Ashleigh Buhai signed off in the Amundi Evian Championship with a three-under-par 68 on Sunday to finish the major championship in a share of 15th on 11-under-par.
In the end, her five birdies and two bogeys left her six shots behind the winner, Brooke Henderson of Canada. Henderson birdied the 18th to win her second major championship by one stroke from Sophia Schubert of the United States.
Buhai got her scoring going with birdies on three and four, but dropped a shot on the sixth. She picked up another stroke on the ninth, and then another on the 10th. It was pars all the way until the 17th, where she dropped her second shot. She rounded out her campaign with a birdie on the 18th.
The 24-year-old Henderson from Smiths Falls, Ontario, entered the final round with a two-shot lead but struggled out of the gates, dropping a shot at her first hole and then making a four-putt double bogey on the sixth, to lose her outright lead.
However, after sinking a birdie putt on the seventh hole and then making the turn in two-over-par, Henderson fought hard on the back nine to grind out the win and earn the first prize cheque, worth $1-million.
She bogeyed 11 but made back-to-back birdies on 14 and 15 to join the leaders on 16-under-par and then made a clutch putt from 12 feet below the hole on the par-five 18th to close it out, coming home in 34 for a level par round of 71.
“After I sunk that putt, I looked at my sister, Brittany, and said: did we really do this?” commented Henderson, who won her first major at the 2016 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship and is now in her eighth season on the LPGA Tour.
“It was definitely an interesting day and not the start I wanted, but I stayed patient. I knew going into the back nine, the saying is that majors are won on the back nine on Sunday, so I tried to stay in it and make a few birdies. The birdie on 18 was really nice.
“I didn’t play my best today but I kept trying to remind myself that I was still in it. I hit some good shots down the stretch. I’m super excited to have my second major championship.”
