SEOUL, South Korea — Former Women’s British Open champion Ashleigh Buhai shot a 3-under 69 on Saturday to move into a share of the third-round lead at the LPGA South Korea tournament.
Buhai and Minjee Lee, who shot 71, had 12-under totals of 204 on the Seowon Valley Country Club course outside Seoul.
Defending champion Lydia Ko, a South Korean-born New Zealander, shot 69 and was a stroke behind and tied for third with American Alison Lee, who shot 67.
Celine Boutier, who won the Scottish Open and the LPGA major Evian Championship back to back in August, had the lead briefly on the back nine but bogeys on 17 and 18 left her with a 68. She was tied for fifth with American Lauren Coughlin (67), two strokes behind the leaders.
“The back nine gets really tricky being up against more of the mountain, especially like 12, 13, 14, 15. It really bounces around,” Buhai said. “So I felt I played those holes really well. Stayed very patient.”
Ko said it would be good to win again in South Korea.
“But there’s still a lot of golf to be played, and there’s so many potentially especially good low scorers out there,” Ko said. “So I’m just going to go out there and have fun and hopefully play some good golf myself.”
No. 1-ranked Lilia Vu shot a 74 and was well back at 3-over.
The South Korea tournament is the second of four in the LPGA Tour‘s Asian swing. Angel Yin, who shot 71 and is four strokes off the lead, won the LPGA Shanghai event last week. The tour moves to Malaysia and Japan over the next two weeks.