The TLPGA Tour makes its return to Hsinchu at the Lily Golf Club as the Ladies Philippine Golf Tour (LPGT) co-sanctioned Party Golfers Ladies Open is ready to get underway.

Prize money of the 54-hole event has yet again been boosted to NT$5 million from NT$4 million last year with China Airlines joining forces. The winner from the 101-player field will pocket NT$900,000.

P.K. Kongkraphan, last week’s SAMPO Ladies Open champion and 4-time TLPGA Tour titlist in 2024, remains the heavy favorite.

Taiwan’s Chang Ching-Ling (張靖翎), the only other player to have multiple wins in 2024, Shih Cheng-Hsuan (石澄璇), Yu Han-Hsuan (俞涵軒), LPGA’s Epson Tour campaigner Jessica Peng (彭婕), and defending champion Chen Ling-Jie (陳伶潔) carry the local hopes for the securing the victory on home soil.

Also an Epson Tour member, Pauline del Rosario leads the nineteen LPGT bidders to hopefully notch a historic win for the Philippines. Daniella Uy recorded the highest finish by a Filipina in this event with a fourth place in the 2019 edition. In 2018, the fourth annual Party Golfers Open first became a co-sanctioned event by the two tours.

The TLPGA Tour and the LGPT have collaborated since 2015. The 2024 Party Golfers Open has been the sixteenth TLPGA Tour and LPGT co-sanctioned event in history.

“Party Golfers Open was the first professional event I’ve ever played since I started my career as an amateur. And it was where I took my first victory this time last year. This tournament has a special place in my heart,” said Chen Ling-Jie. “I would like to take this opportunity to thank the sponsors, the Party Golfers, the TLPGA, the Lily Club, and all the staff members for making this event possible.”

The Party Golfers, an amateur golf team comprised of local entrepreneurs who share a never-fading passion for the golf sport, has been lending their sponsorship supports to the TLPGA since 2014, when the first Party Golfers Open was staged, giving the TLPGA Tour that final push into the WWGR (World Women’s Golf Rankings) system.

For the fourth year in a row, the backdrop for the event will be the Lily Golf & Country Club. By introducing solar panels in its parking lot and a functional rain recycling system to recapture water and energy as maintenance resources for its facilities, Lily Golf Club takes pride in contributing to ESG initiatives to preserve the golf environments.

The players got to test the layout, set at 6,217 yards long, one last time in a pro-am event today. The official rounds will tee off tomorrow morning at 6:30, from the first and tenth tees.