The Fubon Ladies Open by Fubon Financial returns to Tong Hwa Golf & Country Club for the second consecutive year. It will feature a star-studded 95-player field during the 3-round battle starting from this Friday, with all vying for an NT$5 million purse.

In back to back weeks, local Taiwanese stars will be battling out for an exemption into the Sunrise LPGA Taiwan Championship held in October, as they gun the top spot on the TLPGA Tour Money List to be qualified for the last wildcard into the LPGA event.

So far the tournament has given out 9 of the 10 exemption slots, including Lu Ya-Huei (呂雅惠), Tseng Hsiu-Feng (曾秀鳳), Shih Huei-Ju (石惠如) for their good showings at last week’s CTBC Ladies Open, GAROC nominees Cheng Ssu-Chia (程思嘉), Chen Yu-Ju (陳雨如), Wu Yi-Ching (伍以晴), Hung Ro-Hua (洪若華), and International Wildcards, Japanese talent Asuka Kashiwabara and winner of the individual game at 2013 Queen Sirikit Cup, Supamas Sangchan of Thailand.

In 2012, Taiwan’s Phoebe Yao (姚宣榆) held off compatriot Lu and Thailand’s Patcharajutar Kongkraphan to capture the first victory of her young career, in the inaugural Fubon Ladies Open, and this year sees the TLPGA event increases the purse from NT$3 million to NT$5 million and the competition is anticipated to be a lot more intense.

Yao, the 20-year-old future prospect, is sitting back a mere NT$50,581 to the current leader on the Money List, Liu Yi-Chen (Babe) (劉依貞), will still have a good chance to take over and snatch the last special entry as the winner this week will receive as high as NT$1 million.

Other TLPGA winners in the field include Malaysia’s Ainil Johani Abu Bakar, Ladies Asian Golf Tour (LAGT) no.2 Ye-Na Chung of South Korea, Tiranan Yoopan and Numa Gulyanamitta both from Thailand.

Fubon Financial thrives on focusing on the past, the present, and the future of Taiwanese golf, sporting the first Annika Academy event last month that impacted the careers of more than 70 TLPGA members.