18-year-old home-course player Liu Peng-Shan (劉芃姍) shot a 4-under 68 today at the Tong Hwa Golf & Country Club, taking the first-round lead at the Taiwan Ladies Open. Chen Yu-Ju (陳宇茹) dropped down from the lead after missing a short 2-footer to bogey the 18th hole. She trailed by one shot into the second round. The Taiwan Mobile Ladies Open is a 54-hole event.

Chen Chih-Min (陳之敏) caught fire on her front-nine (she started from the 10th hole), scoring five birdies in a row from no.4 to no.8 to make the turn on an impressive 5-under. However, a wrist injury prevented her from going forward; she completed the day in solo third in 2-under. LPGA Tour campaigner Hsu Wei-Ling (徐薇淩) sit in solo fourth with a first-round 71.

In her sophomore year as a TLPGA pro, Liu’s previous best career round was a 69. “I’ve had a number of 69s, and this is the first time I score a 68,” said Liu, who made five birdies. “I’ve recently been working on hitting the low punches, and they are the perfect shots with today’s wind, so I was playing pretty confident.” Under the tutelage of former Japan Golf Tour champion Lin Keng-Chi, Liu’s putting proved her money shot when she needed it the most. She used only 25 putts, which included a three-putt on the 9th for her lone bogey throughout the round.

Riding at a career high after just winning her first TLPGA tour title at the BNP Paribas & TLPGA Heritage last month, which is a 36-hole pro-junior event, Liu will be looking to claim her first 54-hole premier tournament victory.

KLPGA’s Dream Tour titlist Chen Yu-Ju kept a controlled aggression with her precise iron game to remain atop the leaderboard until the last hole where she failed to sink a half-meter par putt, and dropped back from the lead. “It’s been a bad trend for the past couple of weeks that I tend to lose a bit of concentration in the closing holes. This is definitely a new problem to solve,” Chen Yu-Ju said.

Chen Chih-Min looked poised to put down new records with a flawless front-nine that saw her tallied five straight birdies from 4 to 8, but a wrist pain got worse into the second half of the round. “I took one painkiller this morning but I think I’ll have to take two tomorrow,” Chen said.

Despite the faster greens in this year’s setting, which are more similar to her playing environments in the U.S., LPGA member Hsu Wei-Ling didn’t feel as comfortable because of the damp conditions. “The wet greens played slower. I thought in many putts I got the right line, but not the right speed,” Hsu said. She needed 33 putts, but did well enough to hit 16 greens to minimize the damage.

Hanna Chen (陳子涵), Lee Hsin (李欣), and Yang Ya-Pin (楊亞賓) formed a three-way tie for fifth at even-par 72. Wu Chia-Yen (吳佳晏), the guaranteed TLPGA Tour year-end no.1, struggled around the greens and finished with a 75 in a tie for 21st, and so did LPGA Tour player Lee Min (李旻) who failed to tame the wind.

Nine out of the top-10 on this year’s TLPGA Tour Money Leaderboard and a total of 56 pros and 30 amateur players came in the NT$5 million Taiwan Mobile Ladies Open this week, the season-ending event for 2021.

A cut will be made after the second round; only the top-50 and ties can make it to the final round on Friday. Tee time for the leaders’ group with Liu, Chen Yu-Ju, and Chen Chih-Min starts at 10:05 on Thursday.