20-year-old Shih Cheng-Hsuan (石澄璇) wins the 2019 BNP PARIBAS & TLPGA Heritage Tour. The fact that this is a 36-hole event made her seven-shot winning margin even more impressive.

Her final score of 1-over 145 was concluded with an even-par 72 today at the Tashee Golf Club. This is Shih’s first title on the TLPGA Tour after she turned pro in August, 2018; the win is worth NT$71,000. 19-year-old amateur Huang Yu-Ping (黃郁評) carded matching 73-72 145 to triumph in Group Amateurs of Women’s 16-25.

Lin Tzu-Chi (林子麒) secured the runner-up prize of a NT$45,000 check. She registered a 1-over 73 to wrap it up on 8-over 152. Lai Yi-Ting (賴怡廷) (74) and Lee Chia-Pei (李佳霈) (76) finished in a tie for third on 11-over.

Shih Cheng-Hsuan coped with the wind well enough on Thursday to never let her 5-shot lead from round one shrink. The Yilan native made 18 straight pars to notch the victory. “That was special! I’ve never made it all-par in an official round. I think the chance is smaller than simply going bogey-free.”

There were moments of turbulence, of course, but Shih hung tough, which included bunker saves on the par-4 7th and the par-3 9th. In between on the 8th, Shih also needed a chip and putt combination to escape a bogey finish.

“I was getting closer on the back nine, creating some makable putts for birdie, but my putter was not good enough,” Shih needed 31 putts today, one more than on Wednesday. “But I think I kept it together nicely. I played a solid round, which is a fitting season-end gift for myself. It’s coming to an end to my first full season as a pro on the TLPGA Tour, and I’m finally feeling comfortable and that I’m playing like myself. I hope I can continue to improve. My goal is to play on the Japan LPGA Tour or further make it in the LPGA field to compete with the best!”

The top female pro golfer from Yilan city started to play competitive golf since she was 13. Shih is now a college junior at the University of Taipei.

Huang Yu-Ping received her second amateur honor after the YTS & SUNCITY Heritage Tour. Huang scored four birdies but also dropped four shots along the way to post a 72 in the second round, making her shoulder to shoulder with Shih at 145 in the end.

Huang has been trained for competitive golf for eight years. “I haven’t been playing too well lately and I’ve been trying to adjust the expectation I put for myself and kind of reset the goals,” Huang said. “I think the short break in the past month was exactly what I needed. I started to pick up some better form.” The college freshman is now coached by former TLPGA Tour champion Tseng Hsiu-Feng (曾秀鳳).

The BNP PARIBAS & TLPGA Heritage Tour is the second 36-hole pro-junior event on the 2019 TLPGA Tour, in which the TLPGA pros are grouped with amateurs and junior golfers, with an aim to develop a platform for closer interaction between the experienced and the young prospects. An 18-hole Pro-Am will be held tomorrow on the same venue.

This is the third edition of the BNP PARIBAS & TLPGA Heritage Tour, after the bank sponsored this event in 2016 and 2018.