LPGA has officially halted play at the Maybank Championship at 12:59 local time. This last-minute adjustment has been taken as the event stretched to its final rounds, to address the hostile weather conditions at the Kuala Lumpur Country Club.

Updated by the LPGA Tour via Instagram, the final round will resume once the conditions improve. “The final round of the Maybank Championship has been suspended due to dangerous weather in the area at 12:59 p.m. local. Updates will be provided when available!” shared the LPGA Tour.

As a result, players like Lydia Ko, Hannah Green, and Miyu Yamashita are waiting at the course to hit the greens. Live updates are not available and will be shared by the tour’s official Instagram page and communications page on Twitter.

As per Accuweather, it isn’t raining right at this moment. However, with wind gusts of 29 km/h and potential thunderstorms throughout the day, forecasts advise against prolonged outdoor activities. Hence, the final round had to be stopped mid-play with multiple holes from the back nine still waiting to be drilled.

However, only a couple of days ago, the skies were starkly clear with the sun shining throughout the day. In fact, as the players turned in to start their second round at 12 pm, Kuala Lumpur recorded its highest temperature at 40 degrees Celsius. The grounds were bone dry, and the golfers needed umbrellas to protect themselves from dehydration.

That didn’t bother many golfers, however. In fact, Korea’s Hye Jin Choi seemed to prefer the heat, noting how the tough greens helped return exceptional scores. True to her words, Choi commanded the solo lead for the first two rounds of the event. She began Friday with a bogey before hitting seven birdies, totalling a 14-under 130 for the event.

“The weather or anything else does not play a big part in the game. It also helps that I walked around the course with a big umbrella,” Choi remarked on the weather. Sharing how she battles the weathering effects of the brutal Malaysian climate, Choi added, “Normally, I drink a lot of water on the course. The best thing I’m working on is to eat a lot, and I just keep eating, yeah. And have the strength and be at my best to play my top game.”

As the fourth round comes to a stop, Choi has 5 more holes to go, sitting at T3, one shot behind the lead. Reigning on the leaderboards, right now, is Australia’s Hannah Green. Lydia Ko is in 9th place, only 3 shots behind Green.

However, these ladies are now awaiting the bells for the event to ring, as the weather condition takes on a darker, polar opposite turn from just days prior. But a deeper look suggests this is not as unpredictable as it looks, given Kuala Lumpur’s long-standing history of weather suspensions.

Weather delays at the Maybank Championship

As it appears, the Maybank Championship has a long-standing history of weather delays. In fact, inclement weather has interrupted play at the event for three years in a row now. In 2023, right as the inaugural event approached its final playoff leg, rain put a halt to the title decider match.

The playoff round was set to tee off between Celine Boutier and Jeeno Thitikul. But Mother Nature had different plans, as the rain played the spoilsport. When the playoff resumed, the ladies had to play not one but two playoffs after both carded an even five in the first playoff.

Rain had interrupted play earlier in the same event, during the first day of the match on Thursday. Delaying the match by over 4 hours, no wonder, it was a grim start to the Kuala Lumpur event.

The following year, the skies decided to tease the men’s event this time, in another weather-induced delay. In the 2024 edition of the DPWT Maybank Championship, play was suspended in the final round. What edged the event further was the fact that only the last group was left to play their 18th hole. But thunderstorms delayed the rounds.

These weather delays bring forward the grim, unpredictable climates in the eastern coastal Asia in Malaysia. With conditions changing in a matter of moments, the Maybank Championship remains one of the most vulnerable LPGA events.