Van Dam-Yin’s friendship will be put to a stern test
dubai — Dutchwoman Anne van Dam and American Angel Yin’s new found friendship will be put to the test when they head out for what should be a tense final 18 holes of the Omega Dubai Ladies Classic on Saturday morning.
The duo were paired along with American Brittany Lincicome over the first two days and revelled in each other’s company and had fun along the way.
It also helped Van Dam put in a fine performance to take the lead at the halfway mark after which Yin conducted an impromptu interview on the Dutchwoman.
And after coming up with contrasting rounds on Friday, the pair will reunite again and stroll out onto the first tee of the Majlis Course of the Emirates Golf Club, as the lead pack.
And it remains to be seen if there will be fun and giggles with a title at stake.
Nonetheless, for now though, both were looking forward to the date on Saturday. “Yeah, definitely,” said van Dam, on her being eager to link-up with Yin again.
“I think she likes me so much. She needed a low one today (Friday), and I think it’s really impressive. It’s quite windy out there. I don’t know what she had, 7-under, 8-under, something like that, so it’s pretty good. It should be fun to play again with her tomorrow (Saturday) and should be a great battle, definitely,” she added.
Yin, who is always ready for a laugh, too said the same.
“Yes, you told me yesterday (Thursday) that I had to work for it when I was interviewing Anne, so today, I was like, today, I’ve got to play with her,” said Yin.
The 19-year-old Yin conjured an amazing turnaround on the day after an average third round by shooting 65, the lowest round on Friday.
The seven-under saw her climb from tied 25th to tied second with 10-under.
“Yeah, I’m really happy about my round today. I made a bogey there on six. But, overall, I stroked it pretty well and made a few putts,” she said.
Yin also cracked four birdies on the trot on the first nine and she put it down to her iron shots.
“Yeah, that was good. I hit my iron shots really good today (Friday). Those four birdies, I think three of them were a foot away from the hole, so it was a tap-in,” Yin said.
Meanwhile, van Dam said that she would take the two-under considering how the day panned out.
“It was a bit up and down. There were quite some good things also. On some little shots I struggled a little bit, but I would say overall, 2-under is fine,” said van Dam.
“I got off to a really nice start. I birdied 2 and 3 to go 2-under, and after that I hit a couple of decent shots. My tee shots were not so good on the front nine but my iron game was pretty good,” she added.
james@khaleejtimes.com