How St Andrews contender tamed Old Course with help of Tiger Woods video game

Her opening effort – a four-under-par 68 – on the Old Course was illuminated, after all, by a birdie on the Road Hole and, boy, did the world No 6 look pleased about her 3 there as she reflected on it afterwards. “My favourite birdie of the year,” said Yin, who is widely known in the game as Ronni. “I was in the left rough and the pin was just over probably 15 yards over the hill. I hit a really smart shot there. Just tried to hit a lower 7-iron and land it in front of the green and let it roll. It was perfect,” she added of it ending up five feet from the hole.

Yin, who won the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship last year, also birdied the 18h and, after starting at the tenth, she got it to six under at one point before dropping shots at both the sixth and eighth. Even so, it was still a remarkable effort in the toughest of the conditions and also on the strength of her having played little or no links golf coming into this week. “Yeah, amazing,” said Yin of her morning’s work. “I play this course in a Tiger Woods’ video game a lot, but it’s quite different playing it in person. I enjoyed it.”

Embracing the challenge helped. “I had a really good attitude out there,” admitted Yin, who had twice been world No 1 for just one week. “That is the key out there this week. If you have a bad attitude, the result is not going to go well. So you might as well have a good attitude and I had a lot of fun out there.”

As did one of the afternoon’s marquee groups as Charley Hull, last year’s runner-up, edged ahead of Yin with a 67 while world No 1 Nelly Korda and defending champion Lilia Vu shot 68 and 69 respectively as the later rounds took more than six rounds to complete.

“I had loads of fun,” said Hull after capping her display by almost holing out for an eagle-2 at the 18th but then knocking in a testing six-footer down the slope. “I thought four under was an unbelievable score before I went out as I thought play was going to be called, but the last three holes were a bit easier for us. It took ages, but you’ve just got to be patient.”

Korda picked up three birdies in the last five holes, including one at the 17th, where she was caught between clubs but picked the right one as a “controlled 5-iron” was dispatched to seven feet.

One of the best rounds of the day was English amateur Lottie Woad’s level-par 72. She won the Augusta National Women’s Amateur in April and mixed three birdies with three bogeys in this eye-catching effort at another of the game’s iconic venues.

“Yeah, it's definitely been a special year for me,” said Woad, who has just been awarded the Mark H. McCormack Medal as the leading woman in this year’s World Amateur Golf Ranking. “I've been getting some good invites to these majors and then have the Curtis Cup (under Catriona Matthew’s captaincy at Sunningdale) next week. Just try and enjoy it.”