16-year-old Liao Hsin-Chun (廖信淳) registered a 4-under 68, which is composed of five birdies and one bogey, to steal the first-round lead at the NT$3 million KENDA Tire TLPGA Open.

Wu Yi-Ching (伍以晴) and Juliana Hung (洪玉霖) were both one shot off the pace at 69. Hsieh Yu-Ling (謝瑀玲), Tsai Hsin-En (蔡欣恩), Hanna Chen (陳子涵), Huang Pei-Wei (黃珮雯), and Wen Ti (溫娣) sit in a five-way tie at 2-under-par 70.

Liao impressed with her natural, fine touch around and on the greens. She needed only 27 putts today, scoring five birdies from within 6 feet of range. Her one true mistake happened on the 15th hole where she sent her drive far off to the right which cost her a shot.

The teen is now representing Chinese Taipei on the national girls’ amateur golf team. “It’s just Day 1 so I won’t get happy too soon,” said Liao, now a sophomore in high school. “It feels new I’m in the lead in such a big event, so I’m a little nervous. I’ll need to stay calm and continue to play my game.”

Liao is one of the top amateurs currently in Taiwan, holding one victory at the seasonal championship last summer. “I followed my dad to the clubs when I was little and started playing, but just when I got into competitive golf, he couldn’t continue for his own reasons,” said Liao, who has been trained under a Swing Skirts player program since age 12. “It’s now a road I walk alone. I’m taking it real seriously. My goal in sight would be making it to the 2022 Asian Games squad and compete for Taiwan.”

Having overcome her back pain problems from last week’s YICHEN Heritage Tour, Wu Yi-Ching bounced back with gusty plays under pressure. “I wasn’t really judging my distance well because I was still recovering from my back pain, so the feeling was kind of off. I put myself in some awkward positions but made it up with some great saves. I finished that 18th with a nice par coming back from the trees,” Wu said. “Still, it could’ve been much better if I could put in just a couple more of those mid-range putts. I’m going to be more careful on those opportunities.”

Wu carded four birdies and one bogey, dropping that only shot on the 2nd hole where she mis-timed her approaching and sent it past the green. The ball timely stopped in front of a pond but it left little space to work her chipping. It ended up with a failed 12-footer that wrote the only blemish on Wu’s first-round score card.

Hsieh Yu-Ling came off to a flying start making four birdies through just ten holes but some loose efforts saw her drop consecutive shots on the 13th and 14th. “You need great patience to play on this Taifong course. The long roughs will make things very complicated,” Hsieh said. “For me, it has a very challenging layout. I don’t feel I’m at my A Game but I’ll be trying my best to adjust to the conditions.” She wrapped up the day in a tie for fourth.

Also sitting on equal fourth was Huang Pei-Wen, who, on the other hand, has plenty of confidence on playing at the Taifong course. “I’ve been training on faster greens and Taifong has them.” Huang made four birdies and two bogeys in her round of 70. She needed 29 putts.

The second-round schedule begins at 8:00 tomorrow. A cut will be made to the low 40 and ties after the second round.