A bunch of birdies and a chip-in eagle late carried Lee Min (李旻) to a 6-under 66 on Wednesday for a 2-shot lead going into the second round of the 2020 Wistron Ladies Open.

Chang Ching-Ling (張靖翎) opened her campaign with a 68, while LPGA Tour member Hsu Wei-Ling (徐薇淩), World Amateur No.1 Hou Yu-Chiang (侯羽薔), teenage pro rookie Wu Chia-Yen (吳佳晏), Chen Szu-Han (陳思涵), Lu Hsin-Yu (盧昕妤), and An Ho-Yu (安禾佑) sit in a crowd of six at 69.

The prize pool of the 54-hole TLPGA Tour showdown is NT$6 million. Only the top-50 and ties when the second-round ends can arrive in the Friday finale.

The short par-5s on the Tong Hwa Golf & Country Club this week make great risk-and-reward holes, and Lee dominated them as she picked up four shots in the four of them, including a chip-in eagle from the edge of the 17th green. “I was feeling really well on my short game. I don’t think I missed a single green. I was reading the greens well, too, with lots of great conversation with my caddie. He helped me a lot,” Lee said, who also humbly gave credit to the fact that it was less windy and the conditions were much kinder when she started early. She had a three-putt bogey on the ninth and that was the only blemish on her scorecard, which was decorated with five birdies and one eagle.

Handing in a similar scorecard─just one eagle short, Chang Ching-Ling also made five birdie, three on the front and two on the back nine, offset by a 4th-hole bogey, to card a first-round 4-under 68. “I did make the green in two shots on the 4th, but was caught in an awkward spot facing an up-and-down. Unfortunately, I ended up needing three putts.”

Wu Chia-Yen, who held an impressive three victories this season already, teed off the Wistron campaign with a 69. A roller-coaster front nine saw the teenager bogeyed the 3rd and 4th, but found her ball-striking acumen to rebound with birdies on the 5th and 7th followed by a chip-in eagle on the 8th.

Wu progressed to 4-under through 17, but a final-hole bogey pulled her back into a tie for third at 3-under. “It was getting tougher late in the day with the wind and rain. I was playing in the rain on that final hole. But I mean, it’s part of the game. I’ll have to adapt,” said the recent YICHEN Future Open winner. The same went with Hou Yu-Chiang, who capped off the day with a bogey to sit in equal third. “There was a sudden downpour when I walked on the 18th green. It was pretty difficult out there. But I felt I was in good control of the game, physically and strategically,” Hou told the reporter.

Chen Szu-Han took advantage of the par-5s, got an eagle-boost on the 8th hole as well and dropped another pair of birdie putts on the remaining ones. “It got a bit windy on the inward nine. Things became tricky, and I gave away a couple of shots. I’ve got to to clean up my game to move forward in the final rounds,” said Chen, who has been one of the stand-out performers this year, finishing runner-up to Wu at the Nan Pao Heritage Tour and recording three top-10 finishes at the Suncity, WPG, and CTBC. “The best improvement I see in myself is in the short game, which gave me a lot of confidence with a more attacking mindset.”

It was not a rare scene during the first-round of the Wistron Ladies Open that parents served as caddies. Former world no.1 Yani Tseng (曾雅妮) brought along mom by her side, and so did Cheng Ssu-Chia (程思嘉), Babe Liu (劉嬿) and Huang Yin-Jung (黃寅茙).