Last month, the LPGA set a single-season record for the number of different winners during a season. This week Maybank Championshipthat list could get even longer.
HJ Choi shot a 67 at the Kuala Lumpur Golf & Country Club in Malaysia on Saturday, and the 26-year-old pro holds the lead for the third day in a row. If she can stay ahead on Sunday, Choi will be the 28th different winner of the season.
More importantly for Choi, it would be her first career LPGA victory and her 123rd start. She has 28 top-10 finishes in her career – and finished second at the 2017 US Women’s Open as a 17-year-old amateur – but has yet to win on the major tour.
She gets her chance on Sunday, and after rounds of 64-66-67 her total of 19 under gives her a four-shot lead over Yan Liu and a five-shot lead over Hannah Green.
“I’ve been waiting for this for a long time and I’m going to do my best tomorrow,” Choi said. “I think I’ll feel like I’m making the dream and just imagining it. Yeah, I’m just looking for my win tomorrow.”
While Liu is also winless on the LPGA, Green is the most accomplished player in the top three. The Australian has not won this year, but has six career LPGA titles, the last of which came at the 2024 BMW Ladies Championship. She also bounced back on Saturday after a disastrous start to her round.
Green birdied the 2nd and 4th holes, but in between she made a double-bogey 7 on the par-5 3rd. Her playing partner, Choi, birdied 3.
“Feeling like I lost maybe four shots on one hole was kind of annoying,” Green said. “Again, to bounce back on the next hole and make a birdie, that was really the momentum I carried the rest of the round.”
Green had four birdies in a five-hole stretch from Nos. 6-10, and her only other blemish on the day was a bogey at 18 and 67. Regardless, she’s still in contention. That includes world No. 1 Jenno Thitikul, one of three players tied at thirteen under and six off the lead.
“You’ve got to make birdies,” Thitikul said. “Eighteen more holes, eighteen more opportunities ahead of us. You just have to do your best.”
You can watch the final round of the Maybank Championship on Saturday night on Golf Channel. The broadcast begins at 9:30 PM ET and ends at 2:30 AM on Sunday morning.
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