Chang Ching-Ling (張靖翎) shot a bogey free 66 in the first-round of the SAMPO Ladies Open on Wednesday. The 2024 SAMPO Ladies Open is giving away a record-high NT$7.5 million prizemoney.

Chang made a brilliant shot from the fridge to pin high on the par-5 9th green and sank the eagle putt, which raised her confidence as she carried the momentum to the back nine and scored four birdies inwards to take the clubhouse lead.

Lin Tze-Han (林子涵), Jessica Peng (彭婕), and 2025 TLPGA Tour rookie-to-be Wu Chun-Wei (吳純葳) sit in a tie for second at 3-under 69.

“It plays long and narrow at the Nan Yi Club this week, so I was really just trying hard to put the ball on the safe place, and it wasn’t easy,” said Chang, who hit just eight fairways and twelve greens, but was efficient on and around the greens. “Yeah, it was pretty amazing how I ended up making zero bogey. I was not very accurate from the tee, but I made some great second shots. On that 9th hole, I pulled off a good one out of the roughs, against the sun, to have that eagle chance, and I made it. That was a confidence booster!”

Lin Tze-Han did not start convincingly on Wednesday, dropping three shots between No.4 and 5. The recent champion on the LPGA Epson Tour’s season-ending event instantly righted the ship, though, and found her top-notched short game to turn in a red number after carding six birdies on the rest of the day without any more bogeys. Her holing out from the fairway on the 13th was one of her best shots today; she needed only 24 putts.

Jessica Peng also just flew back from the U.S. after finishing her season on the Epson Tour, where she claimed her first victory at the IOA Golf Classic presented by LPT Realty. Today, she missed just four fairways and recorded high green percentage to ease through the first fourteen holes, carding five birdies and one bogey along the way to sit in outright lead at the point. However, Peng encountered a little bit of tough luck on the 15th and 18th to step back down from the top of the leaderboard.

“On 18, I hit a bad tee shot into a tree, and had to make one more shot to put it back to the fairway. Actually I did well on the third shot to make it as close as it could, but unfortunately I did not make the putt and finish the round with a bogey,” Peng said. “It was a little disappointing, but I felt like I played pretty well all today, especially on the approaches, considering the greens were tiny. I was hitting the target and creating some great birdie chances for myself. Yeah, I feel I’m enjoying a lot playing at home here this week and hopefully I can keep up a positive mood.”

Wu Chun-Wei shot one of the four eagles on the 9th hole in the first round. “I took out my hybrid instead of the 3-hood from 206 yards. It went to the left but had a lucky bounce back to just three yards,” Wu recalled her collecting the eagle. In fact, Wu committed four bogeys but was productive enough with the birdies, making six of them plus the ninth-hole eagle, to put herself in contention.

The SAMPO Ladies Open witnesses another huge boost in the prize money from 2023’s NT$4.5 million to this year’s NT$7.5 million (NT$6 million total prize and 1.5 million sponsor-bonus prize). 2023 winner Wang Li-Ning (王莉甯) returned to the 102-player field at the Nan Yi Golf Club. SAMPO face Juliana Hung (洪玉霖) will also be hoping to repeat her winning run in 2021, now as a brand ambassador.

An 18-hole “Xiu Ju Cup” Senior Ladies Professional Tournament will be held concurrently on Friday. The invitational event features 12 senior golfers which include both last year’s Senior Group winner Lu Ya-Huei (呂雅惠) and Legends Group champion Huang Yueh-Chyn (黃玥珡).

The 2024 SAMPO Ladies Open course layout is set at 6,807 yards with a par score of 72. Four Hole-in-One prizes will be on offer on No.3, 8, 13, and 15. A cut will be made after the second round to filter the field down to the top-50 and ties.