The TLPGA Tour makes its stop at Taipei’s Orient Golf & Country Club for the 2014 CTBC Ladies Open presented by the CTBC Bank and the CTBC Charity Foundation. It marks the first CTBC Ladies Open to award official world ranking points and co-sanctioned by the China LPGA Tour.



Prize money for this year has been increased to NT$5 million with the winner getting NT$1 million, while the event returns to the Orient Golf & Country Club as in its inception year in 2012.

The inaugural winner was Thai Numa Gulyanamitta, who finished at an 11-under 205 (64-69-72). Last year was the only year the event was held at the Sunrise Golf & Country Club and it was the Korean who celebrated domination over local competition as Do-Yeon Kim and Ye-Na Chung finished atop on extremely tough conditions. Kim was crowned by a three-round total of 9-over 225.

Pumped for one of the biggest events on home soil and a historic edition, Taiwanese sensation Hsu Wei-Ling (徐薇淩), who is the current No.5 on the Race for the Card money list of the Symetra Tour, has decided to replace the LPGA future tour’s culminating event of 2014 with the CTBC Ladies Open which is held in the same week.

Hsu has yet to record a TLPGA Tour victory so far this year. Her best outing came at the season-opening Hitachi Ladies Classic where she wrapped up in a tie for fifth, but, however, she’s having a leapfrogging year on the Symetra Tour as she collected a second title and four top-10 finishes, and earned herself a legitimate place to hold up a 2015 LPGA Tour card.

The 19-year-old will expect to have plenty of competition, though, among a field comprised of 107 professional golfers from around the world that includes recent CLPGA Xiamen Challenge runner-up and TLPGA Heritage Tour winner Hsieh Yu Ling (謝瑀玲), the top two players on the 2014 China LPGA money list, China’s Pan Yanhong (潘艷紅) and Taiwan’s Babe Liu (劉依貞), as well as promising local stars Yeh Hsin Ning (葉欣寧) and Lin Tzu-Chi (林子麒).

“I would like to offer a warm welcome to some of the Asia’s best golfers,” said Chen Kuo-Shih, Vice President of the CTBC Bank. “The CTBC Bank has been a dedicated promoter of Taiwanese golf for over 30 years, and we are very proud to have forged another great partnership with the China LPGA to bring this event to new heights.”

The 54-hole tournament, set for Sep. 18-20, will have elimination before the final day to send only the top-50 and ties to the final round for the ultimate prize and ranking points. A hole-in-one prize of a brand new Audi A6 2.0 TFSI worthy of NT$2.42 million will also be up for grabs on the 16th.