It’s been all about Lottie Woad the last few weeks, and rightfully so. On Sunday, the 21-year-old from England claimed her first win as a professional at the 2025 ISPS HANDA Women’s Scottish Open.
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Welcome back to Golf Thursday, everyone.
What a whirlwind month it’s been for Lottie Woad. On July 6, as an amateur, she ran away with the 2025 KPMG Women’s Irish Open title, winning the tournament by six strokes. It was Woad’s first win on the Ladies European Tour, and it marked the first time a non-professional has won on the LET since 2022.
A week later, Woad continued her run in the professional sphere. At the 2025 Amundi Evian Championship, she finished with a tournament total of 13-under and tied for third place. With her made cut and top 10 finish, Woad secured all 20 points in the LPGA Elite Amateur Pathway, giving her the option for LPGA membership.
“[I’m] just going to use next week at home with family and coaches to kind of discuss the options and then I’ll decide after that,” Woad said after the Amundi Evian Championship when asked about her decision to turn professional.
Just two days after that press conference and the conclusion of the Evian, Woad indeed went professional and accepted her LPGA membership, effective immediately. The 21-year-old from Farnham, England consciously made this decision going into a stretch of links golf where she might feel most at home.
Woad was already fitting into the professional scene with those two fantastic finishes, but her win at the ISPS HANDA Women’s Scottish Open confirmed that comfort. Watching her final round Sunday was witnessing a masterclass. She might as well be a veteran.
Woad soared into the final round two shots ahead of Nanna Koerstz Madsen and Sei Young Kim, shooting 67, 65 and 67 the first three rounds. Sitting atop the leaderboard at 17-under put her in great position to continue to play the clean golf she had been thus far. And her Sunday final round was nothing short of consistent.
Woad went out the front nine in 34 (-2). Her back-to-back birdies on Nos. 2 and 3 set her up for her back nine finish. All she needed to do was play the same game she’d been playing all week: clean, minimal-bogey golf with a few birdies here and there. Woad went on to birdie Nos. 13, 14 and 18 with only one bogey in between (No. 16). She finished the day 4-under-par, boosting her tournament score to 21-under-par.
What Woad is doing on the LPGA Tour and LET scenes is astounding. We knew she was a lights-out amateur player, holding the World Amateur No. 1 ranking for around a year and making strides both at the 2024 Augusta National Women’s Amateur and as a Florida State Seminole. It’s no surprise that Woad has gotten off to an unreal start in her professional career.
We’ve seen a bit of this story before with Rose Zhang who also won in her professional debut on the LPGA Tour (2023 Mizuho Americas Open at Liberty National). Zhang shocked the golf world with her energy and raw talent, much akin to how Woad is making an impression two years later. Nelly Korda, in a press conference on July 29 at the AIG Women’s Open, commended Woad’s maturity and her composure “in the heat of the moment.” From the world No. 1, I think those are pretty good props.
Woad will battle the field, including defending champion Lydia Ko, at this week’s AIG Women’s Open from July 31 to August 3 at Royal Porthcawl in Wales. We’ll see how that shakes out next week, golf fans.
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Five at The IX: Snippets from Lottie Woad’s first post-win LPGA Tour press conference
July 27, 2025; ISPS HANDA Women’s Scottish Open post-tournament press conference; Dundonald Links; Ayrshire, Scotland
THE MODERATOR: We welcome the winner of the ISPS Handa Women’s Scottish Open, Lottie Woad.
To win in your first start on the LPGA Tour, your first professional start, I should say — talk about your first professional start, kind of put into words what that means to you.
LOTTIE WOAD: Yeah, I think it’s quite hard to do that, but very special to win in my first event. You know, everyone was chasing me today, and managed to maintain the lead and played really nicely down the stretch and hit a lot of good shots, which is nice.
Q. This week you were never under any real pressure, and you never put yourself in stressful situations. How impressive was that?
LOTTIE WOAD: Yeah, I mean, it might have looked less stressful than maybe it was at times, but I think I only had like three bogeys, which, I mean, the wind wasn’t too bad the first due days. But on links golf, it’s definitely about bogey avoidance. That was probably the key to winning.
Q. The amateur-to-pro transition can be quite difficult. It’s early days yet, but any advice for people like Hannah, who had her first pro event this week, as well, Curtis Cup, how you approach it, and what your mindset is in this whole thing?
LOTTIE WOAD: I think just getting experience is great. Played a lot of majors and pro events before this. So it wasn’t all new, really. So I think just the more experiences you give yourself, the better.
Q. Many players say they win with their B Game. Do you feel like you’re playing your best golf, and if not, when do you think you were?
LOTTIE WOAD: I don’t think for all four rounds, but I mean, definitely feels pretty good. I think it’s hard to label what your A and B game is, but the first day was probably where I played the worst but still scored pretty good. And honestly, yesterday, I probably played the best and didn’t score the best either. So it just kind of depends, really.
Q. What were your emotions, and what were you feeling like inside when you were on 18?
LOTTIE WOAD: I mean, I felt pretty good going down 18 because I knew I had a two-shot lead and just hit an 80-yard lay-up and an 80-yard shot. So I felt pretty confident coming down there. It was always nice to finish with a birdie. So just had like a two-footer, which is a nice length, so yeah, happy.
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