{"id":239156,"date":"2025-11-02T06:54:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-02T06:54:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/239156\/"},"modified":"2025-11-02T06:54:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-02T06:54:09","slug":"hye-jin-choi-maintains-tournament-long-lead-at-lpga-malaysia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/239156\/","title":{"rendered":"Hye-Jin Choi maintains tournament-long lead at LPGA Malaysia"},"content":{"rendered":"

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Maintaining the lead she has held since the opening round and looking for her first win on the LPGA Tour, Hye-Jin Choi<\/a> will take a four-stroke advantage into the final round of the Maybank Championship after shooting a 5-under 67 on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Choi, who played on the South Korea team in last week’s International Crown, had a 54-hole total of 19-under 197 on the Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club course. She started the day with a five-stroke lead.<\/p>\n

The 26-year-old Choi has 28 career top-10 finishes and placed second at the 2017 U.S. Women’s Open as a 17-year-old amateur.<\/p>\n

It is the first time in her career she has led after the first three rounds of play and the third time she has led a tournament heading into the final round. The previous two times she finished runner-up.<\/p>\n

“I’ve been waiting for this a really long [time], and I’m going to try my best tomorrow,” Choi said. “I think I will feel like I’m making the dream and I just imagine on it. I’m just looking for a victory tomorrow.”<\/p>\n

China’s Liu Yan<\/a> (65) was in second place after a bogey-free round, and Hannah Green<\/a>, a member of the winning Australia team<\/a> at the International Crown last weekend, was in third after a 67, four strokes behind Choi.<\/p>\n

A Lim Kim<\/a> was the biggest mover with a 64 that left her in a tie for fourth place, six strokes off the lead. Kim’s round included an eagle on No. 18<\/a> and six birdies.<\/p>\n

“It was a great shot, but improbable,” Kim said of her 25-foot eagle putt on No. 18. She started her round with four birdies in five holes.<\/p>\n

World No. 1 Jeeno Thitikul<\/a>, a runner-up in Malaysia the past two years, shot 65 and was also tied for fourth. She birdied her last three holes<\/a> Saturday.<\/p>\n

“I don’t know what’s going on, but it’s good,” said Thitikul. She credited her many fans in the gallery for their support, saying again the venue was like a “mini-Thailand” for her.<\/p>\n

Defending champion Yin Ruoning<\/a> shot 69 and was in seventh place, seven strokes behind Choi and tied with New Zealander Lydia Ko<\/a> (68). Brooke Henderson<\/a> shot 68 and was 11 strokes behind.<\/p>\n

Next week, the LPGA ends its five-week Asian swing with the Japan Classic at Shiga.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Maintaining the lead she has held since the opening round and looking for her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":239157,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[5904,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-239156","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-golf","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239156\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}