(Photo credit score: James Maclennan)
Japan’s Miyu Yamashita fired a 5-under 67 on Saturday to keep up a two-stroke lead and transfer nearer to defending her title on the Maybank Championship in Malaysia.
Yamashita enters Sunday at 18-under 198, matching her last complete from final yr when she prevailed in a three-way playoff on the Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club. The 2025 Women’s British Open champion had six birdies and a bogey on the par-4 sixteenth gap within the third spherical.
‘It was a really good spherical right now,’ she stated. ‘I had a number of tough conditions in the course of the spherical, however I managed to get by way of them and end with out dropping a shot, so I’m actually happy with that.’
China’s Yan Liu and first-round chief Pauline Roussin-Bouchard of France are tied for second at 16-under. Liu shot the spherical of the day with a 9-under 63 that included an eagle on the par-5 18th gap. Roussin-Bouchard posted an up-and-down 67 with eight birdies and three bogeys.
Liu holed out from about 100 meters to complete her sensible spherical.
‘What a end. What a day for me,’ Liu stated.
‘I simply actually get pleasure from right now. I give attention to my sport,’ she added. ‘I feel my swing is on superb place and my placing on hearth right now to be trustworthy. Yeah, actually comfortable for my putter, and I hope tomorrow it is similar.’
Roussin-Bouchard is in putting distance of her first LPGA Tour victory. She hit 14 of 18 greens in regulation and wanted solely 27 putts on Saturday.
‘Whatever comes my means I’ll be prepared to simply face it on, and, yeah, similar mindset,’ she stated. ‘Nothing goes actually be altering. Hopefully I can get extra endorphins going for tomorrow and a bit extra pumped up as a result of it is so sizzling.’
Amateur Marisa Tojai of Thailand (65 on Saturday) and Robyn Choi of Australia (66) are tied for fourth at 14-under, two strokes forward of India’s Aditi Ashok (66), France’s Perrine Delacour (67) and Spain’s Julia Lopez Ramirez (71).
Competing in her first tour occasion, Tojai eagled the par-5 tenth gap and added six birdies and one bogey to climb seven spots on the leaderboard.
England’s Charley Hull dropped 13 spots right into a tie for 18th at 9-under after an even-par 72.
The LPGA Tour’s four-event Asian swing concludes subsequent week with the Toto Japan Classic at Omitama exterior Tokyo. Japan’s Nasa Hataoka is the defending champion.
–Field Level Media