France’s Pauline Roussin-Bouchard birdied her last three holes Thursday to seize a one-shot lead after the first round of the Maybank Championship in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Looking for her first LPGA Tour victory, Roussin-Bouchard carded a bogey-free round of 8-under 64 at the Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club.
“Honestly, just some really, really good shots, great putting,” Roussin-Bouchard said after finishing with birdies at Nos. 16-18. “It was — yeah, my challenge today was just keep the inside voice pretty — not calm because I’m not a calm person — but just under control. Just not get ahead of myself in any situation.
“So I think I managed to do that pretty well, and I think that’s going to be pretty much the goal for the rest of the week. I will try to build on today, that’s for sure.”
Sophia Schubert is tied for second at 7-under with defending champion Miyu Yamashita of Japan, who won last year’s title in a three-way playoff. Schubert also played bogey-free golf while Yamashita posted eight birdies and one bogey to open the third event of the tour’s four-week Asian swing.
“So my ball striking was really consistent today and I putted really well,” Yamashita, who hit 12 of 14 fairways and 13 of 18 greens in regulation, said via a translator. “… And I’m really happy to have gotten off to such a good start.”
France’s Perrine Delacour and England’s Charley Hull are tied for fourth at 6-under. Six golfers are another shot back and tied for sixth place.
Hull is playing her first tour event since the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship in late September.
“I feel like it’s been quite a busy year,” Hull said. “Even when he was at home for four weeks I had a lot of sponsor commitments to do so didn’t really feel at all like I was having four weeks off.”
Some hazards on the course this week will be unpredictable. Television cameras captured a 10-foot long monitor lizard eating a smaller animal near one of the layout’s lakes.
South Korea’s Haeran Ryu, a two-time major winner this season who finished second last week at the BMW Ladies Championship, withdrew before her round for undisclosed reasons. The World No. 3 had been the highest-ranked player in the field.
