South Africa’s Ashleigh Buhai held on to win the women’s Australian Open title by one shot in Melbourne on Sunday. Photo: Team SA
Ashleigh Buhai to represent South Africa in women’s golf at Tokyo Olympics
Ashleigh Buhai is set to represent South Africa in the Tokyo Olympics in the women’s golf competition.
South Africa’s Ashleigh Buhai held on to win the women’s Australian Open title by one shot in Melbourne on Sunday. Photo: Team SA
Ashleigh Buhai is set to represent South Africa in the Tokyo Olympics in the women’s golf competition which runs from August 4-7.
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South Africa’s top-ranked player – she is ranked 76th in the world – qualified 33rd on the International Golf Federation list.
She will be one of two players in the 60-player field from the African continent.
Maha Haddioui of Morocco, ranked 418th in the world, is the other.
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The women’s rankings were finalised after Sunday’s completion of the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, where 22-year-old American Nelly Korda captured her first major championship to move to number one in the world and top the Olympic rankings.
Both the United States and South Korea lead the way with four qualified players, while none of the other 34 countries represented has more than two.
Lee-Anne Pace is the next highest ranked South African on the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings at 209th, but she will not be playing in Tokyo.
That means the next-best South African is USA-based Paula Reto at 420th and she needs a number of withdrawals to occur before she would get the call-up.
Ashleigh Buhai will be joined by the two South African men in the golf competition, Garrick Higgo and Christiaan Bezuidenhout.
