Golf fans in San Francisco will only have to wait another day to see the world’s best female golfers in action. The third annual Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic will kick off Thursday and a Pro-Am event was held today at the Lake Merced Golf Club with 56 pros and 224 amateur players including honored guests, sponsors and members of the Swinging Skirts Golf Team.

Swinging Skirts Foundation Chairman Johnson Wang, CTBC Bank Chairman Tung, Mayor of Daly City Sal Torres, TLPGA Chairwoman Liu Yi-Chen and LPGA Commissioner Michael Whan were invited in the tee opening ceremony on Wednesday.

Whan put himself in a traditional Scottish kilt in the Pro-Am to commemorate the spirit of the Swinging Skirts Golf Team, which is comprised of Taiwanese amateur golfers who honor the game's traditions by donning colorful kilts while swinging their golf clubs.

Official Airline, Eva Air San Francisco general executive Tsai and director Ma of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in San Francisco also attend Wednesday’s event. The Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in San Francisco has prepared small Taiwanese flags for spectators coming to their on-site booth.

In Gee Chun, world number six in the Rolex Rankings, was given a gold tribute ball marker, an honor gift from her playing partner Wang on behalf of the Swinging Skirts Foundation.

Chiu Feng-Yu, wife of Wang, handed a delicate silver bracelet for her professional friend and defending champion Lydia Ko to celebrate her upcoming birthday. Ko will turn nineteen years old on Sunday.

Skipping the LOTTE Championship last week to take early preparation, Yani Tseng (曾雅妮) has high hopes for the 2016 Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic. “I took some time off to rest and tune my motions. I kind of like how I’m playing right now,” said Tseng after hitting in the Pro-Am. “I’ve been practicing with my putter a lot. It feels good. Hopefully it will be what it needs for a good result this weekend.”

Currently taking the second Olympic spot for Taiwan, fifteen-year LPGA veteran Candie Kung (龔怡萍) said she is confident that her recent form can bring her into the grand sport gala, with golf returning to Rio Olympics this summer. “We finally have the chance to play the Olympics. It will be very special for me. I mean, I’ve been on the Tour for fifteen years. There were a lot of highs and lows and I’ve been actually playing pretty good recently and have a big chance of getting there. So I’m really excited about the prospect of playing under my country flag in Rio,” Kung said.

“We have many up and coming players and talents from Taiwan. The International Crown would be another career goal for me,” said the four-time LPGA winner. “I hope we get to make it to the semifinals this year at least. We were so close out there two years ago. But we had some great ties and beating Team USA. It was a cool experience.”

The San Francisco Mayor’s Women’s Golf Council held the inaugural Swinging Skirts Executive Women’s Day at the Lake Merced Golf Club inviting the Bay Area’s 100 influential women and keynote speaker Juli Inkster.

Inkster, a Bay Area native, has been named the Solheim Cup captain in 2015 and 2017. The 56-year-old holds seven major victories and a total of thirty-one LPGA trophies. Now still active on the professional tour and a mother and a wife, she is teeing it up this week as the oldest player in the field.

On how she balances her life as a mother and player, “everybody asks me how I do it? You’ve just got to kind of set the priorities. I enjoy talking to executive women and how they go about doing both,” Inkster said. “I hope my experience can inspire them and kind of empower women as we sit down here changing ideas and sharing initiatives. I think it’s good for all of us. We get to learn from each other.”

On Thursday, nine out of the top-10 in the Rolex Rankings, headlined by world no.1 Lydia Ko who is hoping to complete the San Francisco trifecta, and other 141 international golfers will be hitting the tees beginning from 7:00 in the morning. Ko will tee off in a feature group with Korea’s In Gee Chun and American Stacey Lewis at 7:55 a,m. on the 10th hole.

The Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic is the first tournament of Taiwanese roots held on the United States soil. It is also the first co-sanction partnership between the LPGA and the LPGA of Taiwan. The event was founded in 2014. CTBC Bank has been this year’s main sponsor. There are twenty-one Taiwanese players in the field, the biggest number in tournament history.

CTBC ambassador Hsu Wei-Lin (徐薇淩) posted the best scorecards among the Taiwan squad at T35 and T45 in the previous two years. Kung was the only other player to have moved to the final rounds. In each of the past two seasons, seven Taiwanese players successfully made the cut.

Late tee time will be at 2:11 in the afternoon. Former world no.1 Tseng will start her 2016 campaign going from the 10th hole at 12:54 p.m..