By Yoo Jee-ho
PAJU, South Korea, South African veteran Ashleigh Buhai grabbed the opening round lead at the lone annual LPGA stop in South Korea on Thursday, with the homegrown rookie Ryu Hae-ran lurking near the top of the leaderboard.
Buhai fired a bogey-free round of 10-under 62 to begin the BMW Ladies Championship at Seowon Hills at Seowon Valley Country Club in Paju, northwest of Seoul in Gyeonggi Province.
Buhai, who earned her maiden LPGA win last year at age 33 and added another win this year, collected five birdies each on the front nine and the back nine.
Before coming to South Korea this week, Buhai had taken five weeks off because an old back injury flared up. She said shooting 62 was the furthest thing from her mind.
"I've had one week of practice coming here. And my goal for this week was to play with no expectations, and that's often when you try to play well in a game," Buhai said. "You never want to be sidelined. I'm hoping this was a blessing in disguise. I think I really needed the rest away from golf. I didn't touch a club for four weeks."
Some overnight rain had softened the par-72, 6,680-yard course, which Buhai said allowed players to be aggressive.
Korean American Alison Lee sits one back of Buhai after her own bogey-free day of 63. Lee agreed that the course was rendered "very scorable" on Thursday.
"Very easy to make a lot of birdies. The greens are rolling very nicely," Lee said. "So also the greens are very big. The biggest greens I've ever played in my entire career. With the rain that came in this morning, the greens are a little bit softened up. So you can be a little bit more aggressive with your approach shot."
Two players are at eight-under, and Ryu, who claimed her first LPGA title earlier this month, is one of four players at seven-under 65.
Ryu is the only South Korean inside the top 10, with Kim Hyo-joo, who won in Texas two weeks ago, in an eight-way tie for 16th.
Ko Jin-young, the top South Korean in the world rankings at No. 3, struggled to a two-over 74, with three bogeys against one birdie.
Defending champion Lydia Ko began her title defense with a five-under 67.
Source: Yonhap News Agency