Wu Chia-Yen (吳佳晏) just won her second title at the Party Golfers Ladies Open at the Lily Golf & Country Club. The 17-year-old closed the third round with a 2-under 70, finishing on 15-under 201 and winning by 12 shots. The victory will lift the 2021 TLPGA Tour Money Leader further up by NT$550,000.
Wu was a three-time TLPGA Tour winner in her first season as a pro in 2020, and she has held as many titles this season already with still three tournaments remaining on the 2021 schedule, all on the premier tier at the CTBC Invitational, Wistron Ladies Open, and now at the Party Golfers, which is a repeat after her 2018 win.
Her best previous winning margin was 7 shots. She’s now improved the record by 5 shots. The TLPGA Tour record of 17 shots remains unbeaten since 2008 which was written by Yani Tseng (曾雅妮) at the TLPGA Royal Open.
Wu began the final round on Friday holding a comfortable nine shots lead, and never showed any sign of frayed nerves until the final hole where she miscued an easy par putt. She made three birdies in the round to complete a 67-64-70, wire-to-wire victory.
Wu is hoping to take at least one more premier-tier Open events at the WPG Ladies Open and the Taiwan Mobile Open in December. “That’s my only goal, to win,” Wu reassured.
“When I saw Wu comfortably dispatch the challenge of the toughest hole today on the 12th with a birdie, I knew we were witnessing a star in the making,” said Su C-L., Lily Golf & Country Club president. “These women have shown us fantastic golf over the past few days. Our course records were broken everywhere!”
Party Golfers president Chou S-Y. presented the trophy to Wu, congratulating Wu for rising to the challenge and brining out the best in herself. He expressed thanks to the Lily Course staffs for keeping the conditions at the highest level for players to unleash their maximum abilities. The Party Golfers is an amateur golf team comprised of local entrepreneurs who share a strong passion for the golf sport. They’ve been lending their sponsorship supports to the TLPGA for the past eight years and gave rise to the first Party Golfers TLPGA Open in 2014.
Tsai Hsin-En (蔡欣恩) (73) and Lee Hsin (李欣) (71) both finished on 3-under 213, sharing the runner-up prize. Lai Yi-Ting (賴怡廷), Liu Peng-Shan (劉芃姍), and amateur Huang Ting-Hsuan (黃亭瑄) were tied for fourth with 2-under 214s, which earns Huang the low-amateur award, her second consecutive tournament to receive such honor after the Wistron Ladie Open.
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