First-round leader Wu Chia-Yen (吳佳晏) closed the second-round in style. She poured in two important birdie putts on the 17th and 18th consecutively to maintain a two-shot cushion heading into Friday’s final round at the Taiwan Mobile Ladies Open.

LPGA Tour player Lee Min (李旻) shot a low-round 7-under 65 to rise into a tie for fifth. Fellow LPGA Tour member Hsu Wei-Ling (徐薇淩), who holds the highest world ranking among all players in the field, carded a 4-under 68 to move into equal seventh.

Hou Yu-Sang (侯羽桑), who is also trying to make some damage in the 2023 LPGA Tour season after successful Q-Series attempt a fortnight ago, used a run of four birdies between Hole 8 to 12 and a tap-in birdie on the par-3 16th to match Wu’s pace. However, 18-year-old Wu showed a composure beyond her age and closed the round with two statement birdies, pushing the ceiling to 12-under 132. Hou finished the round with a bogey-free 66, narrowing the gap from three to two shots.

“I got a little stuck in the emotions from that mistake on the 6th, and then on the 11th as well where I wasted a golden birdie chance,” Wu said, who further missed the 15th green and dropped another shot. “I’m glad I found my range again in the end.”

Wu spent half of the season debuting on the Japan LPGA’s Step-Up Tour, only coming back home a week before the start of the Taiwan Mobile Open. But the 2021 TLPFA Tour official Money Winner is quickly adjusting herself and now standing just one step away from her eighth TLPGA Tour title.

Wu and Hou shared a strong bond of friendship since their amateur days. “It’s good to play with Chia-Yen again,” said Hou at 10-under 134. “I had a solid round. Those difficult birdies on the 10th and 11th were such confidence boosters. If only I would have taken that chance on the 17th as well to get even closer to Chia-Yen. I’m still proud of my golf today.”

Lee Min and Yang Fei-Chien (楊斐茜) both registered a 65. Lee, tying her personal record of eight birdies in one round, is through to the final-round at 6-under 138 along with Juliana Hung (洪玉霖). This also marks Lee’s second-best career round after carding a 64 at the TLPGA & Royal Open back in 2016.

Shrugging off the frustration from last week’s Wistron Ladies Open, where she turned in a worst career round and failed to make the cut, Yang Fei-Chien fired seven birdies on Thursday at the Tong Hwa golf course to surge into a tie for third with 2020 champion Chien Pei-Yun (錢珮芸).

“The conditions were perfect. The layout played short today. I knew I had to take the chances and went as low as I could,” said Yang.

Having improved her iron precision from yesterday, Chien converted the opportunities she created with some clutch putting, and wrapped up the round in the top-3 with a second-round 66. “I tried to just go with my instinct on the the greens and it worked pretty well today,” said Chien. She had seven birdies and one bogey.

Hsu Wei-Ling took out her 3-wood for her second shot on all four par-5s today, and the aggression rewarded her with three birdies. “It was a great scoring day. The ball stops easy on the greens. But unfortunately, I wasn’t able to shoot an eagle. I hope I can finally get one tomorrow,” said Hsu.

A cut was made at the end of today, and only 53 players are through to the Friday finale, with the leaders’ group teeing up at 8:40.

For more information on the 2022 Taiwan Mobile Ladies Open, please explore https://www.taiwanmobile.com/twmTLPGA2022/