KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Girls’s Open winner Miyu Yamashita of Japan received the LPGA Maybank Championship in a three-way playoff on Sunday, clinching her second profession title in her first 12 months on tour.
The 24-year-old golfer clinched victory with a birdie on the primary gap of the playoff, however third-round chief Choi Hye-jin of South Korea and Australia’s Hannah Inexperienced might solely make par. The victory added the Maybank title to Yamashita’s first main win in August.
The Japanese participant matched his lowest spherical of the day with a 65 on the Kuala Lumpur Golf and Nation Membership course and rocketed up the crowded leaderboard to 18-under 270.
Choi, who began the ultimate spherical with a four-stroke lead, misplaced his benefit and struggled to make necessary putts.
Choi, 26, at the moment has 29 top-10 finishes in his profession, however has but to attain a breakthrough win on tour. That is the third time she has led the match heading into the ultimate spherical and completed as runner-up.
Inexperienced, a part of the Australian workforce that received final weekend’s Worldwide Crown, shot a straight 68 with seven birdies and three bogeys, together with a nerve-wracking birdie on the finish, to provide Choi and Yamashita a playoff spot.
World No. 1 Gino Titikul (68), China’s Liu Yang (65), Japan’s Akie Iwai (67), and South Korean pair Ah Lim Kim (68) and Kim Sei-young (66) tied for fourth place at 17 underneath, one stroke behind the main trio.
Titikul, who has been runner-up in Malaysia for the previous two years, bogeyed the sixteenth gap to finish the Thai’s late onslaught for a breakthrough victory in Kuala Lumpur.
Rain after the leaders accomplished their turns brought on an hour delay, additional including to the strain on the crowded leaderboard. When play resumed, Choi acquired again into competition with a clutch birdie on the par-4 sixteenth, the place he had sufficient tempo to fall.
Inexperienced then joined Choi and Yamashita within the playoffs, nevertheless it rained once more and the playoffs have been delayed by greater than half-hour.
Defending champion Ying Ruoning shot a 70 and completed twelfth at 14-under 274, 4 strokes behind.
Brooke Henderson additionally shot a 70, tied for twenty seventh place.
Subsequent week, the LPGA concludes its five-week Asian swing with the Japan Traditional in Shiga.
