Taiwan’s promising teen players dominated day two at the Nan Yi Professional Golf Ladies Open. Wu Chia-Yen (吳佳晏), just 15, and Lu Hsin-Yu (盧昕妤), 17, carded the same score for the second round in a row, each turning in a 73 yesterday followed by a 3-under 69 today to share the top spot on the leaderboard on 2-under par. Both will be looking for their second TLPGA Tour victory.

Overnight co-leader Lin Tzu-Chi (林子麒) shot a 1-over 73 to sit in equal second with Chen Meng-Chu (陳孟竺), who posted a 72. The other first-round leader Chang Ching-Ling (張靖翎) had low green-in-regulation percentage and dropped into a nine-player tie for ninth with a second round 76; she’s now four shots off the lead.

Chen Szu-Han (陳思涵), Huang Ching (黃靖), Doris Chen (陳彥寧) and Thailand’s Punpaka Phuntumabamrung sit in a four-way tie for fifth, trailing the lead by three strokes.

It was finally a clear day at the Nan Yi Golf Club on Thursday but the course was still fairly damp and soggy because of the overnight rain. For that reason, players were allowed to take their “preferred lies” in the second round.

Wu Chia-Yen, the reigning Party Golfers TLPGA Open champion, jumped off to a great start picking up four birdies on the front nine. She knocked in two more birdies after the turn, offset by an only bogey on the 10th, and raced to 4-under and solo lead through 15. However, three-putting on the 16th and 17th had her fall back to share her place with Lu, who parred the first ten holes but made a flawless charge from the 11th, draining three birdies and closing with a bogey-free 69.

Wu scored three more birdies than Lu, but the wedge game was the weak link in her performance today which left her some awkward distance on the greens and resulted in three bogeys. She needed 26 putts.

“We are quite close. We often practice together. We push each other to become better,” Wu said on her playing partner in the leaders’ group in tomorrow’s final round. “I think it’s the first time that Lu and I share the lead going into the final round. We’ll surely try our best.”

“I remember when we last played as co-leaders in the final round, we were just about 10 years old in a junior event,” said Lu. “Golf is so much of a mental game. I’ll make sure I take it one shot at a time tomorrow, and put the ball on good spots on the greens. And of course, I hope I’m going to raise my putting level. I missed so many short ones today. I believe I missed three 3-footers out there, or I might have been the solo leader.”

Lu used 28 putting attempts. She missed just one fairway, making 13 greens in regulation.

Lu will be the defending champion in the upcoming KENDA TIRE TLPGA Open later this month.

Fresh off a T4 finish this past week at the TLPGA & Royal Open, Lin Tzu-Chi made three birdies and four bogeys, blaming her disappointing putting which led to three three-putt bogeys. “It’s almost heart-breaking,” said Lin when asked about her frustration on the greens; she rolled 33 putts. “The putts would just touch the cup or even circle it and just spin away!” But she did make a long one on the 13th from 24 feet, which earned her a birdie.

“The layout is long, suited for my game,” said big-hitter Chen Meng-Chu. “I finished in equal seventh last year. I had some good memories here. And I hope I can move forward this time.” Chen hit 8 fairways, brought 12 greens in regulation, made two birdies and two bogeys. She used 30 putts in the second round.

Liu Peng-Shan (劉芃姍), the leading amateur in the first round, started from even-par and played fairly consistent as she was at 1-over through 15. But a two-hole mess between the 16th and 17th, where she made a double-bogey and a triple-bogey, saw her tumble down to 6-over and equal 28th.

60 players who were at 159 or better moved on to Friday’s final round. Wu, Lu, and Lin will be in the final group which tees off at 8:21.

Winner of the 2019 Nan Yi Professional Golf Ladies Open will take away a NT$630,000 top prize from a total purse of NT$3.5 million.

This is the first and only TLPGA tournament the Nan Yi Golf Club has ever hosted. Returning as the main sponsors this week are Tong Yang Group, Ta Yih Group, and TYC Brother Industrial.

The 18-hole international standard track features fairways carpeted with silt grass and doff-grassed greens. The whole course is kept freshly green all year round. The Nan Yi Golf Club can be spotted with 58 bunkers and 11 ponds, offering a great challenge for players as they navigate through the 6,225-yard long competition layout.

The fairways on Nan Yi are mostly south-north oriented in order to avoid direct sunlight as golfers take their swings, and to redirect wind to make the course delightfully cool and pleasant in the summer.