Teenager Ong excited by US Women's Open challenge

"I know her pretty well so I've been hassling and messaging her a lot. When do I get there, what do I do for practice rounds... I've just been asking all sorts of questions," said Ong.

"I'm probably doing her head in but she's been helping me a lot because I've obviously never played an event as big as this. It's nice knowing there's someone there that I'll know so I don't feel completely on my own."

Ong has been coached by Roly Hitchcock for the past eight years after they were introduced via the England Golf Pathway programme.

She said: "Usually, whenever I play in an event in college or a European event, you know most of the field. And this time it's going to be like all my idols playing so it's going to be pretty surreal. But yeah, I'm really looking forward to it."

The qualifying competition at New Albany Country Club proved to be a very long day with 36 holes of golf and then a lengthy wait to see if her final score was good enough to secure her place in the main event.

"I was one of the first people out. I was actually off at 7.30 in the morning so I knew I just had to lay out a good score and then I'd be sitting in the clubhouse waiting for other people to finish," Ong said.

"I saw my position after round one was pretty good and then the weather just got really, really bad in the afternoon and I was trying to check the leaderboard.

"I was nine holes through my round and some people hadn't even started - I didn't really know what I had to do so I was just trying to stick to my process, trying to keep hitting good shots and I managed to get it in the clubhouse at a decent number.

"I was pretty nervous for a couple hours because I was just sitting hoping no-one would catch me. And luckily no-one did."

Ong will have the support on course of her father, though her mum will be staying at home as her two sisters are preparing for school exams.

But there are still important decisions to be made, like who will caddy for her at Riviera, and other logistical issues to settle.

"We're in the middle of our college season, so I'm trying to wrap my head around it [the US Open] and also prepare for other tournaments at the same time," she said.

"You have to ground yourself because you can't keep thinking about all these things when you've got another tournament, which you've got to play for your team."

At the Open, however, she will be going solo and is relishing the challenge ahead.

She added: "This time I'm doing it just for me and just for the experience. There's not really any pressure because I haven't really got any massive expectation for myself.

"I'm just trying to have a good time and if I play great, then good and if I don't, then I'll move on to the next tournament knowing I've had an amazing experience playing in a major.

"I think this is going to be super fun. I just want to take as much out of this as possible."