Chen Chih-Min (陳之敏) coped well in gusty conditions today at the Tashee Golf & Country Club and took the half-way lead with a 5-under 67 at the 36-hole BNP PARIBAS & TLPGA Heritage Tour.

This week, 37 TLPGA Tour golfers are competing through 36 holes for a total prize of NT$600,000 in the TLPGA’s “Heritage Tour” pro-junior series event, swinging alongside 28 amateur and junior players who are competing for their respective titles. The core spirit of the TLPGA Heritage Tour is to set up a flatform where generations of golfer clash for a passing-the-torch kind of opportunity. In the Heritage Tour event format, the amateur and junior players are paired with the professionals, so the young ones can closely interact with local elites and pick up valuable learning experience.

Chen Chih-Min reflourished in the event that she won four years ago. She opened exceptionally well in this year’s BNP PARIBAS & TLPGA Heritage Tour, carding six birdies and just one bogey to register a 67, in a day that only two players broke par.

Starting on the 10th tee, Chen was unfazed by the wind and birdied her second, third, and fifth hole to go 3-under at the turn.

The 2020 champion made her first and only bogey right after the turn on the 1st hole, but she quickly delivered a chip-in birdie on the 3rd to get things back on track. “My tee shots were strong today, and I was doing pretty well around the greens, but I was actually missing quite a number of greens. Fortunately my short game held up nicely. I’ll need to improve on my control over the second shots if I want to win the whole thing tomorrow,” said Chen.

Liang Yi-Ling (梁宜羚) was the only other player to shoot a red number, sitting in solo second at 4-under 68. In fact, she was matching Chen’s pace and only dropped back after a bogey on the 16th hole.

“The wind was pretty bad, but I tried to stay high in spirits and not get distracted. Although I didn’t make many fairways, I reacted well and hit a lot of greens. I was able to keep a lifted mindset throughout and not get let down by one or two bad shots,” said Liang, who found just 9 fairways but made 14 greens in regulation. “My putter was solid, too, which was a nice surprise. I had been struggling with it for a while but today it was behaving itself!”

Liang will be searching for her first TLPGA Tour victory in nine years. Her last triumph dates back to 2015 when she lifted the KENDA Tires Open trophy.

Lai Yi-Ting (賴怡廷) opened strongly for the second week in a row. She shot three birdies but three bogeys to head into the final round in solo third place. “My iron game just continued to improve over the past few weeks. The greens are slopey in the Ta Shee club. You’ll want to make sure you′re hitting the right spots on the greens. I think I did pretty well on that.”” Lai said. “I was a little stubborn when I took out my putter on the edge of the green a few times, which resulted in a couple of three-putts. Maybe a chipping wedge would have been a better choice. This is what I’ll have to think more carefully about in tomorrow’s final round.”

The competition layout for Group Professional is set at 6,261 yards. Besides Group Professional, six other disciplines for the amateur or junior players were also in action concurrently.