Wu Chia-Yen (吳佳晏), current No.1 on the 2021 TLPGA Tour Money Leaderboard with two victories under her belt, carded a bogey-free 5-under 67 to hold a two-shot first-round lead at the Party Golfers Ladies Open.

Tai Chia-Wen (戴嘉汶) topped the leaderboard for seventeen holes but a bogey on the 18th and a birdie for Wu opened up a two-shot gap between them. Tai is in solo second-place on 3-under par.

Lee Hsin (李欣) and Wang Li-Ning (王莉甯) sit another shot adrift in equal third, while Erica Huang (黃郁評), Huang Yu-Hsin (黃郁心), and Liu Peng-Shan (劉芃姍) were tied for fifth on 1-under par.

The in-form Wu, winner of the recent CTBC Invitational and Wistron Ladies Open, opened the first-round uninspired with twelve straight pars. “I wasn’t playing bad actually, but the putts just weren’t falling,” said the 17-year-old with a mentality beyond her years. “I knew I couldn’t get angry on myself, so I just tried to keep doing what I was doing great. Everything felt right finally after that 7-foot birdie on the 13th.”

Wu followed up the birdie with an eagle on the 14th, where she set up a 14-footer with a hybrid approach on her second shot, leading to her second eagle in her 2021 records. Her only eagle in the season prior to this came in the second round of the Wistron Ladies Open where she scored her first career ace.

Wu added one more birdie to match Tai Chia-Wen at 3-under; however, Tai’s attack toward the 18th pin sailed long, resulting in bogey after she missed a 9-foot saver. Meanwhile, Wu took another opportunity on the 18th green to close the round in style and lifted the lead to two shots.

“I couldn’t complain much, it was a nice round with four birdies,” said Tai. “I was playing solid golf all around. Iron game could be better but I’m feeling well. I’m going to just fine-tune some details in my game and hoping to produce another good round tomorrow.”

Wang Li-Ning recorded an eagle also on the par-5 14th, sending the ball to 15 feet with her 5-iron before dropping the putt on the first attempt. She closed the round with a 70, sitting in a tie for third. “I started out really well on the front nine. My driver was key,” said Wang, whose only notable result in the season was a quarterfinal in the CTBC Invitational Match-Play. “The level came down a bit onto the back nine. I’ll need to make a few adjustments and hopefully I can keep up the level in the second round, hitting those fairways as I did on the front nine.”

Wang, who accidentally hurt her toes during the lockdown, said she felt much more ready now than she just came back after a full three-month break to nurse the injury.

Lee Hsin shoot a 70 as well making four birdies and a double-bogey. She dumped her tee shot on the 7th hole into the cart lane and bounced out of bound. “That was the only big mistake today. I tried to look at the positives and not get affected by it. I think it made me even more motivated to earn more shots and make up for the loss,” said Lee.

Erica Huang just celebrated her 21th birthday yesterday. She carded three birdies in Wednesday’s first-round, offset by two bogeys, including a three-putt bogey on the very last hole which pushed Huang down to equal fifth on the leaderboard. In the most recent Wistron Ladies Open, Huang created her first top-5 showing in the season. With only three tournaments left on the schedule for year, she hoped to ride on the confidence to not just finish again in the top-5, but to add her name to the champions’ list.

Thursday action begins at 6:40 tomorrow morning from the first and tenth tees.

47 professionals, alongside 23 amateurs, are in this year’s Party Golfers Ladies Open in hopes of adding the NT$3 million event title to their resume which is worth NT$550,000. The backdrop this week is the Lily Golf & Country Club, which hosted the TLPGA Tour players in the 2021 season for the second time after August’s YICHEN Heritage Tour.