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Boutier wins 9-hole playoff
Celine Boutier and Atthaya Thitikul had a marathon playoff in Malaysia, Sami Välimäki rejoins the winner’s circle in Qatar, Alison Lee makes a statement in Riyadh
Jack Middlebrook
October 30, 2023
Winner’s Circle
Qatar Masters
Maybank Championship
Hisako Higuchi Mitsubishi Electric Ladies Golf Tournament
Seoul Economics Ladies Classic
Aramco Team Series - Riyadh
LPGA - Maybank Championship
Celine Boutier outlasted Atthaya Thitikul in a nine-hole playoff in Kuala Lumpur. The two played the par five 18th hole five times and the par three 15th hole four times before Boutier was able to make a birdie on the par three to close it out.
Boutier fired a final round 64 with eight birdies and no bogeys to get into the playoff. The win is Boutier’s fourth of the year and earns her 500 more CME points to extend her lead in the Race to CME season-long points standing over Lilia Vu and Ruoning Yin.
Atthaya Thitikul shot the low round of the event with a 62 in the third round to put herself in position heading into Sunday. While Boutier was able to chase her down, the second-place finish continues Thitikul’s great form of late with her fifth top-10 finish in her last six events. She is still winless on the year but looks to be in prime shape as the LPGA inches closer to the season finale.
Rose Zhang finished in a tie for third for her best finish since her debut win. She held the 54-hole lead by one but couldn’t keep pace on Sunday with three bogeys and a 71 to finish two shots out of the playoff.
Lydia Ko followed up her third-place finish last week in Korea with a tie for eleventh in Malaysia. While the two strong finishes in Asia have been a welcome turnaround in form, Ko is still at 101st in the CME points race, having not earned points for her last two starts because she was in the Korea and Malaysia fields as a sponsor’s invite. Her finishes in the last two weeks would have earned her 297.5 points and moved her to around 56th on the CME points list if she didn’t need to rely on the sponsor’s invite to get into the tournament. As it stands, Ko is still well outside the top 60 to qualify for the CME Tour Championship and will need a win or possibly a second-place finish at the last event, The ANNIKA, in Florida before the Tour Championship just to get into the field. It's hard to believe just a year after winning the CME, Lydia Ko might miss the season finale.
The LPGA heads to Japan next week for the last event of the Asia swing.
DP World Tour - Qatar Masters
Sami Välimäki won a playoff in Qatar, needing only one extra hole to beat Jorge Campillo. Finland’s Välimäki birdied the eighteenth hole in the playoff to capture his first win of the year and second career European Tour win to go alongside the 2020 Oman Open.
Campillo started the day one ahead of Välimäki but still needed a birdie at his last hole to shoot 70 and make it a playoff. The second-place finish for Campillo continues a strong year for the Spaniard, having won in March at the Magical Kenya Open.
Scott Jamieson made five birdies on his closing nine holes to finish in a tie for third and crucially make his way inside the top 116 in the Race to Dubai points, keeping his card for next year.
Ladies European Tour - Aramco Team Series - Riyadh
Alison Lee won by eight shots in a record-setting performance in Riyadh to win the last Aramco Team Series event of the year. Lee shot back-to-back 61s to start the tournament and finished with a 65 to break the 54-hole scoring record on the Ladies European Tour. Over her 54 holes, she made 29 birdies, 25 pars, and not a single bogey. Incredible!
Carlota Ciganda was Lee’s closest competition, finishing second eight shots back. While unable to get close to Lee in the individual competition, Ciganda’s team won the 36-hole team portion of the tournament, earning her an additional €35,000.