The NT$3 million Yeangder TLPGA Open concluded in perfect scoring conditions on Friday. Tsai Pei-Ying (蔡佩穎) of Taiwan fired a low-round bogey-free 6-under-par 66, running away with her first victory of any kind in her professional career. The win is worth NT$600,000.

Tsai finished with a 54-hole total of 9-under 207, beating fellow Pingtung resident and her junior high school classmate Chien Pei-Yun (錢佩芸) and former champion Phoebe Yao (姚宣榆) by three shots. Chien, with a final-round 70, and Yao, who also shot a 66, each won a NT$240,000 second-place prize check.

Capitalizing on the fine weather, 15-year-old Chen Ching-Tzu (陳靜慈) is the third player to cap off with the low-round score of the day. She picked up six birdies in total, free of bogey, surging up the leaderboard into solo fourth at 5-under 211 and taking away the top-amateur title, first time she’s ever awarded with such honor, from first-round leader Hung Jo-Hua (洪若華). Hung finished with a Friday 69 to go equal with Chinese teen star Shi Yuting (石昱婷) for fifth at 4-under.

Tsai became a pro golfer in 2009 after a promising amateur career and earned the 2012 membership on the Japan LPGA Tour where she ended up short of any real breakthrough. She went down to Japan’s second-tier Step Up Tour between year 2013 to 2015, having one runner-up and another two third-place finishes, but still never was among the winners’ league.

“Finally I made it with a victory. It feels humbling to win here because it’s like just a start of a new career,” said Tsai, who won back a full membership this year in Japan. “I feel really excited about my new season on the Japan LPGA Tour, especially with this win. It gives me a lot of motivation and beliefs in myself.”

Tsai is currently coached by Japanese pro veteran Miyuki Shimabukuro, who was introduced by multiple-time JLPGA Tour champion Cheng Mei-Chi (鄭美琦). Shimabukuro even has her long-time friend and caddie Kono assist Tsai over the past three seasons without charging a cent from Tsai. “I don’t know how I can ever return their help. I just feel truly blessed and thankful,” Tsai said. “They train me, follow me in my tournaments, and even sometimes offer me free meals or places to stay. Thanks to their kindness, I feel I’ve been slowly improving and now with this prize money I can finally start to pay something back.”

“The biggest improvement has been my driving. I have increased about 30 yards in the distance to 250 yards and the precision is just getting better as well.” She bested her tournament record in the 2013 season with an equal fifth finish. The number is brought up to a fourth in 2014 and a third in 2015, when she also had four other top-10 finishes. “Now I can go back to Japan and it’s really time for me to step it up to make both them and myself proud, to show what I have learned and improved during the last four years of hard work.”

Tsai had a wild start on the front nine firing one eagle and three birdies. The eagle came at the par-5 8th when Tsai knocked her second shot with a 3-wood to 42 feet on the green and holed straight out from there, which staked her lead to five strokes.

Tsai said even with the big margin she owned, she played extremely carefully, and not until walking on the final tee when she realized she still got three shots in her did she feel settled down. Tsai couldn’t help the tears of ecstasy after the final putt sank.

Teeing up with a one-shot lead, Chien’s slow start saw her chances faded when she made two consecutive bogeys at Hole 5 and 6, trailing five shots to Tsai already around the turn. Chien needed 30 putts.

Yao, who opened her final-round four strokes off the pace, got within just two shots with a birdie on the par-5 17th but followed up with a final-hole bogey before Tsai answered calmly with a par to seal the deal.

Amateur winner Chen is the youngest player to enter the Tong Hwa Golf & Country Club this week. She hit every single green on her way out and capped off the front nine with five birdies to tie her amateur rival Hung. Although getting “a little tired” closing out, she remained steady and carded one more birdie to surpass Hung for the win. Chen is now under the tutelage of Tseng Hsiu-Feng (曾秀鳳).

Shi, first official TLPGA Tour member from China, registered three birdies today in a bogey-free 69, giving the runner-up at the 2015 year-end TLPGA Open her fourth TLPGA Tour top-5 finish.