The seventh leg of the 2021 TLPGA Tour arrives at the Sunrise Golf & Country Club as the WPG Ladies Open, now a NT$6-million event, kickstarts tomorrow. Last year, the first annual WPG Ladies Open had a purse of NT$4.5 million.

The Sunrise Golf Club, backdrop of the LPGA Taiwan Championship in the year of 2011 to 2013, plays host to 75 TLPGA professionals and amateurs in the three-round, 54-hole tournament playing from Wednesday to Friday. The winner will add a valuable NT$1.1 million to the ranking on the 2021 TLPGA Tour money leaderboard.

Current No.1 Wu Chia-Yen (吳佳晏), who used a 12-under 204 to registered her fifth TLPGA Tour victory just six weeks ago right here on the Sunrise course at the Wistron Ladies Open, returns to defend her title.

“Playing at Sunrise is always not easy with the wind, but definitely a fun challenge,” said 17-year-old Wu. “This is the second to last tournament in 2021. I believe we’re all going to bring our best.” The winning margin was as big as 5-shot when Wu took the Wistron Ladies Open title.

However, her return to the winning ways this week is expected to be a tough one as no.3 Juliana Hung (洪玉霖), who enjoyed two victories this year, and Lee Min (李旻), Olympian at Tokyo 2020, are both set to play. Babe Liu (劉嬿), Chen Yu-Ju (陳宇茹), Chen Chih-Min (陳之敏), and teen sensation An Ho-Yu (安禾佑), who all just finished quarantine coming back from the LPGA Tour qualifying tests in the U.S., are ready to make their mark on Friday.

“The WPG Open was scheduled in July but was impacted by the tense COVID situations back then. Now that we’ve got back into control, we feel responsible to bring it back to our players,” said Sunrise Golf Club general manager Huang M-L.. “Our staff members will ensure the best playing conditions, although the weather is about the one and only thing we cannot put our hands on. The temperature is said to drop very low during the three days of the tournament. I hope the ladies are ready for the challenges!”

“The WPG Ladies Open is honored to be once again featured on the TLPGA Tour. And we’re happy to be supported by a star line-up seeing so many top players come, including the tour’s no.1 player Wu Chia-Yen and Symetra Tour champion Lee Min, and many more talents with tour victories under their belts. We’ve designed a special 3D-printed, WPG-mascot-inspired trophy for the champion and hoped to add up to the excitement of the rich prizes,” said Chen K-Y., WPG-SACg president.

WPG Holdings has led twelve other sponsors from the semiconductor industry in the making of the 2021 event. “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. The WPG, with its core spirit to support the ESG idea, is hoping to continue the torch and keep this run as long as it can,” WPG Holdings CEO Chang R-G. said, which is echoed by WPG Holdings president Huang W-H..

The pro women tested the layout one last time today before the real actions begin, as they joined a traditional 18-hole pro-am with honorable guests and amateur golfers, although rain forced the event to an early end at around 4 p.m..

First-round action is set to go at 6:30 in the morning from the first and tenth tees. Hold-in-one cash prizes are up for grabs on No.2, 4, 11, and 16, presented by WPG Holdings.