Lee Min (李旻) stayed at the top spot on the leaderboard after the second round of the Wistron Ladies Open. Lee carded a 1-over 73 in brutal conditions with cold winds and squally showers at the Tong Hwa golf course, finishing Thursday on 5-under. She will carry a 2-shot lead into the final round.

Yilan native Shih Cheng-Hsuan (石澄璇) was the lone player to break par for both rounds. Her second-round 71 brought her further lower to 3-under. 16-year-old Wu Chia-Yen (吳佳晏)─a three-time TLPGA Tour winner this season─sit another shot adrift in a tie for third with Cheng Ssu-Chia (程思嘉). Babe Liu (劉嬿) used a low-round 69 to surge into striking distance on 1-under.

There was just a thin line between whether the tournament director would make a delay call as continual rainstorms causing havoc with players’ hitting quality. However, the horn was never sounded. Only three players out of 88 managed to break par in the end in these wet and windy conditions.

“I never thought they were going to call it to an early end. You just got to survive it. You want to make sure you are very focused, and that you play the right shot every time,” Lee said. “I had to take some time to get used to playing in a rain jacket, though.” Lee also said that she actually took par-5 approach on some of the longer par-4s to secure par. Cheng ssu-Chia, who registered a 72, felt “par is already a good score”.

Cheng displayed high stability in the challenging conditions, making 16 pars, one birdie and one bogey. “I just tried to stay very calm, especially in these winds. The fact that Mom carried my bag for me was a calming factor as well. It was like the days when I played on the Symetra Tour in the U.S., she was usually my caddie, too,” said Cheng.

Shih Cheng-Hsuan went off to a great start, striking three birdies without dropping a shot until the 11th hole, when the weather started to worsen quickly. “I didn’t have my rain jacket with me. I think I’m definitely going to buy one for tomorrow.” Shih made a trio of bogeys on the next six holes. Fortunately, she picked up her fourth birdie on the last hole to close the round at 1-under.

Wu Chia-Yen, on the other hand, found her ability to adjust and steadied her ship after the turn. Her 1-under, back-nine 35 kept her in contention for impressively her fourth victory for the season. “Steadiness is going to be precious in these conditions,” Wu said.

Babe Liu went from a 75 on Day one to today’s 69, the low round of the day, saying she has been feeling great but it just hasn’t transferred well to real competitions. “Last night, I spoke to my mom, boyfriend, and I even had a nice phone call with James (TPGA Tour pro player Chan Shih Chang). I was also trying to collect the great learnings I picked up from Miss Tseng Hsiu Feng’s (former TLPGA Tour champion) event the other day. These each seam to make a tiny bit of difference on my mind and my confidence and I feel a lot more comfortable today,” Liu said.

Chang Tzu-Yi (張子怡) moved up into a tie for 7th after a second-round 70. “This is my first tournament back after two months. The conditions were not very easy. And I was a little too tight on the first day. But now I feel I’m back in my game-day mode,” Chang said, who bagged 5 birdies in both rounds, but cut down the bogey counts from 8 to 3.

The brand-new TLPGA Tour event features a NT$6 million prize purse, the biggest prize checks post-lockdown.