Amateur Hou Yu-Sang (侯羽桑) moved closer to her first TLPGA Tour title at the 2019 CTBC Ladies Open. The first-round co-leader posted a 72 on Friday to get a one-shot lead over fellow Taiwanese Tsai Pei-Ying (蔡佩穎), who failed to make the par putt on the par-5 18th to drop back in solo second on 2-under.

Chinese Pan Yanhong (潘艷紅) shot her second 72 in a row and sit tied with Thai Titiya Plucksataporn, who were three shots off the lead at even-par 144. A three-way tie for fifth at 145 include China’s Li Jiayun (黎佳韵), Yuri Onishi of Japan, and Thai Trichat Cheenglab.

The 108-player field was cut to just 61 at the end of the day, who finished at 11-over or better. The winner on Saturday will win a NT$1 million top prize.

Hou Yu-Sang, the older sister of three-time pro tour titlist Hou Yu-Chiang (侯羽薔), had two birdies and two bogeys on her Friday scorecard. “I played to my standard, nothing spectacular but I felt good,” Yu-Sang said, after draining a crucial 48-feet birdie putt on the 17th, which was followed by a par on the final par-5 that helped her take back the lead.

“The ball might have ended up well past the hole, but the pin blocked it, which was pretty lucky,” Yu-Sang said of the dramatic 48-foot long birdie putt. “I also saved a few other pars from tough spots to make up for the lack of precision in my approaches today.” She used 29 putts.

“The Linkou course this year plays very tricky, with the wind blowing hard, from any direction. You got to drive well, hit a lot of fairways, so you can have some confidence to confront the wind that could mess up your second shots,” analyzed Yu-Sang. “I’ll be trying my best to match my sister’s feat and get a win tomorrow.” Yu-Sang have played twice in the CTBC event in 2016 and 2017, wrapping up with a T4 and T18 finish respectively.

The young sibling of the Hou sisters, Yu-Chiang, on the other hand, carded a disappointing 77 to fall into a tie for 17th. She found a crack in her own 1-wood this morning which forced her to borrow one, missing a little more than usual, as she only scored one birdie but made two bogeys and two double-bogeys.

Tsai Pei-Ying, who was on the same starting line at 3-under with Hou Yu-Sang, fell back to 1-under through 11 after her tee shot on the 11th was caught by a sand trap.

A chip-in birdie on the 15th from 23 yards out, and a successful 15-foot birdie on the 16th gave Tsai another taste at the top of the leaderboard, but a bogey on the par-5 18th, where she needed four shots to find the green, dragged her down from the lead.

Tsai, winner of the JLPGA’s Step-Up Tour ECC Ladies Golf Tournament last month, didn’t miss a single fairway today, powering her way through with an average driving distance of 267.5 yards. She needed 25 attempts on the greens.

Tsai has one TLPGA Tour win from the 2017 Kaohsiung Entrepreneur Association Ladies Open at Sunwood Lake.

Pan Yanhong of China, who just returned in March from her maternity leave, made three birdies through 14 and grabbed a share of the lead with Hou Yu-Sang. But a brief “drop in the concentration level” had her pay the price as she three-putted on two occasions and drop three shots in the next three holes to slide back into a tie for third. “I still feel very positive considering I’ve been back for not very long,” said Pan. “I hope I can bring some nice surprise on Saturday.”

CTBC player Hsieh Yu-Ling (謝瑀玲) had a decent second-round carding a 72, is now in solo eighth. “The conditions were really tough with the wind. But I was feeling comfortable and relaxed playing with my Thai and Japanese friends today, which helped a lot.” Taiwan’s Chang Ching-Ling (張靖翎) is one shot behind Hsieh in solo ninth at 147.

China’s Shi Yuting (石昱婷), the other CTBC ambassador in the field, registered a 77 and narrowly advanced to the final round. However, her younger sister Shih Yuli (石昱莉) missed the cut after a second-round 84.

Narisara Kerdrit and Meng Lin (孟霖) were forced to withdraw in the second round due to injury.

This year, the CTBC Ladies Open made its maiden voyage to the 54-year-old Linkou Golf & Country Club. The TLPGA Tour and the CLPGA Tour co-sanctioned tournament is played on the West and South Course of the Linkou Club. The competition layout is set at 6,710 yards long.

Final-round play begins at 7:40 tomorrow morning; the leaders’ group will tee off at 11:00.