Ashleigh Buhai Excited to Defend ShopRite LPGA Classic Title

By Joe Juliano

 

GALLOWAY, N.J. - Ashleigh Buhai achieved one of the greatest goals of her golf career about a year ago, winning the ShopRite LPGA Classic Presented by Acer for her first victory in the United States.

 

Oh, if she could only have enjoyed the milestone a little bit more.

 

“To be honest, it all happened so quickly last year,” Buhai said Wednesday in her return to Seaview’s Bay Course for this week’s LPGA event. “Kind of knocked in the winning putt, waited a little bit. Then you get swept off and went straight to the airport and flew out. I don’t think I really got to take it in and enjoy the win.

 

“There is a lot of that round I don’t remember. So obviously the memories … I played 18 (Wednesday) now. I always just enjoy playing this golf course and the memories start to come back a little bit.”

 

What further helped Buhai was an LPGA rerun she saw on Facebook where she got to watch the last five holes of her final round. She began Sunday in third place and spent much of the day trying to hold off Hyo Joo Kim. It came down to a successful birdie putt on the 72^nd hole for the 1-shot victory.

 

“I could relive it a little bit and really get those good feelings back,” she said. “I watched my reactions of what happened. I didn’t actually see how close – I knew Hyo Joo’s chip (on 18) was close but I didn’t realize how far out she was. She maybe holed it from 30 yards out. I thought she was just short of the green. So it was cool to see that.”

 

The victory was Buhai’s second significant on-course accomplishment in as many years. In 2022, she made a major championship – the AIG Women’s Open at Muirfield – her first victory on the LPGA Tour, surviving a four-hole sudden-death playoff and proving to herself that she belonged among the game’s elite players.

 

It was a matter of patience and perseverance for the 35-year-old South African. She enjoyed a fantastic amateur career in her native country and picked up her first win as a professional at age 18. She posted 19 victories on the international golf stage before lifting her first LPGA title trophy.

 

Buhai came to the Jersey Shore from Lancaster, Pa., where she finished tied for 51^st over a demanding course last weekend at the U.S. Women’s Open. She called the experience “exhausting” but noted she has been battling a back injury which “is just not allowing me to 100% do what I want to do.”

 

“I took Monday, Tuesday off,” she said. “It hasn’t been easy. I was only able to start hitting balls last Tuesday and not able to do the amount of prep I would’ve liked.

 

“I mean, it’s improving, but every day is basically a case to see how I wake up, and we’re just dealing with it one day at a time. It is a bit of a hindrance at the moment. My game is still in good enough shape, I feel.”

 

Buhai has relished her time at the ShopRite event. The 2024 edition will be her 11^th consecutive appearance on the Bay Course. In addition to her victory last year, she has two top-10 finishes at Seaview – tied for sixth in 2020 and tied for seventh in 2018. She has fired 18 subpar rounds in tournament play, 15 of them in the 60s.

 

“I’ve always had really good memories of this golf course,” she said. “I played a lot of good tournaments throughout the years here. It’s somewhere that suits me. It’s not the longest golf course. The wind blows. I think it’s common knowledge I like to play in the wind. Especially when I got out here today, I started to recreate those shots and see them. It’s just always good feelings that come back to me.”

 

Buhai hopes the impending summer schedule will bring her game along. After topping the $1 million mark on the LPGA money list in each of the last two years, she has gotten off to a relatively slow start in 2024. She has made seven cuts in the nine tournaments in which she has competed, with a best finish of a 13^th-place tie at last April’s JM Eagle LA Championship.

 

“I still believe it’s close,” she said. “I had a video call with my swing coach (Wednesday) morning and I am swinging it well. Putting is trending, which is something you need to do well here and be very patient.”

 

The ShopRite LPGA Classic will be contested for the 36^th time, with Wakefern Food Corporation entering its 30^th year as title sponsor. Buhai loves the tournament as much for the welcoming environment as the golf.

 

“We always get good crowds out here that come out to support us,” she said. “The community really gets behind this tournament. The fact that we’ve been coming back to the same venue for so long, it’s familiar to a lot of us. A lot of us are comfortable. It’s a pretty easy week. I’m staying on site. I’m able to walk to the driving range. I just love how easy this week is and convenient for everything.”

 

And it feels even better, like it was for Buhai during her first practice round, to be widely recognized as the defending champion.

 

“All the volunteers were like, ‘Hey champ, good to have you back,’” she said. “One of the volunteers that stands on 14, he’s like, ‘I’m taking credit for your win last year.’ I remember him. He’s here every year.

 

“So it’s good to see familiar faces. And yeah, I think today was the first time I really felt that I was defending, having all those people come up to me and say congrats on last year and good luck this year.”