SAINT-QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES, France – Ashleigh Buhai is playing with a hole in her golf shoe at the Paris Olympics. But don’t worry. It’s there intentionally.
Buhai broke her toe during the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship after falling over a bedframe in her Airbnb at 4:30 in the morning. She limped her way around Sahalee Country Club that week with a black-and-blue foot and wound up finishing in a tie for 52nd at the difficult venue, an impressive feat considering she was barely standing on one foot.
The 35-year-old then skipped the Dow Championship, electing instead to tee it up the next week at The Amundi Evian Championship for the year’s fourth major against the advice of her doctors and physio. While it was a valiant effort to try and play at a hilly, mountainous Evian Resort Golf Club, Buhai ultimately withdrew from the event early in the first round, deciding to take some time off to let her foot heal with the Paris Olympics coming up quickly.
“It was obviously forced rest,” Buhai said after her first round. “Not what I wanted. But it's good to be playing free again. I've been playing for the last three months with my back (injury), and then breaking my toe at KPMG, it hasn't been the best run for me.”
But her second berth in the Olympic women’s golf competition was well worth the time away for Buhai, and she is making the most of the opportunity this week at Le Golf National, even with the slight adjustment to her Team South Africa wardrobe.
“(My toe) still hurts,” said Buhai. “I've got a hole in the shoe. That's what has helped me ultimately, having the hole, because the minute it's a covered shoe, it still aggravates it on the way through. This at least gives it the space so if the toe needs to move, it's not going to bang up against the shoe.”
Her physio had the honor of performing golf-shoe surgery, practicing her incisions on an old pair of spikes before cutting through the leather on Buhai’s new South Africa kicks that she was given this week as part of her country’s uniform. Luckily, Buhai has a bonus pair that can serve as a souvenir from her second Games experience, although if she ends up medaling on Saturday evening, one could argue that the butchered up pair should be given their own special spot on Buhai’s trophy shelf.
But that’s still 36 holes away, and the South African major champion has some ground to make up if she wants to track down 36-hole leader Morgane Metraux, who currently sits atop the leaderboard at 8-under total.
Buhai kicked off her week at Le Golf National with a 4-under 68 in the first round, making one bogey and five birdies, two of which came back-to-back on the par-4 13th and par-5 14th holes.
Thursday’s second round just outside of Paris was a bit more up-and-down for the LPGA Tour winner, who recorded one bogey, two double bogeys and four birdies en route to a 1-over 73. Even though she was unable to follow up her solid start with more excellent golf on day two, Buhai knows – now quite literally – that Olympic golf competitions are a marathon, not a sprint, one that requires plenty of mental fortitude as the conditions toughen over the next 36 holes.
“I thought I played really good today,” Buhai said. “The first hole, I made a double, but I didn't make a bad swing coming out of the semi-rough. Just came out a little heavy. The second double, I had to play out of a bunker and was between wedges. I tried to hit the hard one, spun it up, and it's just bad course management. I didn't let it throw me.
“I kept staying committed to what I needed to do and hit good shots coming in. Hard to hit it close, it's so firm now, especially this afternoon, it's going to keep getting firmer.”
Currently sitting in a tie for sixth at 3-under overall, it shouldn’t take a super substantial effort from Buhai to get herself back in medal contention on Friday at Le Golf National and put herself in position to take home a gold, silver or bronze souvenir from Paris.
It sure would beat a holey golf shoe.
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