Korea’s Hwang Ye Nah and the Philippines’ Mia Piccio each shot a 4-under 68 in the opening round of the ICTSI Ladies Open and finished, tied atop the leaderboard, two shots ahead of American Tiffany Tavee and local amateur Princess Superal, who both carded a 70.

TLPGA No.9 Yeh Hsin-Ning (葉欣寧) shot a 1-under 71 to currently sit in a tie for fifth with Yuka Saso. Her fellow Taiwanese Huang Hsien-Wen (黃賢雯), Pan Yen-Ling (潘彥伶), and Lee Hsin (李欣) are all at 74 and tied with four other players for twelfth.

The 2015 TLPGA Tour season this week heads south to the Manila, Philippines for the very first edition of the TLPGA Tour and LPGT (Ladies Philippine Golf Tour) co-sanctioned ICTSI Ladies Open. It is the fourth pit stop of the 2015 TLPGA Tour and the winner emerging from the 70-player field will receive a prize check worth US$15,000.

Hwang Ye Nah produced an almost perfect day at the office except a final-hole double-bogey. Starting on the back nine, Hwang remained at 1-under after eight holes and caught fire from her ninth, birdying five of the next seven holes, only to fall back into a tie with Symetra Tour member Mia Piccio with a double-bogey finish. Piccio made five birdies and one bogey to share the lead into tomorrow at 4-under-par.

The highest amateur player standing today was Princess Superal also from the Philippines, who came off a victory at the last stop of the 2014 LPGT, the Sherwood Ladies Championship, with a 2-stroke edge over year-end LPGT No.1 Cyna Rodriguez, sitting at T3 with Tiffany Tavee while Rodriguez at T7.

Yeh Hsin-Ning, the best-performing golfer from Taiwan, recorded five birdies, two bogeys and one double-bogey. She brought some striking short-game form into today, chipping in from more than 10-yard distances on Hole 11 and 13, and needing just 24 putts throughout, but the usually liable drives had her struggle.

“It is a narrow course, challenging to hit lots of fairways. You can miss very badly if you’re not on the exact spot,” said Yeh, who blocked her tee shot out of bound not once but twice. “The thunder rain coming down on the back kind of bothered me, too.” Yeh made 10 fairways out of 14 and hit 10 greens in regulation.

The ICTSI (International Container Terminal Services, Inc.) has been one of the main sponsors of the LPGT since 2013, and it is the first time the TLPGA co-organizes an ICTSI LPGT event.

“We are very honored to be jointly hosting this event with the LPGT and look to potentially increase both technical and cultural exchanges with each other,” the TLPGA Chairwoman Liu Yi-Chen (劉依貞) said. “The staff of the Southlinks Golf Club is to be commended for the excellent conditions of this course that will be the perfect backdrop of this historic event.” There will be no cut this week for the US$75,000 LPGT season opener.