Hye-Jin Choi just retains cruising along.
The 26-year-old kind South Korea fired a 5-under 67 in Saturday’s third spherical of the 2025 Maybank Championship at Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club in Malaysia. She’ll enter the last spherical at 19 under, 4 photographs clear of the discipline as she appears to go wire-to-wire for the first win of her profession.
Choi made back-to-back birdies on holes three and 4 to kickstart her spherical Saturday and again picked up steam when she made three birdies in 5 holes after she made the flip. She stumbled at the par-4 sixteenth, signing for bogey and carding her lone blemish of the day, but made up for it with a birdie at No. 18.
With 28 top-10 finishes in 98 LPGA begins, Choi has definitely been flirting with victory for a while. After three days of stellar play, she’s on the doorstep once again with perhaps her best probability to get the job carried out, coming into the last day with a four-shot cushion which she hasn’t relinquished since firing an opening-round 64 on Thursday.
“I’ve been waiting for this really long and I’m going to try my best tomorrow,” Choi said after her third spherical. “I think I will feel like I’m making the dream and I just imagine it. Yeah, I’m just looking for my victory tomorrow.”
Even with a important lead, Choi can expect a charge from some confirmed winners who have positioned themselves to at least make issues attention-grabbing Sunday. Those embrace main champion Hannah Green, who overcame a double bogey on the par-5 third gap Saturday to signal for 67. She enters the last spherical in solo third at 14 under, one shot behind Yan Liu, a 27-year-old from China who, like Choi, is looking for her first LPGA win.
World No. 1 Jeeno Thitikul is half of a three-way tie for fourth at 13 under, six photographs off Choi’s lead, along with Ayaka Furue and A Lim Kim, who made the largest transfer on the leaderboard Saturday with a bogey-free 64.
Thitikul has positioned second in this match two years in a row and will enter the last spherical with a probability to do so again. If Choi stumbles, Thitikul could even have an alternative to nab her third win in 2025.
“You have to make birdies [when you’re chasing],” Thitikul said. “I know [the lead] is far away … but golf, anything can happen. 18 more holes, 18 more opportunities that we have ahead. You know, just need to bring your best.”
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