Another duo of Taiwanese Huang Yu-Chen (黃玉珍) and Tsai Pei-Ying (蔡佩穎) sits in a tie for second and one shot back at 2-under. CLPGA member Chen Liqing (陳利慶) and Malaysian Michelle Koh are tied at fourth at 1-under 71.

 

The sky was clear and sunny at the Orient Golf & Country Club, but steady strong winds blowing throughout the day and some extreme gusts on the front nine had players struggle to even stand firmly for their shots. The greens were said to be very slippery and the roughs around were added challenges.

 

Now also a coach of more them 10 amateur players, veteran Huang Yu-Chen was the early leader after 16 holes, carded six birdies, the most of the day, in an 11-hole stretch, but the wind got so strong and she wrapped up her round at the 8th and 9th with two straight bogeys that finally dropped her to a tie for second.

 

“The wind was super extremely strong, so it was really hard to play with this much strong wind,” said Huang. “The toughest part was sometimes the gust wind was so strong, so it was affecting the putting that I could not even place my feet firmly on the ground.”

 

The 41-year-old said, gladly, her iron play was sharp in today’s winds, blocking in almost every approach within 100 yards at will, leaving a nice cushion for easy putters. She needed just an impressive 26 putts after 18 holes.

 

Another front runner finishing short was Hsu Wei-Ling. Opening the day with an eagle on the 10th hole, Hsu went on to made four birdies and just one bogey before she suffered a double-bogey at the last hole, when she had just a little too much trouble off the 9th fringe.

 

“I am actually really happy with my scores up in such strong winds,” said Hsu, who is one of the four CTBC Bank faces this week. “It helped a lot of confidence when I got to start with an eagle; shook off the nerves that I was able to play more freely right from the beginning.”

 

Hsu spent her last two seasons mostly on the Symetra Tour in the United States. At 19 years old, 20 next month, Hsu has two Symetra Tour wins under her belt and seven top-10 finishes. The win at the Self Regional Healthcare Foundation Women's Health Charity Classic in May propelled her to the front on the money list of Race for the Card; and now with just one tournament remaining on the calendar, at No.5, Hsu was pretty much safe for a 2015 LPGA card that rewards only the top-10.

 

The 2014 CTBC Ladies Open marks its first time co-sanctioned by the China LPGA Tour. The best Chinese performer in the first-round was Guangdong native Chen Liqing, who used 26 putts to overcome the wind to sit within two shots of the lead.

 

The 2014 event boasts a purse bigger than its two previous editions, increased from NT$3 million to NT$5 million and the winner will win an NT$1 million prize check. On Hole 16, a hole-in-one prize of a brand new Audi A6 2.0 TFSI worthy of NT$2.42 million will be on offer as well.

 

Players will tee it up beginning at 6:30 a.m. tomorrow and the final group starts at 12 at noon.