Hou Yu-Chiang (侯羽薔) turned in a 5-under 67 to lead in the $800,000 Wistron Ladies Open. The four-round event is the highest-paying tournament on the 2023 TLPGA Tour. The winner after 72 holes on Sunday will pocket $160,000.

Huang Ching (黃靖), Hsu Wei-Ling (徐薇淩), and Bianca Pagdanganan sit in a three-way tie for second at 4-under par, while Yu-Chiang’s sister Hou Yu-Sang (侯羽桑) loomed in solo fifth on 69.

Wistron, a Fortune’s top-500 company and one of the global leaders in the ICT (Information and Communications Technology) field, has been an important partner with the TLPGA since 2006 and sponsoring the Wistron Ladies Open since 2020. This year, Wistron announced yet another prize money increase with a total prize pool of $800,000 (about 300% gain from 2020 and 60% gain from 2022).

“I was hitting well. I felt pretty comfortable with my irons, got some nice distance control. I tried not to over play it, just stick to my game plan, and find the right spot on the greens,” said Hou, who got off to a flying start with a 9-foot birdie on the 10th hole.

The former world no.1 amateur golfer returned to the clubhouse with three birdies on each half, and the only setback today was a bogey on the 18th. “It’s not that I was trying to play safe, but that I know the greens here at the Sunrise Club are pretty hard to read. So, it is very important that you don’t put your ball on a strange spot, so that you can really take the chances on the greens.”

Spending most of the season resting her injured left wrist and hip, Hou said she felt fully healthy at the moment, and that she set a fitness goal with her team, vowing to add some muscle mass to her small frame, in order to handle all the playing and the physically-demanding tour life.

Teeing up on the 10th hole as well, Huang Ching matched Hou’s effort with a birdie on her first hole, before she went on to make four more birdies and one bogey, from a three-putt on the 11th, to trail the lead by just one shot.

Sunday’s prize is tempting, but It’s not on Huang’s mind at the moment. “I took this as just another tournament, another round of golf. I didn’t look too far ahead. I just tried to take it one shot at a time, which I did pretty well I think. My concentration level was high,” said Huang of the bonus $160,000 cash prize Wistron provided for a local winner.

LPGA Tour titlist Hsu Wei-Ling (徐薇淩) picked up consecutive birdies on the 5th and 6th, and then on the 10th and 11th as well, to sit tied for second with a bogey-free 68. “I have not been able to perform consistently over the past year. I work pretty hard to improve, testing out some new things, but I think it is because of that, knowing how much of work I put into it, that I tend to go too hard on myself, and trap myself kind of in a negative thought loops,” said Hsu.

“So, my latest approach is that I try to start from zero every week, and tell myself to stop examine the improvements during tournament. Instead, I think I’m practicing to just let my game lead me. I should trust it more, and trust that I’ve done the right things to make it good. If I can do that, I know it’s just a matter of time some results will come.”

The Hou sisters, Yu-Chiang and Yu-Sang, got both of their names on the top page of the leaderboard. Yu-Sang carded a 69 to stand just two strokes behind Yu-Chiang’s lead. “The conditions were great. Not much wind. I tried to bring in an aggressive game style, and it was all basically under my control. A solid round overall. I feel pretty good,” said Yu-Sang, whose 69 were made of shot four birdies and one bogey.

Former world no.1 and multiple LPGA Tour major champion Yani Tseng (曾雅妮) returned from a second hip surgery. This is the first official tournament for her in about one year. She shot a 4-over 76 to sit in a tie for 63rd.

Set at 6,413 yards long for the week, the Sunrise layout has tested some of the best players in the world. It became the venue of many high-profile international events such as the LPGA Taiwan Championship and the 2017 Taipei Summer Universiade.

Second-round action will begin tomorrow at 7 a.m. from first and tenth tees.