Ashleigh Buhai and Minjee Lee share the 54-hole lead at the BMW Ladies Championship in Korea
SEOUL, South Korea – Former women’s British Open champion Ashleigh Buhai shot a 3-under 69 on Saturday to grab a share of the lead in the third round of the LPGA tournament in South Korea.
Buhai and Minjee Lee, who shot 71, posted a 12-under total score of 204 at the Seowon Valley Country Club golf course outside Seoul.
Defending champion Lydia Ko, a South Korean-born New Zealander, shot 69 and was one stroke behind in third place with American Alison Lee, who shot 67.
Céline Boutier, who won back-to-back Scottish Open and LPGA Major Evian Championships in August, briefly held the lead on the back nine, but bogeys on the 17th and 18th left her with a 68. She was tied with American Lauren Coughlin fifth place (67), two strokes behind the leader.
“The back nine gets really tricky when you play against more mountains, especially the 12, 13, 14, 15. It really swings around,” Buhai said. “So I felt like I played those holes really well. I stayed very patient.”
Ko said it would be nice to win again in South Korea.
“But there is still a lot to play for and there are so many potentially particularly good, low-scoring players,” Ko said. “So I’m just going to go out and have fun and hopefully play some good golf myself.”
No. 1 seed Lilia Vu shot a 74 and was well behind at 3-over.
The South Korea tournament is the second of four tournaments in the LPGA Tour’s Asian swing. Angel Yin, who shot 71 and is four shots off the lead, won the LPGA event in Shanghai last week. The tour will move to Malaysia and Japan in the next two weeks.
