Leona Maguire finds herself tied for 51st after the opening round of the LPGA’s Maybank Championship in Kuala Lumpur after a one-under round of 71 on a day of low scoring.
Looking to consolidate her place in the top 60 of the Race to CME Globe Rankings and gain entry to the big-money season-ending Championship, Maguire came into the week ranked 53rd but is projected to slip to 56th after the opening round.
Starting on the back nine, she birdied both par-3s – the 11th and 15th – and the par-5 18th, but dropped a shot on the 14th and made the turn at -2. Back-to-back bogeys on one and two saw her fall back to level-par, but another par-3 birdie, this time on the eighth, got her back into red figures, but she’ll need to improve her scoring over the remaining three rounds if she’s to go into the ANNIKA – the penultimate event on the schedule – with breathing space.
Gemma Dryburgh’s first and only LPGA Tour victory came three years ago in Japan, but the 32-year-old Scot shot a seven-under 65 to put herself in position for a second victory in Asia.
Dryburgh’s seventh birdie of the day on the 18th hole at the Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club left her a stroke out of the first-round lead held by Hye-Jin Choi. Choi’s 64 included an eagle at the par-five 3rd hole and a birdie on the 18th.
Dryburgh sits tied for second with Benedetta Moresco of Italy.
“It was a very stress-free round,” Dryburgh said.
The humid and hot weather was much different from her native Scotland, but her hometown in the United States — New Orleans, where she attended Tulane University — helped prepare her for the conditions.
“Yes, it was very different from Scotland, but living where I do now helped me on a day like today,” Dryburgh said. “I like how the greens are kind of similar to where I play in New Orleans, grainy. So it kind of suits my eye.”
Among the seven players tied for fourth with 66s, two strokes behind Choi, are Lydia Ko, Hannah Green, Ingrid Lindblad, Arpichaya Yubol and Somi Lee.
Choi said she made some good recovery shots Thursday which helped to take the first-round lead.
“I had a lot of situations which I could make bogeys because of rough and hazard, but I made a lot of good pars,” Choi said.
Defending champion Yin Ruoning shot 68, as did world No. 1 Jeeno Thitikul.
Thitikul, the only multiple winner on the LPGA Tour this year after winning the Mizuho Americas Open in May and again in Shanghai nearly three weeks ago, has finished runner-up the last two times she has played in Malaysia.
“I think it just kinds of feel like comfortable to play here,” she said ahead of the first round. “The course, the weather, and also the fans seem like second home to me. I feel like it seems like a mini-Thailand.”
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