Augusta, Georgia, United States: Chinese Taipei’s Hou sisters will spearhead the Asia-Pacific challenge at this week’s Augusta National Women’s Amateur.

Hou Yu-sang and Hou Yu-chiang are among 12 Asia-Pacific representatives in the elite 82-strong field for the second edition of the tournament that includes players from 25 countries.

The first two rounds are being held at Champions Retreat (April 1-2) after which a cut will be made with the top 30 players advancing to Saturday’s final round at Augusta National.

All participants played a practice round at Augusta National, the home of the Masters Tournament, last Friday.

The Hou sisters are hoping to improve on their performance in the inaugural event when they both fell one shot shy of joining a play-off to compete for a place in the final round.

“We definitely learned a lot,” said 20-year-old Yu-chiang, a sophomore at the University of Arizona who is currently seventh in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR). “I’m super excited. We are here competing again with all the great players from all around the world. It’s such a huge event.”

The 21-year-old Yu-sang joins her sister as a senior at Arizona and is 27th in the WAGR. They both played for the Wildcats in an event that ended late Sunday evening and caught the first flight from Phoenix early Monday morning, before getting in some practice later that day at Champions Retreat.

Attention will also be focused on a third player from Chinese Taipei, An Ho-yu, the highest rated player from the Asia-Pacific region in fifth spot in the WAGR.

Other Asia-Pacific countries that are represented are Australia (Grace Kim), China (Liu Siyun and Ye Lei), Japan (Tsubasa Kajitani and Nanako Ueno), Malaysia (Alyaa Abdulghani), New Zealand (Amelia Garvey) and Thailand (Jaravee Boonchant and Pimnipa Panthong).

For Liu Siyun, 56th in the WAGR, it’s been an emotional period. Liu, nicknamed ‘Swing’, had not been able to see her family for more than 14 months because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Her father, Weiqing, flew to the United States from China last week and will caddie for his daughter in the coming days.

“I can’t even express how grateful I am for this opportunity on so many different levels,” said Liu, a graduate student at Wake Forest University.

“I grew up in China and my family has this tradition of staying up all night to watch the Masters. Even my mom, who doesn’t play golf at all. So, it’s just super cool for me to have this opportunity to play at two amazing courses and actually set my feet on Augusta National and just experience it myself.”