Without the pressure of playing in the final group, 21-year-old Chen Meng-Chu (陳孟竺) shot the low round of the tournament with a 4-under 68 to claim the 2014 Chung Cheng Heritage Tour (Autumn), her second victory of the year after winning the Chung Cheng Heritage Tour (Spring) in April.
“I really want to thank the Chung Cheng Golf Foundation, the TLPGA and the Chang Gung Golf Club,” said Chen, who collected NT$71,000 for the win. “Winning twice on this course feels incredible.”
Chen remained the top name on the first-round leaderboard yesterday, until she made her only bogeys on the 17th and 18th in a row to drop back to even-par, trailing 2013 winner Babe Liu (劉依貞) and Chen Ssu-Han (陳思涵) by one shot.
Determined but pressure-free, she teed off today in the second last group, had equal number of bogeys, but a staggeringly aggressive play that saw the Taiwanese use only 25 putts and fire six birdies threw her way above everyone else.
“Honestly, I had the feeling that I got this in my bag going onto the back nine,” said Chen, who admits playing carefree away from the final-group attention helped her. “I was caught in a little trouble with the wind on the finishing holes, but I was able to stay calm and hit some nice save shots just off of the green.”
Chen’s final score of 140 is 5-stroke lower than runner-up Babe Liu, whose co-leader yesterday Chen Ssu-Han carded a 3-over 75 to sit in solo third at 146.
Being doused in water in celebration the moment she sank the last putt, however, Chen would not have much time to soak in the joy as she needed to catch a flight late afternoon for the inaugural Xiamen Open, which is co-sanctioned by the Ladies European Tour (LET) and China LPGA, taking place on Friday at the Orient (Xiamen) Golf & Country Club.
The Chung Cheng Heritage Tour (Autumn) is the fourth and final stop on TLPGA’s Heritage Series Tour. The Heritage Tour events group up the youngsters and the pros as the senior pass down the wisdom, experiences, and the “heritage” of the game to the youth, for which the Tour was named.
Co-organizer Tseng Yani Internationl also announced the top-8 junior golfers in Group Amateur Girls’, who earned their places in the Yani Tseng Swinging Skirts “Dream Chasing Elite” Golf Camp, remaining in contention for the final 2 wildcards to be awarded in the camp to the 2015 AJGA Yani Tseng Invitational presented by Swinging Skirts Golf Team next June. The winners are Chang Y-C (張雅淳), Wu H-L (吳曉玲), Tsai Y-C (蔡禕佳), Liang C-F (梁祺芬), Huang W-P (黃婉萍), Lin T-H (林子涵), Wen C-T (溫茜婷), and Hsu N-H (許諾心).
The camp will be held on December 3-6 at the National Garden Golf Club. The junior golfers can expect to get some personal instructions and the hands-on experience shared by Tseng herself. |