The number might look like a mistake on the leaderboard at the T-Mobile Match Play presented by MGM Rewards, but it did indeed take Celine Boutier and Ashleigh Buhai 28 holes to complete their match during round-of-16 play on Saturday in Las Vegas.

After trading punches all morning, the pair were tied after they finished 18 holes at Shadow Creek Golf Course and headed back to the front nine, thinking it would only take an extra hole or two for one of them to advance to the quarterfinal matches that were scheduled to be played on Saturday afternoon. But Boutier and Buhai tied the first hole and then matched scores on the second, continuing that pattern for eight more holes before Boutier landed the final fatal blow she needed to beat the South African, a victory that was a welcome relief for the Frenchwoman after 10 extra holes in Sin City.

“It was definitely tough, definitely a grind,” Boutier said. “I feel like we both played pretty steady and went back and forth a lot. I had a few chances, and she had a few chances, so it was just all the way until the end, but I'm glad it's over.”

It is the longest match that has taken place at the T-Mobile Match Play presented by MGM Rewards since Ayaka Furue needed 22 holes to beat England’s Jodi Ewart Shadoff in the quarterfinals back in 2022. It’s also the longest match that has been contested this week in Vegas, and Boutier is one of just five players who moved on to quarterfinals that hadn’t tied or lost any matches over the first four sessions at Shadow Creek. Additionally, through four rounds, the four-time European Solheim Cup Team member’s 80 holes played is the most by anyone in the field so far this week.

But the major champion is no stranger to lengthy rounds of golf, having had a similar extra-hole experience at the 2023 Maybank Championship. That week in Malaysia saw Boutier go head-to-head with Jeeno Thitikul in a nine-hole playoff at Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club, a battle she ultimately won to collect her fourth victory of that season on the LPGA Tour, a year-long performance that put Boutier in the Rolex Player of the Year conversation for the first time in her career.

So, while the 28-hole showdown with Buhai was an absolute grind for the 31-year-old, particularly considering that walking the golf course isn’t always the easiest at a venue like Shadow Creek, Boutier knew she could get through both the mental and physical grind that can be a side effect of bonus golf.

And it’s that never-give-up attitude and self-belief that has earned her a rightful place in the quarterfinal matches of the T-Mobile Match Play presented by MGM Rewards, an opportunity that Boutier fought incredibly hard to have so she could continue contending for her seventh career LPGA Tour title in Las Vegas.

Boutier, Buhai Round of 16 Match Goes to 28 Holes at T-Mobile Match Play

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