KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Defending champion and world No. 4-ranked Miyu Yamashita shot a 6-under 66 Friday to take a two-stroke lead after two rounds of the LPGA Tour’s Maybank Classic.
The 2025 Women’s British Open winner had a two-round whole of 13-under 131 on the Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club course. She won last yr’s Malaysian match after a three-way playoff.
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Julia Lopez Ramirez birdied three of her last 4 holes for a 66 and was tied for second with Pauline Roussin-Bouchard, who led by a stroke after the first spherical.
“Try to keep your mind cool and your body hydrated in these conditions,” Lopez Ramirez said of her preparations for the weekend in the standard high humidity in Kuala Lumpur.
A Lim Kim had the spherical of the day, a 64, and was in fourth place, three strokes behind Yamashita.
Charley Hull had 5 birdies in her first six holes for bogeyed two of her last three holes for a 69 and was tied for fifth, 4 strokes behind.
Haeran Ryu, a main winner this yr at the Women’s PGA Championship and at the Evian Championship, withdrew before her first-round tee time Thursday due to a strained finger ligament she suffered while driving in a golf cart during the Wednesday pro-am. She was the highest-ranked participant in the match in the absence of No. 1 Nelly Korda and No. 2 Jeeno Thitikul.
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Last week, Yuri Yoshida won the BMW Ladies Championship in South Korea, the fourth Japanese participant this season to win on the LPGA Tour, becoming a member of Yamashita, Shiho Kuwaki and Yuna Nishimura. Yoshida shot 70 Friday and was at 5-under.
Next week, the LPGA’s four-week, late-season Asian swing ends with the Toto Japan Classic at Omitama outside Tokyo.
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