The Lily Golf and Country Club was shaken by a 7.2 magnitude earthquake which hit the eastern Taiwan today in early morning. Fortunately, there was no serious damage around the Hsinchu area as the YICHEN Heritage Tour completed its final round safely. Overnight leader Chen Ling-Jie (陳伶潔) remained unshakable on the top of the leaderboard with another low-round performance of 7-under 65 and took home the NT$71,000 victory on 12-under 132.

Despite pulling off a miracle ace on the difficult 8th hole, Huang Ching (黃靖) couldn’t find that extra gear on the back nine to match Chen’s pace. She finished as the runner-up on 10-under 134.

This is Chen’s second TLPGA Tour victory and her both victories came on the Lily golf course. She hit again sixteen greens and needed just 28 putts on Wednesday to improve her first-round 67 to a final-round 65.

“Everything clicked. It was a great feeling. I was reading the grass so well and controlling the putts better after yesterday’s round. My irons were great. I was hitting my target and keeping the ball close to the hole. It was a wonderful way to win,” said Chen, who would have written an even better score if she would sink the 2-footer on the 17th green. “I played a great second shot from about 180 yards, where I used a 5-iron to set up an amazing birdie chance, but the putt was carried away by the grain.”

“I always love the concept of the Heritage Tour events. When I was younger, I always looked forward to the opportunities to play these events. And now I see these young players look up to us. It’s like looking at myself when I was a junior,” Chen said. “Thank you to the TLPGA family. Miss Liu (Liu Yi-Chen), iGolf Academy, and YICHEN Fan Club, thank you all for making this place, a place for dreams to come true.”

“I hope I will win another Open-tier event this year!” said Chen, who bagged her first TLPGA Tour victory at the Party Golfers TLPGA Open last September.

Huang Ching had a bit of a slow start in today’s final-round. She scraped through to the green against the wind on the fourth hole, but left an awkward 4 yards which took her two extra attempts to finish. To her credit, that was the only blemish she had on the score card.

Huang picked herself up nicely after the bogey, continuing to give the leader pressure as she went on to score six birdies and one eagle---a hole-in-one on the 165-yard 8th, to register also a 65.

“The green was very firm. It was not an easy hole to attack. I kind of stood back a little on the tee, and tried to hit it smaller with my 6-iron. And the ball flew the way as I expected, but sure it was a surprise that it just ended up in the cup. That was a fun surprise,” Huang talked about the ace, which earned her a NT$20,000 bonus cash prize.

After this week, Huang will be attending a China LPGA event in Tianjin before coming back to prepare for two big TLPGA Tour events in May, the CTBC Ladies Open and the WPG Ladies Open. The busy traveler has also the LPGA Epson Tour Q-Test in sight on her summer schedule.

Chang Ching-Ling (張靖翎) made a late surge to finally wrap it up in solo third place. She shot four birdies and zero bogey for a Wednesday 68. “I still feel scared by the earthquake. There felt like aftershocks all day,” said Chang. “I tried really hard to stay focused on the golf, though. I tried to avoid the same mistakes I made on the first day. The putter went particularly well, I think my putting brought me to where I finished. And I made good use of the par-5s,” Chang had 14/18 greens hit, and she needed just 28 putts.

First-round co-leader An Ho-Yu (安禾佑) completed the final-round with a 2-over 74, dropping into a tie for fourth with Chou Yi-Tsen (周怡岑).

This week has been the fifth YICHEN Heritage Tour, which was first launched in 2020 as a Futures series event (YICHEN Future Open) and since became a Heritage Tour tournament from the following year.

The “Heritage Tour” features a special format in which the pros and amateur players are paired in the same group so the young ones can closely interact with the elites and pick up valuable learning experience.