As Lottie Woad won Scottish Open, bigger picture came into view

Much was expected of Lottie Woad. The phenom has faced a flurry of questions about when she planned to turn pro for the past several months, and her win at the KPMG Women’s Irish Open a few weeks ago only heaped accelerant on an already blazing fire of excitement surrounding her arrival. A T3 at the Amundi Evian Championship followed her Irish Open win, and then Woad, a 21-year-old rising star, turned pro as the first LPGA player to earn her card through the LEAP program.

She arrived at this week’s ISPS HANDA Women’s Scottish Open at Dundonald Links as the talk of women’s golf. Her storied career at Florida State and her impressive win at the 2024 ANWA pointed to a bright future. Add in the recent run at the Irish and Evian, and all eyes were understandably on Lottie Woad this week in Scotland.

If she felt the pressure, you’d never know it.

Woad grabbed the 36-hole lead with a sterling seven-under 65 on Friday and fired a five-under 67 on Saturday to take a two-shot lead into Sunday. Woad showcased impressive resolve and killer instinct Sunday in Ayshire. World No. 1 Nelly Korda made an early run, but some short misses doomed her chances. Hyo Joo Kim supplied constant pressure on Woad throughout Sunday’s final jaunt around Dundonald. Woad saw her two-shot lead evaporate midway through Sunday’s round, but then the Englishwoman flashed her elite wedge play by knocking it close for a birdie at 13 to retake the lead. Another birdie at 14 followed, and Woad sealed her historic win with a final circle at the 18th to card a three-shot victory over Kim.

“I think it’s quite hard to do that, but very special to win in my first event,” Woad said after her victory. “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.

“I don’t really know how to describe it,” Woad said later of her recent stretch. Just been shooting low scores, which is always nice.”

With the win, Woad joins Rose Zhang and Beverly Hanson as the only players to win in their professional debuts.

Like Zhang was in 2022, Woad’s arrival has been greatly anticipated. But unlike Zhang, who has been splitting her time between golf and finishing her Stanford degree, Woad appears to be singularly focused on digging it out of the dirt. A humble, mild-mannered assassin whose sole interest is in playing top-level golf.

“It might have looked less stressful than maybe it was at times,” Woad said of her Scottish Open win. “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.”

Three bogeys. For comparison, Korda made five on Sunday alone. Even if the wind is down, links golf exacts a price for misplayed shots. Woad had few of those this week. In fact, in her last three events, Woad is 55 under with a scoring average of 67.4.

Find your adjective to describe Lottie Woad’s recent run and arrival on the professional stage — impressive, brilliant, sublime — and it wouldn’t do it justice.

With the win, Woad earned a $300,000 winner’s check, enough points to put her into the top 50 in the Race for the CME and enough points to vault her into the top 30 in the Rolex World Rankings. She now has past winner’s status and a two-year exemption.

All that is great for Woad, but her on-time (or ahead of schedule) arrival is the real prize for women’s golf.

As new LPGA commissioner Craig Kessler takes the reins looking to create more momentum for women’s golf, having a blossoming young star to go along with a superstar in Korda, an electric talent in World No. 2 Jeeno Thitikul, a resurgent Minjee Lee, a Hall-of-Famer in Lydia Ko and the extremely popular Charley Hull should give women’s golf what it needs to hit the launch pad in the same way the WNBA has in recent years.

Kessler has a lot of obstacles to navigate as he guides the LPGA into this next era. He has to get the broadcast figured out. The final two hours of Woad’s Scottish Open win were put on CNBC, which is an upgrade from the app-only live coverage treatment the rest of the tournament got. Star power provides juice, and that opens doors. The LPGA has it, but more is always welcome.

Woad can hopefully help deliver on that part of her promise.

She’ll arrive at next week’s AIG Women’s Open at Royal Porthcawl as the pre-tournament headliner and perhaps the tournament favorite.

As I wrote yesterday, women’s golf has needed an injection of buzz. With Korda still searching for her first win of the season, there has been a dip in juice this season outside of the U.S. Women’s Open at Erin Hills.

Woad’s historic win and emergence on the pro scene will change that heading into the year’s final major,

That’s the power of stars, and women’s golf’s latest one just arrived in Scotland.