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.”

She was doing fine after day two when, with that wind having vanished, she made the cut with a two-under 70 that left her one over on 135. It was a highly impressive effort from an amateur playing among the game’s best for the first time.

“I feel like things were just going to plan,” Ding said. “I was getting things where I wanted to get them. I was able to come back and save myself with some good putting. Pretty stable all round – it definitely takes a lot of pressure off my shoulders.

“Now there’s nothing to lose at all. I kind of want to play more aggressively, depending on the conditions.”

There was no such luck for Chan, who edged to four under, one off the cut line, with four holes to play, before two bogeys ended her tournament early as she signed for a six-over 150.

While Chan, an LPGA player for the past six seasons, is used to this kind of thing, Ding is breathing rarefied air. She is still studying at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, while forging a career on the ultra-competitive US college circuit.

Coming off a season that featured a breakthrough win at the Orlando International Amateur and a second at the FAU Paradise Invitational, Ding has eyes on the LPGA’s qualifying tournament this month in California, and this trip to Scotland has been a test, of sorts. She has looked at home, fighting hard on these unfamiliar links, with devilishly deep bunkers and their burns all waiting to do a player damage.

“It’s tough to feel like you fit in, as an amateur, but I got more used to it,” Ding said. “My playing partners were great. They talked to me like I was a professional and they really helped make me feel like I belong out there. My scores have helped me see that I’m not way off where these other players are.”

It speaks volumes about the rude health of the game in Hong Kong that these two are in Scotland, while Taichi Kho and Matthew Cheung have been playing in the Asian Tour’s Indonesia Open. The word is that Freed Group is looking to invest further in the game locally, given its rise to Tier A status at Hong Kong Sports Institute.

On the sidelines at Dundonald Links, also, has been the 12-year-old Sabrina Wong, recent winner of the Champion of Champions World Championship Girls U12 title, and part of the city’s bright future.

Chan, 29, was a barrier-breaker as Hong Kong’s first LPGA player after being among its first to score a US college scholarship.

She is relishing her return to represent her city at next month’s Asian Games, when she will play elder stateswoman alongside 15-year-olds Arianna Lau and Sophie Han.

Hong Kong’s Kho shows ‘something I didn’t know I had’ to make golf history

“Eventually, I hope to help more youngsters to do what I’m doing,” Chan said. “I don’t want to be alone out here. I haven’t won yet, but with the experience I have, I think I can help players like Ginnie, and Arianna and Sophie. I was like them and my only regret is at their age I didn’t really have direction.

“I played with Ginnie last year in Indonesia [at the Simone Asia Pacific Cup] and we talked a lot. I think Ginnie has really good potential to be the next LPGA player, and after her I hope there’s many more.”

Japan’s Hinako Shibuno led for the second day running and entered the weekend on as 12-under 132, two shots clear of Sweden’s Maja Stark.