2024 Maybank Championship: Top 5 Biggest LPGA Bets Amid Nelly Korda and Lydia Ko’s Absence
The LPGA Tour is at the penultimate site of its Asian swing. For the second time, the women’s circuit will be visiting Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, for the Maybank Championship. The $3 million event will have the top 78 players playing without any cut at the Kuala Lumpur Golf & Country Club. However, the two top faces, Nelly Korda and Lydia Ko, will be missing.
World No. 1 was notified earlier that she would be missing the BMW Ladies Championship and Maybank Championship after sustaining a minor neck injury as she is in recovery. As for Ko, the Hall of Famer is probably taking a break after playing in her native country and will be back soon. In the absence of these two stars, here are five predictions that may take away the Tiger Trophy from Malaysia this week!
After Nelly Korda, Hannah Green is one of two golfers to win three times on the LPGA Tour in the 2024 season, joining Lydia Ko. And although she is not the highest ranked in the field, she surely may win the event, regardless. The Aussie pro is coming off an incredible victory at the BMW Ladies Championship, marking her third for the season.
Before that, Green was victorious at the HSBC Women’s World Championship and the JM Eagle LA Championship. Additionally, the 1-time major winner has also carded one runner-up finish at the Mizuho Americas Open and two other top 15s. Hannah’s various starts in the 2024 season are a testament to her ongoing momentum, which probably would not be stopped in Kuala Lumpur.
Ayaka Furue
Ayaka Furue’s 2024 resume has been nothing but inspiring. This looks like the year the Japanese pro found her best form, as she won her maiden major at the 2024 Amundi Evian Championship. Even in the other two majors, the U.S. Women’s Open and KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, the 24-year-old didn’t falter and finished T6 and T19, respectively.
Even if all of this is overlooked, Furue still has eight top-1s, the most recent going back to the ISPS HANDA Women’s Scottish Open (T3). Through several events, Furue has shown what she is capable of, and although she was T41 in South Korea last week, it wouldn’t take the Japanese phenom much time to get back to her feet and inside the winning circle.
Ruoning Yin
Just two weeks ago, all the headlines were about Ruoning Yin as she earned the second victory of the season. At first, she won the Dow Championship title with her playing partner Jeeno Thitikul. Then, teeing up at the Buick LPGA Shanghai, she showed off her skills and won the fifth LPGA Tour event of her career.
If you look at the past six stars of Yin since the US Women’s Open, it becomes apparent that the 22-year-old is accelerating with exceptional momentum. Her last six results look like this: T12 US Women’s Open; T24 Women’s PGA Championship; T2 AIG Women’s Open; W at Buick LPGA Shanghai; T14 BMW Ladies Championship. Isn’t it impressive? Now who would doubt that Yin cannot win the Maybank Championship? Not us!
Haeran Ryu
Joining Korda and Furue, Haeran Ryu is the third golfer in the race for Rolex Player of the Year. The South Korean will need to win at least five events to win the 2024 POY if she has to chase world no. 1’s points. However, winning five times seems impossible, but Ryu can do one.
In the last four starts, Ryu was in the top six three times, including a win at the FM Championship and T6 at the BMW Ladies Championship, while she missed the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship’s cut. In the 22 events she participated in, Ryu finished inside the top 10 on the leaderboard at 11, that’s half of her season. It proves that underestimating Ryu would not be wise for the upcoming Maybank Championship winner.
Jeeno Thitikul
With her name changed, her game has also changed for the better. Jeeno Thitikul has yet to win an individual event on the LPGA Tour (she won the Dow Championship with Yin) in the last two years, but that doesn’t mean her form has declined. If anything, Thitikul has kept her consistency the best among many. The 21-year-old is on a six-event streak to finish in the top 10, as she last posted T8 at the BMW Ladies Championship.
She has played 15 events on the LPGA Tour so far and, interestingly, was in the top 10 for eleven of those. Although a victory is yet to come, Thitikul was the solo runner-up at the Kroger Queen City Championship. And last year, the 3-time LPGA Tour winner was the only one between Celine Boutier and the Maybank Championship title.
The Thai pro battled for nine playoff holes, but ultimately Boutier came out as the winner. Thitikul may not allow such a long playoff this time and may claim her fourth LPGA Tour title in Malaysia. Undoubtedly, all of these five golfers are in their best form, but golf is unpredictable, and anyone could take away the Tiger Trophy. Who do you think it’ll be?
