Rising English star Lottie Woad started her professional career in spectacular fashion with a three-shot victory at the ISPS HANDA Women’s Scottish Open at Dundonald Links.
The Surrey-based player made her professional debut this week after securing her LPGA Tour card following a third-placed finish at the Amundi Evian Championship.
Woad went into the final day with a two-shot lead having been top of the leaderboard at the 36-hole and 54-hole marks.
The 21-year-old from Farnham started with back-to-back birdies on the second and third holes before nine pars on the trot, but then rolled in birdies on 13 and 14. A third bogey of the week happened on 16 for the former world number one amateur, but she finished in style with a birdie on 18 to win with score of 21-under-par, three shots ahead of Korea’s Hyo Joo Kim.
Woad said: “I definitely wasn’t expecting to win my first event as a pro, but I knew I was playing well, and I was hoping to contend. Everyone was chasing me today, and I managed to maintain the lead and played really nicely down the stretch and hit a lot of good shots.
“There weren’t that many scoreboards out there, so I didn’t know anyone had got level, but I knew it was probably quite tight because I was only a couple under par at the turn. When I had the two birdies early on the back nine, I knew that I might have a lead.”
Woad becomes the first player to win on their professional debut on the LET since Singapore’s Shannon Tan at the 2024 Magical Kenya Ladies Open and the first on the LPGA Tour since Rose Zhang at the 2023 Mizuho Americas Open.
Due to her amateur status, Woad has missed out on banking almost half-a-million pounds in prize money this month, after ‘winning’ £58,000 at the Women’s Irish Open and $547,000 after finishing tied third at the Amundi Evian Championship, but is now finally able to collect her winner’s cheque of $300,000.