Honorable Company of Edinburgh Golfers couldn't help but wonder why they’d waited so long to welcome women to Muirfield. The world class competition that played out over the course of four days and concluded with an epic playoff will produce a lasting memory in the long and storied history at Muirfield, which, at last, includes the best female golfers in the world.
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