The second edition of the Maybank Championship is being played this week at Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Fourteen of these season’s winners are teeing it up in one of the newer events on the Tour schedule, including two-time U.S. Women’s Open champion Yuka Saso, Dow Championship winners Jeeno Thitikul and Ruoning Yin and three-time 2024 champion Hannah Green. Last year’s Maybank Championship winner Celine Boutier is also in the field, as are Olympic silver medalist Esther Henseleit, 2023 Rolex Player of the Year Lilia Vu and 2024 major champions Ayaka Furue and Amy Yang.

Take a look at just some of the featured groups this week in Malaysia, using data provided by KPMG Performance Insights:

Thursday, 8:54 a.m.* – Ashley Lau/Charley Hull/Lilia Vu

Epson Tour member Ashley Lau is making just her third career LPGA Tour start this week at the Maybank Championship, having teed it up in the 2023 edition of the event as well as the 2016 Sime Darby LPGA Malaysia. The native Malaysian has never finished better than T65 on the LPGA Tour and will be working to rectify that this year at Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club. During the 2024 Epson Tour season, Lau made 13 cuts in 17 total starts, picking up a season-best runner-up result at the Epson Tour Championship after finishing second to champion Heather Lin in the final event of the year. Lau has two additional top-15 finishes on her 2024 resume, including a tie for 11th that came at the IOA Championship presented by Morongo Casino Resort & Spa and a tie for 13th that came at the Tuscaloosa Toyota Classic. She also played in her first Olympic Games in Paris earlier this year, ultimately finishing in a tie for 55th at Le Golf National in France. Lau finished her Epson Tour season ranked 31st in the season-long Race for the Card, earning her a trip to the Final Qualifying portion of LPGA Q-Series, where her entry fee will be paid for by Seiko Epson Corporation.

Charley Hull is playing in her first LPGA Tour event in just over a month this week in Malaysia, having last teed it up at the Kroger Queen City Championship in September, where she finished in a tie for 19th. The Maybank Championship is just her 15th start of the 2024 season, and in her 14 prior tournaments, Hull has earned four top-10 finishes, the best of which is a solo fifth that came at the ISPS Handa Women’s Scottish Open. She didn’t compete in the first edition of this event that was held last year at Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club, but she did play in five iterations of the Sime Darby LPGA Malaysia that were held at the same venue, earning three top-25 results, the best of which was a tie for 12th that came in 2016. According to KPMG Performance Insights, Hull has greatly improved her driving this season, going from 44th in strokes gained off the tee in 2023 to fourth and moving from 25th in average driving distance last season to ninth this season (273.57 yards), among players with a minimum 30 percent of rounds played. She also is ranked eighth in strokes gained tee to green (+1.19) and 16th in strokes gained total (+1.30) on the LPGA Tour this season, as well as 14th in greens in regulation (73.05%).

Lilia Vu is teeing it up in her 16th event of the 2024 season this week as she makes her tournament debut at the Maybank Championship. In her 15 previous tournaments this year, the California native collected her fifth career Tour title at the Meijer LPGA Classic for Simply Give after outlasting Grace Kim and Lexi Thompson in a playoff at Blythefield Country Club in Belmont, Mich. She has also earned three other top-10 finishes, including two T2 performances at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Sahalee Country Club and the AIG Women’s Open at St Andrews, additionally tying for seventh in her title defense at the Honda LPGA Thailand. But Vu’s most notable achievement this season is earning the clinching half-point the U.S. Team needed to win their first Solheim Cup since 2017 at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Gainesville, Va., after ultimately tying her Sunday singles match with Albane Valenzuela. The Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings No. 2 is currently ranked in the top 25 of three strokes gained categories this season – strokes gained total (14, +1.44), strokes gained putting (14, +0.72) and strokes gained around the green (22, +0.19) – according to KPMG Performance Insights. She is also fifth in bogey avoidance (13.54%), seventh in scoring average (70.44) and ninth in greens in regulation percentage (73.15%).

Thursday, 9:05 a.m.* – Jeeno Thitikul/Jin Young Ko/Yuka Saso

Jeeno Thitikul added another tally to her 2024 top-10 column last week at the BMW Ladies Championship after tying for eighth in the Republic of Korea. It’s the 10th top-10 result that the Thailand native has recorded this season, as Thitikul won the Dow Championship in June alongside Ruoning Yin and has earned eight additional top-10 finishes, four of which are top-five results. She had a near-miss at last year’s Maybank Championship, ultimately finishing runner-up to Celine Boutier after the two battled it out in a nine-hole playoff at Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club, one of the longest playoffs in LPGA Tour history, and will be working to take home the trophy this week in Malaysia. According to KPMG Performance Insights, Thitikul has recorded 39 top-10 results, including her victories, since she joined the LPGA Tour in 2022, 13 more than any other player in that same time frame. This season, she is picking up shots in five major strokes gained categories, ranking in the top 25 of all five of those metrics. The 21-year-old is currently second in strokes gained total (+2.18), fifth in strokes gained putting (+0.98), 18th in strokes gained tee to green (+1.00), 20th in strokes gained driving (+0.45) and 23rd in strokes gained approach (+0.64). Thitikul is also first in greens in regulation (77.33%), first in scoring average (69.78), second in birdie or better percentage (24.22%) and ninth in rounds in the 60s (26) on Tour so far this year.

Jin Young Ko is making her 15th start of the 2024 LPGA Tour season this week at the Maybank Championship and is teeing it up for the first time on Tour since she finished runner-up to Haeran Ryu at the FM Championship. In addition to that solo second performance in Massachusetts, Ko has collected five other top-10 finishes so far this year, most notably tying for second at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Sahalee Country Club in June. Ko did compete at Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club last year in the inaugural Maybank Championship and will be working to improve upon her T20 result this week in Malaysia after an extended break from LPGA Tour competition. Despite her limited play in 2024, the 29-year-old is still highly ranked in several statistical categories this year, according to KPMG Performance Insights. She is currently third in strokes gained approach (+1.31), sixth in strokes gained total (+1.63) and 20th in strokes gained tee to green (+0.98). Ko is also tied for third in putts per green in regulation (1.76), 10th in putts per round (29.21) and 13th in scoring average (70.64). She is still looking to pick up her first win of the 2024 season, and if she doesn’t emerge victorious at the Maybank Championship, it will be the first year since 2017 that Ko has not earned at least one victory on the LPGA Tour.

Yuka Saso collected her second career LPGA Tour title and second major championship victory earlier this year at the U.S. Women’s Open presented by Ally at Lancaster Country Club. The win is one of three top-10 results that the 23-year-old has earned on Tour in 18 total starts season, as Saso also tied for ninth at the T-Mobile Match Play presented by MGM Rewards in April and finished solo fourth at the Kroger Queen City Championship presented by P&G in September. Statistically, she is most notably ranked eighth in strokes gained driving (+0.61) and 15th in strokes gained putting (+0.70), according to KPMG Performance Insights. Saso additionally ranks seventh in birdie or better percentage (21.92%) and birdie or better average per round (3.92). Like her groupmate Ko, Saso also tied for 20th in the first-ever Maybank Championship last season, carding a four-day total of 10-under at Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club.

Thursday, 9:16 a.m.* – Celine Boutier/Ayaka Furue/Esther Henseleit

Celine Boutier outlasted Jeeno Thitikul in a nine-hole playoff to win the inaugural edition of the Maybank Championship last year. It was one of four victories she recorded in 2023, a slate of tournaments that also included the LPGA Drive On Championship at Superstition Mountain, The Amundi Evian Championship and the ISPS Handa Women’s Scottish Open. The Frenchwoman has yet to find victory lane so far this season, but she has come close on a few occasions, twice finishing runner-up to Hannah Green at the HSBC Women’s World Championship and last week’s BMW Ladies Championship and also tying for ninth at the Buick LPGA Shanghai in the People’s Republic of China. Those are the only three top-10 results that Boutier has earned in 2024; however, she has collected five other top-20 finishes, the best of which is a tie for 12th that came at the Blue Bay LPGA in the spring. Statistically, the 30-year-old is ranked in the top 25 of four strokes gained categories this season, according to KPMG Performance Insights. Through the BMW Ladies Championship, Boutier is ranked sixth in strokes gained approach (+1.02), ninth in strokes gained tee to green (+1.18), 16th in strokes gained around the green (+0.27) and 24th in strokes gained total (+1.08). She is also tied for 11th in rounds in the 60s, carding 25 sub-70 rounds in her 21 starts this year.

Ayaka Furue is making her 21st start of the 2024 LPGA Tour season this week at the Maybank Championship. In her 20 previous events, the Japan native won her first major title at The Amundi Evian Championship and has collected nine additional top-10 finishes. Five of those results have been top fives, and the most notable of that group is a tie for sixth that Furue recorded at the U.S. Women’s Open presented by Ally at Lancaster Country Club. According to KPMG Performance Insights, the 24-year-old is gaining shots in four strokes gained categories this season, including strokes gained total (3, +2.01), strokes gained approach (7, +1.00), strokes gained putting (11, +0.76) and strokes gained tee to green (14, +1.08). She is also ranked in the top three of both putts made from 10+ feet and putts made from 15+ feet on Tour this season, making 140 putts of 10 feet or longer and 80 putts of 15 feet or longer in 20 tournaments this year. Furue additionally leads the LPGA Tour in bogey avoidance (11.71%) and is ranked second in rounds in the 60s (31), third in scoring average (70.11), sixth in driving accuracy (82.05%) and eighth in greens in regulation percentage (73.42%). The major champion teed it up in the inaugural edition of the Maybank Championship last season and ultimately finished in a tie for 29th, a performance she will be working to better this year at Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club.

Esther Henseleit is making her third straight LPGA Tour start this week in Malaysia, having teed it up in both the Buick LPGA Shanghai and the BMW Ladies Championship over the past two weeks. The Maybank Championship is the Germany native’s 22nd start of the 2024 season, and in her last 21 tournaments, Henseleit has earned four top-10 finishes, a list of results that includes a solo seventh showing at The Chevron Championship, a tie for eighth at the JM Eagle LA Championship presented by Plastpro, a tie for seventh at The Amundi Evian Championship and a runner-up performance at the ISPS Handa Women’s Scottish Open. But, the most impressive accomplishment on Henseleit’s 2024 resume is the silver medal she earned at the 2024 Paris Olympics in August, making the 25-year-old the first European female to medal in the history of the Olympic women’s golf competition. Using data provided by KPMG Performance Insights, Henseleit is ranked in the top 25 of two strokes gained metrics this season, including strokes gained driving (19, +0.45) and strokes gained tee to green (25, +0.88). Henseleit is also ranked 10th in putts per green in regulation (1.78), 14th in birdie or better percentage (21.21%), T16 in rounds in the 60s (23) and T16 in total birdies (268). She teed it up in the 2023 edition of the Maybank Championship and finished in a tie for 52nd at Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club.

*All times local

Featured Groups: 2024 Maybank Championship

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