Anne Van Dam produced a solid result at last week’s Amundi Evian Championship with rounds of 66-70-74-72 at Evian Resort Golf Club.
The Dutch star made her sixth cut of the year in the fourth major and ended the week in a tie for 44th place.
Van Dam has had a couple of top-30 finishes and top-40 finishes this year on the Ladies European Tour (LET) but has been struggling with certain aspects of her game.
But ahead of this week’s Dutch Ladies Open, which is taking place at Hilversumsche Golf Club from 19-21 July, the 28-year-old was pleased to have seen good signs of improvement.
“Playing well at Evian is always very satisfying because it’s such a hard course, especially getting off to a good start was super nice heading into the weekend,” she said. “It definitely showed some good signs in my game for sure.
“It always helps playing with friends [Stephanie Kyriacou] especially when they’re playing well. It makes it very relaxed, and it didn’t really feel like playing a Major the first two days. It was very nice.
“I had been working a lot on start direction, a bit of ball flight change – especially on a course like Evian where you have to be very accurate and precise.
“I saw some very good shots come out in the tournament which was nice. It’s something to build on over the next couple of weeks. I have two weeks off after this, it will be good to work on those.”
Van Dam has been looking forward to this spell of summer golf which includes two majors, the Olympic Games, the Scottish Open and the Dutch Ladies Open.
Having played all four days of last week, it was nice for the five-time LET winner to take a couple of days at the start of this week to recoup and reset.
“It was nice to just take two days off,” she explained. “A major week is always so intense. You really feel all the emotions come down on a Monday.
“It’s always hard to go straight back into the next thing, but it’s nice to start here on Friday and we can focus on this week now. It’s a new week, new start.
“It’s a great run, the week after the Olympics is the Scottish and AIG Women’s Open, it’s my highlight of the year these couple of months and getting ready for this.
“Now that it’s finally here, it’s very exciting you can just go out and play and enjoy it. That’s what I’m trying to do is work hard, enjoy the venues and enjoy the greens and have great weeks.”
Van Dam will be teeing it up in the first round at 3.10 pm (local time) from the 10th tee alongside France’s Perrine Delacour and Dutch amateur Rosanne Boere.
Hilversumsche provides a tree-lined challenge this week, and having had plenty of rainfall in recent months the course is playing slightly differently than in 2023.
However, the Solheim Cup winner believes if the course is wetter and softer, you can be more aggressive off the tee.
She added: “I’m curious to see how it plays the next couple of days, it’s going to play a lot softer I can imagine than previous years.
“I will get a look around the golf course, see how it’s playing. If it’s wet, I feel you can be a lot more aggressive, hit a lot more longer clubs from the tee.”
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