Lottie Woad has taken the ISPS Handa Women’s Scottish Open title by three to join a small group of players who have won on their professional debut.
Remarkably, it’s only a little over two years since Rose Zhang matched Beverly Hanson’s 1951 achievement of winning an LPGA Tour event in her first event since turning pro, and now Woad has joined the list after an accomplished performance at Dundonald Links.
Woad carded rounds of 67, 65, 67 and 68 to etch her name into the history books less than two weeks after turning pro.
She headed to the final round with a two-shot advantage over Sei Young Kim and Nanna Koerstz Madsen on 17-under, and she got off to a solid start.
After settling any nerves with par at the first, she soon hit her stride with successive birdies on the second and third.
However, Kim had a more difficult start, with a bogey on the first and further slip-ups on the fifth and sixth after her only birdie on the front nine at the third.
Meanwhile, Madsen remained in touch with birdies at the first and fourth, while Hyo Joo Kim also hauled herself into contention, going four under after her first seven holes.
If that wasn’t enough pressure on Woad, a certain Nelly Korda was also three shots back after a run of four successive birdies between the third and the sixth.
For Korda, though, that was as good as it got as she then made five bogeys and just two more birdies in the remainder of her round, meaning the World No.1’s first win this season remains out of reach.
Nelly Korda applied early pressure on Woad before fading as her round progressed
(Image credit: Getty Images)
With all that going on further down the leaderboard, Woad remained calm with successive pars between the fourth and 12th.
Despite that assured performance, Hyo Joo Kim kept the pressure on, and tied Woad at the top of the leaderboard with her sixth birdie of the day at the 11th.
At that point, it could have gone either way, but Woad remained unflappable with a birdie at the 13th to move one clear of Kim on 20 under.
Kim then birdied the 14th, with Woad following suit minutes later, but by that time, Kim had slipped up with a bogey at the 15th and the English star’s lead was back to two.
Hyo Joo Kim drew level with Woad on the back nine before missing out by three
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