KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Japan Women’s Open champion Miyu Yamashita won the LPGA Maybank Championship in a three-way playoff on Sunday, her second career title in her first year on tour.
The 24-year-old golfer sealed victory with a birdie on the first playoff hole, while three-round leaders Choi Hye-jin of South Korea and Hannah Green of Australia could only make par. The victory added the Maybank title to Yamashita’s first major win of August.
The Japanese player shot the day’s low score of 65 on the Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club course and quickly climbed up the crowded leaderboard to an 18-under 270.
Choi started the final round with a four-shot lead but struggled with key putts as her advantage faded.
Choi, 26, now has 29 career top-10 finishes but has yet to score a breakthrough victory on Tour. This is also the third time she has led the event to the finals and finished second.
Green, a member of the Australian team that won last weekend’s Crown International, shot back-to-back 68s with seven birdies and three bogeys, including a gutless birdie at the end, to join Choi Soon-sil and Yamashita in a playoff.
World No. 1 Jeeno Thitikul (68), China’s Liu Yan (65), Japan’s Aki Iwai (67) and South Korea’s A Lim Kim (68) and Kim Sei-Young (66) all tied for fourth with a score of 17 under par, one stroke behind the leading trio.
Titiku, runner-up in Malaysia for the past two years, suffered a bogey on the 16th, ending the Thai player’s final moments of a breakthrough victory in Kuala Lumpur.
A rain delay of an hour after the leaders’ turn heightened the tension in the crowded leaderboard. When the game restarted, Cui made a key birdie on the par-4 16th hole, with just enough speed to get back into contention.
Green then participated in the playoff with Cui Jing and Yamashita, but heavy rain delayed the playoff for more than 30 minutes.
Defending champion Yin Ruoning shot 70 and finished 12th with a score of 274, 14 under par, four strokes behind.
Brooke Henderson also shot 70 and tied for 27th.
The LPGA will conclude its five-week Asian tour next week with the Japan Classic in Shiga.
