Defending champion Miyu Yamashita shot a final round of 68 (-4) to win the 2026 Maybank Championship by two shots. This is the Japanese golfer’s second win of the season and fifth in two years on the LPGA Tour.
Entering the final round, Yamashita held a two-shot lead over China’s Yan Liu and France’s Pauline Roussin-Bouchard. Yamashita got off to a quick start, making two birdies in her first five holes. Nobody could catch her as she held the lead for the rest of the round to win the Maybank Championship for the second consecutive year.
“I’m just really happy to have won the title, and I honestly didn’t expect to be able to win this tournament two years in a row, so I just focused on playing all four days,” she said.
With this victory, Yamashita became the fastest Japanese player to five wins (in 58 starts). She joins Ayako Okamata as the only other Japanese player to record multiple wins in consecutive seasons (Okamata’s were in 1986-1988). Okamata and Yamashita are also two of only five Japanese players to have two or more multi-win seasons. Next week’s defending champion, Nasa Hataoka, is part of that group as well.
Yamashita earned 500 points in the Race to CME Globe and $450,000. She has earned $3,203,653 in 21 starts this season. With this win, she replaced Jeeno Thitikul as World No. 2.
Meanwhile, Liu finished runner-up, her best finish on the LPGA Tour. She has four top-10 finishes in 22 starts this year. “This is the first time in the final group. I think it’s the first time I did pretty well. Still under par, so I’m pretty happy,” she said.
Tied for third were Roussin-Bouchard and Marisa Tojai. Roussin-Brouchard recorded her second T3 of the season, the first coming at the HSBC Women’s World Championship. Tojai, a 17-year-old amateur, shot three consecutive rounds in the 60s in her first LPGA Tour start.
The LPGA Tour concludes its Asian swing next week at the TOTO Japan Classic, where Hataoka will look to defend her 2025 title.
