History will be made as the TLPGA Tour and Ladies European Tour (LET) co-sanctioned Wistron Ladies Open tees off this Thursday.

The $1-million event is the first ever TLPGA Tour Tournament co-hosted by the LET. 45 LET members will be making their TLPGA Tour debut, competing with 45 TLPGA Tour pros and 18 local invites over four rounds, 72 holes at the Sunrise Golf & Country Club.

The 2024 Wistron Ladies Open features 25% purse increase from the 2023 edition. The champion on Sunday will receive $200,000.

Past winners Shih Cheng-Hsuan (石澄璇), Chang Ya-Chun (張雅淳), and Hou Vivian Yu-Chiang (侯羽薔) have confirmed their return to the field. 2023 runner-up
Bianca Pagdanganan of the Philippines, P.K. Kongkraphan of Thailand, Japan LPGA Tour campaigner Tsai Pei-Ying (蔡佩穎), recent Epson Tour Championship at Indian Wells champion Lin Heather Tze-Han (林子涵) are also some of the top favorites for Sunday’s title. Last week’s Da Da Digital Open champion Chang Wenny Ching-Ling (張靖翎) is in an attempt to take a record fourth crown in the 2024 TLPGA Tour season.

Top-10 names on the LET Order of Merit including Chiara Tamburlini, Bronte Law, Manon De Roey, Alice Hewson, and Shannon Tan will be headlining the field as well.

This week’s backdrop, Sunrise Golf Club was the venue of the 1992 Sunrise Cup World Team Championship, which was listed on the LET schedule as an unofficial team event. “The Sunrise is honored to host the Wistron Ladies Open. We were assigned the task not long ago and right away we began pouring every ounce of effort and energy into getting the course back into top shape, LET standards, after the scary Typhoon last week,” said Sunrise Golf Club GM Ms. Huang M-L.. The venue also hosted the LPGA Taiwan Championship between the year of 2011 to 2013 and the Taipei Summer Universiade in 2017.

The course will play to a par 72 at over 6,549 yards.

“We are so delighted to make this trip to Taiwan, and witness the very first TLPGA Tour and LET co-sanctioned event in history. I would like to thank the title sponsor Wistron and the TLPGA for their incredible support to make this idea possible,” said LET’s CEO Alexandra Armas. “This tournament further strengthens the ecosystem of women’s professional golf, with global scheduling, increased prize funds and another exciting playing opportunity for our respective memberships.”

Wistron Ladies Open is the highest-paying tournament on the TLPGA Tour, title-sponsored by Wistron, a global ICT (Information and Communications Technology) solution provider and an important partner with the TLPGA since 2006. The inception of the tournament was in 2020 when the Covid pandemic broke out, which helped ease the financial struggle local golfers went through during the challenging times.

“Wistron has been one of the biggest supporters for women’s golf since 2006. The Wistron Ladies Open, now in its fifth edition, has quickly become a true marquee event on our yearly schedule,” said TLPGA chairwoman Liu Yi-Chen. “Today, I’m deeply honored, on behalf of the TLPGA, to welcome these amazingly talented women from the LET. I hope you will be able to bring out your very best and have a wonderful week at the Sunrise.”

A special trophy, inspired by British Open’s Claret Jug, will see the name of the new winner engraved alongside four previous champions. There will be more at stake for the local players as their performance will potentially earn them an LET Tour membership, should they come out victorious on Sunday.

This week, four Hole-in-One prizes will be on offer on No.2, 4, 11, and 16. An elimination looms after the second round on Friday.