Rookie pro Chen Chih-Min (陳之敏) was the lone player to get into red figures at the Ta Shee Golf & Country Club on Wednesday. She will head into the final round of the BNP PARIBAS & TLPGA Heritage Tour, a 36-hole TLPGA Tour event, with a one-shot lead.

Chen had three birdies and three bogeys before closing the round with one more birdie on the 18th to card 71, which is one shot ahead of Chen Yu-Ju (陳宇茹) and two clear of Cheng Ssu-Chia (程思嘉), Hsieh Yu-Ling (謝瑀玲), Huang Ching (黃靖) and Yang Ya-Pin (楊亞賓).

Squally and cold conditions in the first round of the BNP PARIBAS & TLPGA Heritage Tour saw players struggle to score low. “I had to take my 3-wood many times to make sure I stay on the fairway, or it could be punishing,” Chen Chih-Min said. “I was putting well, enough to secure most birdie chances. I also made a couple of long putts that saved me from dropping shots. I’m very happy to stay under-par in these conditions, especially since I haven’t been feeling too confident on my game, it’s more mental I guess. Coach and I have been talking a lot about this, and I feel I’m trusting myself a lot more now.”

Korea’s second-tier Dream Tour titlist Chen Yu-Ju said she feels “rusty” after a two-week quarantine. “My Korea visa was about to expire so I was required to go through some process with local authorities, which took a big amount of time away from me with the isolations. I went through them five times to be exact, couldn’t really have proper preparations,” Chen made six birdies, but two double-bogeys in the last six holes sent her down in solo second.

Cheng Ssu-Chia rebounded from a slow start─she opened the day with two bogeys in a row─and steadied the ship to finish the round on 1-over. “There would be the Party Golfers Open next week, so I was trying to use this Heritage Tour event to fine-tune myself. It was a cold start, not easy out there, windy, and the pins in difficult positions, but I think I’m warming up,” said Cheng.

Another player in rookie year, Yang Ya-Pin carded also 73. She will play in the final group on Thursday with Chen Chih-Min and Chen Yu-Ju. “I felt calm throughout the day. I think that was key to my performance,” said Yang, who has been practicing some psychological exercises alongside sister Yang Fei-Chien (楊斐茜) to improve her focus and consistency during the game.

This week, 49 TLPGA Tour golfers are grouped with young amateurs and junior golfers, a format that allows the youngsters to closely interact with the experienced professionals, while competing through two rounds for a total prize of NT$600,000 in the “Heritage Tour” pro-junior series. The BNP PARIBAS began its sponsorships for the TLPGA Tour tournament since 2016.