Defending champion Yamashita leads the LPGA’s Maybank Championship after 2 rounds

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 Championship.

The 2025 Women’s British Open winner had a two-round total of 13-under 131 on the Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club course. She won last year’s Malaysian tournament after a three-way playoff.

“I’ve been playing some really good rounds this year especially,” Yamashita said. “My game is in better shape than last year, so my swing feels really good, too.”

Julia Lopez Ramirez birdied three of her final four holes for a 66 and was tied for second with Pauline Roussin-Bouchard, who led by a stroke after the first round.

“Try to keep your mind cool and your body hydrated in these conditions,” Lopez Ramirez said of her preparations for the weekend in the usual high humidity in Kuala Lumpur.

A Lim Kim had the round of the day, a 64, and was in fourth place, three strokes behind Yamashita.

Charley Hull had five birdies in her first six holes to move into the lead, but bogeyed two of her final three holes for a 69 and was tied for fifth, four strokes behind.

Haeran Ryu, a major winner this year 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 riding in a golf cart during the Wednesday pro-am. She was the highest-ranked player in the tournament in the absence of No. 1 Nelly Korda and No. 2 Jeeno Thitikul.

Last week, Yuri Yoshida won the BMW Ladies Championship in South Korea, the fourth Japanese player this season to win on the LPGA Tour, joining 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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