Defending champion Kanphanitnan Muangkhumsakul of Thailand will return to the National Garden Golf and Country Club in Miaoli for the second annual Party Golfers Ladies Open. The total prize money of this year’s event has increased to NT$3 million with an international field of 100 players.

Aside from local Taiwanese women, players representing seven countries including Thailand, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Australia, Britain, and Vietnam, led by the 16-year-old Muangkhumsakul, will have to be jockeying through 54 holes on the National Garden Golf Course, playing to 6,139 yards this week at a par 72, for the top prize of NT$600,000.

Having had two runner-up and one third-place finishes on the TLPGA tour under her belt this season, Muangkhumsakul looks just ready to take another winning run back here in Miaoli this week. Standing in the way could be last year’s runner-up Chien Pei-Yun (錢珮芸). Muangkhumsakul saw off Chien by three shots after finishing at a total 7-under 209.

Other contenders include current money leader on the TLPGA tour, Kuo Ai-Chen (郭艾榛), no.3 Lin Tzu-Chi (林子麒), no.5 Yeh Hsin Ning (葉欣寧), no.9 Hsieh Yu-Ling (謝瑀玲), and 2015 tour winners Chen Meng-Chu (陳孟竺), Liang Yi-Ling (梁宜羚), Shih Huei-Ju (石惠如), and Chen Yi-Wen (陳依妏) will also be looking to secure the top spot for home fans.

This week’s lead sponsor, the Party Golfers, is an amateur golf team comprised of local entrepreneurs, who share the passion for the golf sport and the vision and mission of the TLPGA with the idea of the inception of the Party Golfers Open in 2014. On Firday’s pre-tournament press, team founder and chairperson Kuo Tai-Chiang said he felt honored and delighted to pledge their support to the TLPGA Tour.

“From the past till now, Taiwan has been producing quality, potential golfers and what we should do is to give our support to build this strong platform for these aspiring women to further excel in the game, especially with the world ranking points on offer.”

“We used a very short time to put together this event last year, especially thanks to the great assistance from the National Garden Golf and Country Club, and we feel like we’ve had tremendous improvement in every aspect of it in this second staging,” said Kuo, who announced a 3-year commitment to host the Party Golfers Ladies Open on the National Garden Golf and Country Club and hoped the tournament will propel Taiwan’s female athletes into the Rio Olympics in 2016.

In celebration of its 20th anniversary, the National Garden Golf and Country Club has recently undergone a series of makeover including boosting the speed level of the greens for better entertainment of the game. Despite lasting rain over the past days, course manager Wu Hsien-Hung said the crew would be working to promise a pleasant condition before the players arrive.

Now recognized as one of the nine member tours of the World Women’s Golf Rankings, the TLPGA Tour has been progressing from strength to strength over the years. This year, it boasts a total purse of NT$185 million in a record 25 events and 4 oversea stops. “We’re taking our aim at becoming one of the biggest four,” said a confident Liu Yi-Chen, Chairwoman of the TLPGA. “We currently have seven players from Taiwan inside world’s top 200, and I believe the number will continue to grow with the continuous support from our amazing partners.” Last year, there were just 28 Taiwanese female golfers with professional world rankings compared to this year’s 40.