Rookie pro Lin Yi-Hui (林怡潓), in just her sixth professional outing, is now a TLPGA Tour winner after carding a second straight 1-over-par 73 at the BNP PARIBAS & TLPGA Heritage Tour to win by two shots.

The BNP PARIBAS & TLPGA Heritage Tour is a 36-hole TLPGA “Heritage Tour” series event. This victory for Lin is worth NT$71,000.

Lin, who joined the professional tour after passing the TLPGA Tour qualification event only in April, didn’t expect the victory to come so soon. “I’m very surprised. I didn’t even win anything big in my amateur years, and now I’m happy to reach such milestone so early in my pro career,” said Lin, who hoped to translate the experience and success into other high-tier, 54-hole tournaments. “Maybe some top-10s, or top-5s. I’m hoping to consistently push into the top league, with this confidence now I grow, knowing I can compete with the best players on the TLPGA Tour.”

Lin began the day at 1-over with a one-shot deficit against a group of three leading players and more experienced Tour champions, Chen Yu-Ju (陳宇茹), Chang Hsuan-Ping (張瑄屏), and Shih Cheng-Hsuan (石澄璇). However, with eight pars and one 16-foot birdie on the par-4 6th hole, Lin pleasantly found herself holding a three-shot lead already at the turn.

Chen, Chang, and Shih would be disappointed with how they managed the pressure when in lead, starting the front nine with 39, 39, and 40 respectively. On the contrary, Lin seemed to swing freely in the fourth-to-last group.

“I was just trying to focus on each shot, stick with the game plan and play better percentage in the rainy and windy conditions, and glad I did,” said Lin. “My iron game didn’t go as well actually, but I’ve got some nice chip-and-putt combinations which really helped me to stay in contention.”

After the turn, the graduate student at the National Taiwan Sport University dropped three shots and compensated with a lone birdie on the 17th to complete the round at 1-over and a winning total of 146, which was two strokes better than Shih, who righted the ship on the inward nine carding one birdie and one bogey each to seal the round at 4-over 76.

Chen Yu-Ju finished in solo third at 149, after a final-round 77 with two birdies and seven bogeys. Chang Hsuan-Ping fell into T6 at 152 after a final-round 80.

Yu Pei-Ling (余珮琳) ascended from equal thirteenth to solo fourth at 150 after shooting Tuesday’s low-round 72.

This week, 28 TLPGA Tour golfers competed through 36 holes for a total prize of NT$600,000 in the “Heritage Tour” pro-junior series, where 49 amateur and junior players were also in the field. The BNP PARIBAS began its sponsorships for the TLPGA Tour tournament since 2016.

The 2022 event was played on the East Course and Central Course at the Ta Shee Golf Club, with the layout set at 6,235 yards this week. “Preferred lies” adjustment was allowed due to the weather conditions.