Women’s Scottish Open: Ginnie Ding makes her mark as Hong Kong’s golfers spread their wings
- Amateur plays on into the weekend at US$2 million Freed Group Women’s Scottish Open in her first taste of life at the top of the game
- Ding is getting a welcome test in Scotland as she targets the LPGA’s qualifying tournament in California
The boast from this week’s US$2 million Freed Group Women’s Scottish Open had been that the field includes the holders of every major title, but the windswept Dundonald Links pays little mind to reputation, or to form.
Step out with your clubs on Scotland’s wild and woolly west coast and you’re entering a level playing field, no matter whether you’re Chevron winner Lilia Vu, KPMG Women’s PGA champion Yin Ruoning, US Women’s Open winner Allisen Corpuz, Amundi Evian champion Celine Boutier, or Ashleigh Buhai, the reigning champ at next week’s AIG Women’s Open.
This is where Hong Kong’s Tiffany Chan Tsz-ching and Ginnie Ding Wai-chung have come into play. They were afforded surprise entry thanks to the tournament’s sponsor, Hong Kong-based tech company Freed Group, and a word in its ear from the Hong Kong Golf Association.
On opening day, the pair battened down and emerged with credit, at four and three over par respectively – surrounded on the leader board by multiple LPGA and LET winners who were reduced to mere mortals by the conditions.
“I won’t lie,” Ding, 20, said. “I was fighting for my life most of the time.”
