Miyu Yamashita was eight shots back when she started her final round in the Maybank Championship on Sunday. She withstood two weather delays and a three-way playoff in Malaysia and it resulted in another victory for the LPGA rookie.
Yamashita birdied three of her first five holes to begin her climb up the leaderboard and shot a bogey-free final-round 65, the lowest round of the day. Yamashita—one of the best putters on the LPGA—made a 20-foot putt on the first playoff hole at the 18th for birdie and punctuated it with one fist pump to win the at the Kuala Lumpur Golf & Country Club.
Yamashita, who beat Charley Hull to win the AIG Women’s British Open this summer, outlasted major winner Hannah Green and Hye-Jin Choi. On the playoff hole, Green was in a bunker and Choi had an errant shot and had to hit from the 10th tee box. Yamashita was steady and in the fairway on the rain-soaked course on the final hole and shot 66-70-69-65 (270 total) to win.
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“My putting was solid and I could make many birdies,” Yamashita said through a translator. “Since [Saturday], my shots were not good and after the third round I just practiced a lot and then I could make it, so I’m very happy about it.”
It was another tough ending for the 26-year-old Choi, who is still searching for her first victory. She tried to close out the tournament in wire-to-wire fashion and led by four shots heading into the final round. She had a putt inside 10 feet to win on the 18th in regulation but couldn’t convert. She now has 29 top-10 finishes, the most of anyone on tour without a win since 2022.
The 24-year-old Yamashita, on the other hand, thrives with her putter. She won for the second time this year on the LPGA, joining World No. 1 Jeeno Thitikul as the lone two-time winners this year.
After she was done with her round, she had to wait.
“I was really nervous at the time and I couldn’t make a birdie on the 18th green,” Yamashita said. “After all that, I just had to reset my mind and get ready to the playoff.”
Yamashita’s special round is the second largest come-from-behind victory in a 72-hole event going into the final round since 1980. She earned $450,000 of the $3 million purse and now has $3.3 million in earnings this season. This is one of the most lucrative events on tour, as one of 10 tournaments that has such a purse of $3 million or more, excluding majors and the CME Group Tour Championship.
And now Yamashita heads to her home country of Japan to tee it up in the Toto Japan Classic, the season’s final event in Asia. She becomes the sixth Japanese player to win on tour this season.
Yamashita, ranked sixth in the world, has an incredible 11 top-10 finishes this year in her first year on tour. She’s one of 14 Japanese players on tour this year. She won 13 times on the Japan LPGA, undoubtedly helping her with the confidence to win on tour this year. And there’s that trusty putter in her bag that has her delivering. She’s top 10 on tour with putts per round, ranking tied for eight at 28.94.
During the final round, there was a one-hour delay due to inclement weather with thunder and lightning in the area. Then there was another delay, this time it came during the first playoff hole.
“There were lots of delays due to the weather today, but I was able to stay focused and keep control of my game, and really just like listen to music and then just get ready for the playoff,” Yamashita said.
Yamashita had seven birdies, including four on the back nine. She parred the final two holes and that was good enough to get in the playoff. It was the second playoff on the fall Asia swing, and Thitikul won the LPGA Shanghai.
