Brilliant Buhai surges five clear at AIG Women’s Open

Ashleigh Buhai is in pole place to say a maiden main title

Ashleigh Buhai produced an excellent birdie barrage to take a commanding five-stroke lead into the ultimate spherical of the AIG Ladies’s Open at Muirfield.

Buhai made 5 birdies in a six-hole stretch on her option to a shocking seven-under 64, including three extra birdies on the again 9 earlier than a final-hole birdie set the clubhouse goal at 14 underneath.

The 33-year-old holds a commanding benefit over 2019 champion Hinako Shibuno and in a single day chief In Gee Chun, who each share second on 9 underneath, with seven-time main champion Inbee Park sharing fourth spot with Sweden’s Madelene Sagstrom.

In Gee Chun is chasing a second main victory of the season

Chun began the day with a one-shot lead and held a clutch putt to save lots of par on the first, solely to lose her outright benefit when Buhai – {playing} within the group forward – birdied the par-four second.

Buhai birdied the fourth to tug degree with Chun, who had picked up a shot on the second, with each gamers benefiting from the par-five fifth to maintain the pair tied on the prime on 10 underneath.

The South African holed from shut vary on the sixth and tapped in on the seventh after an excellent method arrange a fourth consecutive birdie, with Buhai holing a powerful par-save on the eighth and two-putting from distance on the par-five ninth to succeed in the flip two forward.

Buhai began her again 9 with a 20-foot birdie on the tenth, which gave her a four-stroke benefit when Chun missed from inside three toes to finish a three-putt bogey on the ninth.

Buhai will play alongside Hinako Shibuno on the ultimate day, a repeat of the final-round pairing in 2019

A run of two-putt pars alongside the again 9 stored Buhai in charge of the match, with the lead rising to 5 when Chun hit a clunky chip from the fifteenth inexperienced and made her second bogey of the spherical.

Buhai chipped in from the again of the seventeenth inexperienced to register an eighth birdie of the day and go six clear, together with her solely blemish of the day coming when she didn’t stand up and down from the tough on the par-four final.

Chun blended three birdies with two bogeys to publish a third-round 70 and transfer to 9 underneath alongside Shibuno, who produced a back-nine 31 to bolster her hopes of a second AIG Ladies’s Open title

Final month’s Evian Championship winner Brooke Henderson is 4 underneath and Charley Hull is an extra stroke again, whereas Eire’s Leona Maguire heads into the ultimate day in tied-Nineteenth alongside former world No 1 Lydia Ko and English pair Mel Reid and Jodi Ewart Shadoff on two underneath.

Who will win the AIG Ladies’s Open? Watch the ultimate spherical reside on Sunday from 1pm on Sky Sports activities Golf and – at no cost – on the Sky Sports activities Golf YouTube channel.