Taiwan’s Chen Hsuan (陳萱) collected her first professional victory today at the TLPGA Tour and Step Up Tour co-sanctioned 2024 CTBC Ladies Open.

Starting the day two shots off the lead with five players ahead of her, Chen knew she had to bring up her best level in today’s final round in beautiful scoring conditions at the Orient Golf & Country Club. Although she wasn’t the most impressive performer on the final day, Chen stood strong and steady on the intense back nine to come out on top at 3-under 213 with a Saturday 69, composed of four birdies and one bogey.

Hou Yu-Chiang (侯羽薔), who still held the lead on the 14th tee, could not pick up any birdie on the last ten holes and finally wrapped it up as the runner-up at 2-under 214.

36-holes co-leader Akari Takano, who made a career-low 65 yesterday, felt the pressure and disappointed herself with a final-round 78 to end in a tie for 15th. Chang Ching-Ling (張靖翎) also start with three consecutive bogeys between Hole 2 to 4 to lose her advantage, but fortunately got back on track with an important 6-foot birdie on the 9th that salvage her confidence for the final stretch, finishing in a five-way tie for third at 215 with Tsai Pei-Ying (蔡佩穎), Yu Han-Hsuan (俞涵軒), Chang Tzu-Yi (張子怡), and lastly Chen Yu-Ju (陳宇茹), who fired a low-round 66 with one eagle and four birdies.

“I was hitting my irons very well, a lot better than the last couple of days,” said Chen. “I was actually very concentrated on my own golf, and not until like the 14th hole that I realized I was just one stroke behind Vivian (Hou), with a realistic chance of making a birdie on the green in front of me to level things up. And I made it! That was such a crucial moment on the 14th green.”

“This victory gives me a lot of confidence going forward. I was in a pretty bad mental state last year after the injury. I even thought about retiring. But my families, especially my father kept telling me to take my time, that I was on the right way, and finally here I’m holding the trophy for the first time,” said Chen, whose win this week is worth JPY5,400,000, and also qualifies her to play on the JLPGA Tour’s Qualifying Tournaments where she can compete for the main tour membership in 2025.

With other players in the leading pack struggling, Hou Yu-Chiang’s chances looked bright as she notched three birdies on the front nine and reached the solo top position at 2-under. But she then made ten straight pars to close out in 2-under 214, falling short by just one shot. “I was a little unlucky on the greens on the back nine. In fact, I think I played better than yesterday, making almost all the fairways, but on the greens, I felt the ball would just always miss by an inch,” the 2023 Wistron Ladies Open winner said, who needed 30 putts today.

Chen Yu-Ju and Tsai Pei-Ying were the biggest jumpers on the final day, carded a 66 and a 68 each, with a matching performance on the greens of 28 attempts, to finish in a tie for third on 1-under 215. “I didn’t start well, dropping into the rough area quite a lot, and saved a few very tough pars on the first five holes, but then I kind of settled down and hit some amazing tee shots to set up nice attacking opportunities around the 100-yard range,” Chen said.

Yu Han-Hsuan overcame a front-nine 37 and used three birdies to bounce back into a top-3 finish with a final-round 71, winning a bonus prize (for the top-3 finishers) of a 1-year club membership awarded by the Orient Golf & Country Club.

First-round leader Chang Tzu-Yi (張子怡), despite still feeling tired with a busy schedule traveling back-and-forth from Taiwan and the U.S., closed the final round steady enough with two birdies and two bogeys to keep herself in the top-3. “I tried to be more focused on the tees, which set up some good chances from the fairways. But unfortunately, my putter still wasn’t sharp enough that I couldn’t make a few more birdies.”

A total of 108 players gathered at this week’s event featuring 46 players from the TLPGA Tour, 44 from the Step Up Tour, as well as 18 special sponsor-invites. The is the second year the CTBC Ladies Open is co-sanctioned by the JLPGA’s developmental tour, with a total prizemoney of JPY30,000,000.