Seowon Hills at Seowon Valley Country Club

Ashleigh Buhai, Minjee Lee atop crowded leaderboard at LPGA’s BMW Ladies Championship

Lee is looking for her second win in three starts.

After Saturday’s third round, Ashleigh Buhai and Minjee Lee are tied for the 54-hole lead at 12 under at the LPGA’s BMW Ladies Championship at Seowon Hills at Seowon Valley Country Club in Korea.

Buhai, who shot rounds of 62-73 over the first two days, signed for a bogey-free 3-under 69 on Saturday. The 20th-ranked player in the Rolex Rankings, who has missed the cut in four of her last five starts, is looking for her second win of the year (ShopRite LPGA Classic).

BMW Ladies: Full leaderboard

Lee mixed three birdies with two bogeys in round three, good enough for a 1-under effort. The Aussie, who is seventh in the world, won the Kroger Queen City Championship last month.

Lydia Ko and Alison Lee are tied for third at 11 under, one back. Lauren Coughlin and Céline Boutier are two back at 10 under. Atthaya Thitikul and Jiyai Shin sit T-7, three back. And rounding the top 10 are Hannah Green and Angel Yin at T-9, four back.

Minjee Lee overcomes difficult conditions, takes lead at LPGA’s BMW Ladies Championship

Crazy winds were the story of the second round in Korea.

Scoring conditions were completely different Friday at Seowon Hills at Seowon Valley Country Club.

Ashleigh Buhai, the first-round leader, was 11 shots worse in the second round than on her opening day. She only shot 1 over.

Swirling winds were the story of the second round at the LPGA’s BMW Ladies Championship in Korea, but it’s Minjee Lee who fired a 3-under 69 to move into the lead heading to the weekend. After a day where there were more 66s than scores over par, the script flipped Friday.

“It was really hard conditions out there,” Lee said. “A lot of wind swirling around the valley. So sometimes we had really strong gusts, and I had to back off. But overall I had a really good finish.”

Lee sits at 11 under, two shots in front of American Alison Lee, who shot even-par 72 after an opening 9-under performance. Buhai is also T-2 at 9 under.

“It was definitely really frustrating,” Alison said of her even-par round, “but tried to stay patient. I definitely feel like I missed a few really good birdie opportunities out there. Like I feel like I could have played so much better than even.”

Lydia Ko, the event’s defending champion, sits T-4 at 8 under.

Ashleigh Buhai cards 10 birdies to take lead at LPGA’s BMW Ladies Championship in Korea

“My goal for this week was to play with no expectations.”

On a day when scores were low at Seowon Hills at Seowon Valley Country Club in Korea, Ashleigh Buhai took advantage.

After taking five weeks off because an old back injury flared up, Buhai returned in fashion to the LPGA, carding a bogey-free 10-under 62 to hold the first-round lead at the 2023 BMW Ladies Championship. Buhai had 10 birdies and eight pars and leads Alison Lee by a shot after Thursday.

“I think it was almost a blessing in disguise after a very busy summer,” Buhai said of her time off. “I’ve had one week of practice coming into 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.”

The 62 is a career-best round for Buhai, the 2022 AIG Women’s Open champion.

Of the 78 players in the field, only 10 shot over par, one of those being young phenom Rose Zhang, who shot 2-over 74.

Meanwhile, Lee’s 9-under performance was also bogey-free, including two stretches of three consecutive birdies. Ayaka Furue and Minjee Lee are tied for third at 8 under.

“Overall, I hit the ball really well,” Alison Lee said. “I gave myself a lot of putts inside 15 feet and was able to make almost all of them. I may have one putt that was a little longer, like 25, 30 feet. But other than that, I gave myself a lot of good birdie opportunities today.”

Lydia Ko, the defending champion, shot 5-under 67.

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