Anne Van Dam from the Netherlands hopes to build on her first Ladies European Tour success at the 2016 Xiamen International Ladies Open when she returns to China for the World Ladies Championship at Mission Hills Resort Haikou next week.
The 21-year-old from Arnhem will make her debut in the event and start her 2017 campaign at the prestigious venue, which hosted the WLC from 2012-2015 before it was played at Mission Hills Resort Dongguan in 2016.
“I’ve heard some really good things about the tournament so I can’t wait to play. I think China will always be special for me because it’s where I won my first LET tournament, so it’s fun to come back although I haven’t been to this course yet. I can’t wait to tee up again and start competing,” said Anne, who previously won as a professional at the 2015 HLR Golf Academy Open on the LET Access Series.
After finishing 17th on the 2016 LET Order of Merit in her third year on tour, Anne has been working with a new coach to take her performance to the next level.
“Towards the end of 2016 I started working with a new coach, David Dickmeis from Denmark, and we did a practice camp in the States. The last two weeks in Portugal, so I’ve been practising a lot and spending time in the gym,” she explained.
“I’ve been working hard with my coach and we made some little changes. Golf is a weird game and sometimes when you expect to play well, you don’t and the other way around. I know I’ve put the work in but a lot of things come with it. When you work hard and have trust in yourself and have fun, the results will come.
“We worked a lot on my short game and it has been going pretty well and I’m seeing some nice progress. In my swing, we’ve been working on the long term as I had some issues with my back at the beginning of the year and I had to withdraw from Morocco.
“For the last part of the year it came back a little bit so we looked at my swing and how I turn and stuff like that. We’re not making any changes to hit the ball longer or look nicer, it’s just to protect my body and how I turn. It’s hard to change something, especially if you’re playing well, but it needed to be done and I’m still quite young.
“We looked at how to get a bit more accurate, especially on the bad days, how to minimise the mistakes, which is what golf is all about. We are looking into that as well.”
The sixth edition of the World Ladies Championship will take place from March 17-19 and is tri-sanctioned by the LET, Korean LPGA and China LPGA tours.
