The Taipei Golf Club will be the backdrop this week as the second annual SAMPO Ladies Open gets underway this Wednesday, featuring 106 golfers from six countries to be chasing for a NT$5 million purse, which shows a 25% increase from last year (NT$4 million). The top prize also grows from NT$720,000 to $900,000.

This is the sixth pit stop of the 2019 TLPGA Tour. The 106 ladies trying to earn a share of the ranking points are from Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and host Taiwan. The 30-player squad from Thailand was led by the top-2 finishers at the season-opening Hitachi Ladies Classic, Parinda Phokan and Kanphanitnan Muangkhumsakul. Another title contender would be last year′s third-place-finishing Chonlada Chayanun, who finished fourth at HLC earlier in the season and T11 at the CTBC Ladies Classic in Guangzhou.

Local campaigners who vow to defend the home turf include TLPGA Tour no.2 Babe Liu (劉嬿), Peng Chieh (彭婕), Chen Szu-Han (陳思涵), Cheng Ssu-Chia (程思嘉), Lin Tzu-Chi (林子麒) and teen talents Hou Yu-Chiang (侯羽薔) and 15-year-old Wu Chia-Yen (吳佳晏).

Liu wrapped up the recent CTBC Ladies Classic in a tie for seventh, where Peng finished fourth. The latter led her teammates through to the victory with a 67 in today′s 18-hole charity pro-am event using the New Scramble format. Lin and Chen Cih-Hui (陳慈惠) were on the teams finishing second and third respectively. The top teams were each gifted a set of SAMPO appliances. The players today contributed to a total NT$1,086,000 donation in the event for a cause, represented and provided by SAMPO and affiliated company Rechi Precision, which will be used to endow five local charities.

Cheng Ssu-Chia, once a top amateur, has shown flashes of her old confidence this year and is now ranked 14th on the LPGA’s second-tier Symetra Tour. Cheng was also the youngest TLPGA Tour titlist ever before the honor was stolen by Wu Chia-Yen, who won the Party Golfers Ladies Open last November at just 14.

Hou, also a Tour winner already at the TLPGA Ladies Open – Nan Pao, has come fresh from a special trip to the Augusta National Women′s Amateur championship at the famous Augusta National Club, where golf legend Tiger Woods just claimed his fifth green jacket on Sunday.

TLPGA chairwoman Cheng Mei-Chi encouraged players with Woods’ inspiring run at the Masters to “never give up and never stop until you break your limits”.

“I would like to thank again SAMPO for their support to women’s golf and their devotion to fulfil their social responsibilities,” Cheng added. “Thank you for giving us a chance to let our dream take flight.”

SAMPO President Mr. Chen S-T. hopes a raise in the prize money will draw an even better field and create higher-level competition. “Fight for it like a beast hunting down preys. We’re hoping tougher competition will bring out the best in all of us,” said Chen on the pre-tournament conference today. SAMPO is one of the top-selling appliance manufacturers in Taiwan.

First-round action begins from the first and tenth tees at 7:00 a.m. Wednesday morning. The last flight goes at 9:55.

The 54-hole tournament will be held at the C and D course of the Taipei Golf Club; the competition layout is set at 6,217 yards long this year. SAMPO offers hole-in-one prizes on 4th, 8th, 11th, and 18th for the first ace on each of the four holes. A special prize of a 3-piece SAMPO alliance set worth NT$70,000 will be given to the best-finishing Taiwanese player on Friday.

Fans can follow TLPGA’s official YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIC7m5twRd9PlWU5K-xl-ow?view_as=subscriber) where live streaming service will be featured for the late rounds on Apr. 18 and 19. SAMPO will also provide a lottery ticket for each TLPGA Facebook fan coming to the final round at the Taipei Golf Club on Friday, for a chance to take home a 55” SAMPO 4K Smart LED worth NT$23,900.