Wu Chia-Yen (吳佳晏) has now made it two out of two on the Taiwan LPGA Tour since she turned pro earlier this year. The 16-year-old outshined Japan LPGA Tour champion Phoebe Yao (姚宣榆), using a final-hole birdie to win her biggest paycheck so far in her career. The 2020 WPG Ladies Open victory is worth NT$810,000.

Wu, who took a 2-shot lead coming into Thursday’s final round, bogeyed her first hole today but bounced right back with consecutive birdies on the 2nd and 3rd. She dropped another shot on the par-5 6th, but copied the trick and made up for the loss right away on the 7th.

Her closest competition was Yao, who also tallied a birdie on the second but couldn’t really build a momentum. The two-shot gap remained while the two arrived at the turn.

Yao knew she needed to step up to stand a chance, as Wu was not showing any signs to fade. “Chia-Yen is so good at rebounding from bad holes. She immediately made birdie every time she dropped a shot.” Indeed, it was the same story when Wu bogeyed the 11th, she was back up again on the 12th. “That was an important quality of a great champion. I was impressed,” Yao said. “I knew I had to earn it myself.”

Yao birdied three of the first five holes after the turn to go one shot ahead; however, Wu raced to 11-under with another pair of birdies on the 15th and 16th before Yao matched the effort on the 17th with her fourth and last birdie on the back nine.

Wu made a blistering 5-wood to a makeable distance for eagle on the par-5 18th, and although she missed her first try on the green, the former U.S. Women’s Amateur semifinalist at just 13 calmly rolled in the winning birdie putt, which meant she had won both tournaments since the TLPGA Tour returned in action. Wu eliminated Chen Szu-Han (陳思涵) on the third play-off to claim the Nan Pao Heritage Tour title in June. Chen, who was playing in the last flight alongside Wu and Yao, closed the round at 72 and finished in a tie for fourth.

“I’m a competitive person and I really appreciate the nerves and tension in the tight situations,” Wu said. “When Phoebe got ahead of me, I was just trying to concentrate on my own game and trust my instinct. I was deciding on that last hole if I was going to attack the green with 5-wood or to choose to play it safe with an iron. But then a voice in me shouted, ‘go for the green,’” Wu recalled. “Sometimes if you feel it, you make it. I had a couple of bogeys today when I thought too much and made things more complicated than they should be.”

Chang Ya-Chun (張雅淳), who is turning 20 this August, took the low-amateur honor after a low-round 66 on Thursday, finishing on solo third on 8-under par. “After the second round, I went back to my club in Tamsui to do some practice. I hit about 200 shots to improve on the things I didn’t quire felt right yesterday,” Chang said. “I was aiming for the win to be very honest, but a top-3 finish is good, too.”

Fellow amateur player Chang Tzu-Yi (張子怡) closed on 1-under after a Thursday 73. The business student at the University of California (Berkeley) needed to find a quiet place at the Sunrise Club to take a remote exam right after the round. “Yeah, it’s a lot of things at the same time. It’s all about managing the limited time you have,” Chang said, who can get happy with her “test result” at the WPG Open – she finished in the top-10 in equal ninth. “During this time while everything slows down, I’m working to put on some muscle mass so that I can hit more powerfully.”

Chang Ching-Ling (張靖翎) rose from T12 to T4 with a bogey-free 5-under 67. Former LPGA No.1 ranked Yani Tseng (曾雅妮) made also five birdies in the final round; however, she carded only a 76, backsliding from 3-over to 7-over due to two fatal triple-bogeys on the back nine. Tseng ended up in a tie for 32nd.

LPGA Tour member Hsu Wei-Ling (徐薇淩) registered a 76 as well on Thursday, dropping out of the top-10 at 2-over 218.

WPG Holdings is one of the leading distributors of semi-conductor components, headquartered in Taipei, supplying for over 250 worldwide partners. The total purse of this year’s WPG Ladies Open is NT$4.5 million.