The first edition of the Lunch Club TPC Classic will be played at the Taiwan Golf Club this week as the joint event hosts the elite top 30 players on the 2015 money lists for the TLPGA Tour and the TPGA Tour for a prize purse of NT$6 million, with a NT$600,000 first-place award for both the men’s and women’s champions.

This event is organized by the Lunch Club and co-organized by the TLPGA, the TPGA, and the Taiwan Golf Club.

The Lunch Club is a private social club in Taiwan. Both sharing the passion in golf, two of its spirited members, CTBC Charity Foundation Chairman Jeffrey J.L. Koo, Jr. (辜仲諒) and Emmet Hsu (許育瑞), Chairman of the Yeangder Group, who have been dedicated to providing support to the development of golf in Taiwan and to nurturing home grown talents, were hailing an idea of another tournament co-hosted by the two organizations to create more playing opportunities for aspiring professionals to further excel in the game.

During the past years of endeavor to gain the recognition as an official member tour in the World Women’s Golf Rankings system, the TLPGA has especially enjoyed significant assistance from the CTBC Charity Foundation. The Yeang Der Group, which has been playing a key role on the men’s tour, and the Yeangder TLPGA Open have also just celebrated their fourth year of staging on the TLPGA Tour.

The idea instantly appealed to the president of the Lunch Club, Yan Chong-Ruei (嚴崇瑞) and some club members as they joined the push to launch the new golf event, furthering their charity goal through golf and this inaugural Lunch Club TPC Classic. The Lunch Club has long been a believer in the power of sport to inspire and a devoted baseball supporter for tribal school children.

The Lunch Club TPC Classic marks only the third professional joint event in Taiwanese golf history after the TPGA Championship & TLPGA Invitational in 2005 and the Meridigen Technology Cup presented by High Tech Charity in 2014.

In the women’s event this year, CTBC faces Yeh Hsin-Ning (葉欣寧), Lin Tzu-Chi (林子麒), Hsieh Yu Ling (謝瑀玲), Cheng Ssu-Chia (程思嘉), 2014 TLPGA Tour money winner Chien Pei-Yun (錢珮芸), and tour titlists this season, Shih Huei-Ju (石惠如), Kuo Ai-Chen (郭艾榛), Chen Meng-Chu (陳孟竺), and Liang Yi-Ling (梁宜羚) will be leading a field of 24 local players in hope to secure the win for home fans against six international players including reigning Party Golfers' Open champion, Thai teen Kanphanitnan Muangkhumsakul. Players will be playing for one tenth of their earnings this week in charitable donations in support of the vision and mission of the Lunch Club.

The Taiwan Golf Club is one of the oldest golf courses on the island. Set at 6,039 yards long, the tight fairways and the tiny greens of the historic course will require players with patience and precision under swirling wind.