A tearful Chen Yi-Wen (陳依妏) took her first official win on the TLPGA Tour and a champion check worth NT$600,000 at the Lunch Club TPC Classic on Friday at the historic Taiwan Golf Course in Tamsui, Taipei.

The 27-year-old Taiwanese, who led wire-to-wire, shot a final- round 2-under 70 to finish at a three-day total of 212, 4-under par and three shots clear of her nearest challengers.

Chen went so emotional and cried tears of joy that had to halt her acceptance speech numerous times. “It’s my first real victory on the Tour after so many years. It’s hard not to get up to that,” said Chen. “It proves that you don’t have to be great to start, you just have to start to be great. It feels very humbling. I want to thank the people who helped me through a lot of ups and downs.” Now in her fifth year on the tour, Chen had had one win at the Takangshan & TLPGA Heritage Tour in 2011 but never tasted success on higher level tournaments (54 or 72-hole).

She set off the day with a birdie right on the first hole and picked up another stroke on the 4th to build a three-shot lead before things became tricky when she bogeyed the 9th and 12th.

In the meantime, former TLPGA Tour no.1 Lu Ya-Huei (呂雅惠) came up her fourth birdie of the day on the par-5 13th to steal the lead. Fortunate enough for Chen as she repeated the effort, seizing her birdie chance subsequently in the last group and leveling with Lu at 3-under. Chen steadied her foot closing with another birdie on the 16th to finish 4-under, while Lu tumbled, dropping two shots on her way back to the clubhouse to fall into a tie for second with CTBC sponsored player Yeh Hsin-Ning (葉欣寧).

“I was very nervous all day,” Chen said. “But I think I played pretty well throughout with a consistent short game. The tee shots were on good lines. I couldn’t ask playing for any better under this pressure, which gives me lots of belief and confidence for my future career. Once you get there, you would start to believe in yourself that you can still go for more and more.”

Chen went to the U.S. in May to work on changes in her swing under the tutelage of a Florida-based coach recommended by former no.1 LPGA golfer Yani Tseng (曾雅妮), which led to satisfying improvements, notably in driving distance. “But I felt it was not just about a review on my skill set, it was also a new way of looking at the game. I felt a lot of growth in the mentality as a pro golfer.”

Overnight co-leader, 58-year-old Huang Bie-Shyun (黃璧洵) fell just short to rewrite TLPGA Tour history as the oldest Tour winner. She carded a final-round 77 to sit in a four-way tie for 10th with compatriots Chen Meng-Chu (陳孟竺), Shih Huei-Ju (石惠如), and Thailand’s Pennapa Pulsawath.

Gathering only the elite top 30 players on the 2015 money lists for the TLPGA Tour as well as the TPGA Tour, 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 men’s event, Lu Wen-Teh (呂文德) rolled in a 21-footer in the first play-off hole to claim the come-from-behind victory over Sung Mao-Chang (宋孟璋).

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. Players will have one tenth of their earnings this week in charitable donations in support of the vision and mission of the Lunch Club.