Publications
Partners
- The US Women's Open is scheduled to get underway this week at the Olympic Club's Lake Course in San Francisco.
- There are three South African golfers in the field - Ashleigh Buhai, Lee-Anne Pace and Nicole Garcia.
- Garcia will be making her US Open debut this week, while Pace will be appearing in her first US Open since 2017.
Women's golf will take centre stage this week with the Women's US Open at the Olympic Club's Lake Course in San Francisco.
This will be the second women's major of the year following April's ANA Inspiration.
There are 156 golfers in the field, with three South Africans who are all vying for their first major title - Ashleigh Buhai, Lee-Anne Pace and Nicole Garcia.
This week's US Women's Open is scheduled to be broadcast live at 23:00 on SuperSport Action (Channel 210), which gets underway from Thursday.
Sport24 looks at the South African trio in this week's major:
Ashleigh Buhai
Age - 32
World ranking - 69th
Best US Open - T27 (2017)
Buhai is South Africa's highest-ranked women's golfer and will be making her eighth US Open appearance.
2020 was a stellar season for Buhai as she consistently performed on the LPGA and appeared (*) in all of the scheduled majors in women's golf.
This year, Buhai has gotten off to a decent start with a tied for eighth finish at February's Gainbridge LPGA in Florida and a tied for 17th at last month's Honda LPGA Thailand.
The three-time Ladies European Tour champion has played in only nine events thus far - missing two cuts, which included the major ANA Inspiration.
Buhai is expected to tee off in Round 1 alongside American Brittany Altomare and Englishwoman Jodi Ewart Shadoff at 22:47 SA time.
*The 2020 Evian Championship was cancelled due to issues surrounding the coronavirus pandemic
Lee-Anne Pace
Age - 40
World ranking - 223
Best US Open - 43 (2017)
Pace secured her spot in this week's field thanks to her historic win at the SA Women's Open at a challenging Westlake Golf Club.
She sealed her fourth SA Open title and 10th European Ladies Tour win.
Pace had had a dream season thus far, recording Top 10 finishes in all six Sunshine Ladies Tour events. She finished runner-up at the Joburg Ladies Open and Dimension Data Ladies Challenge before securing the win in Cape Town.
This will be Pace's first US Open since 2017 as she makes her seventh appearance at the tournament.
Pace will get her opening round on Thursday underway alongside America's Jenny Coleman and US amateur Amari Avery at 22:07 SA time.
Nicole Garcia
Age - 31
World ranking - 642
Best US Open - Debut
Like her compatriot Pace, Garcia qualified for this week's prestigious event after finishing tied for third at last month's SA Women's Open and will make her US Open major debut in San Francisco.
Thus far, Garcia has had an impressive season, securing a Top 20 finish in all six Sunshine Ladies Tour events this year.
In April, Garcia finished second at the Jabra Ladies Classic at Glendower and ninth at the Joburg Ladies Open in Soweto.
The Benoni golfer is hoping to bring her form to the States and it'll be exciting to see how the three-time Sunshine Ladies Tour winner competes against the world's best.
She gets her opening round on Thursday underway alongside America's Allie White and US amateur Alyssa Lamoureux at 23:31 SA time.
