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Yahoo
2 days ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Lottie Woad: Golf's emerging superstar who used to practice in the snow
Farnham Golf Club is a 6,613-yard course in the English countryside — yet they are running out of room. Last year, during a refurbishment of the clubhouse of the 18-hole venue founded in 1896, they created a place for meetings and called it the 'Champions Room'. Along with an Honours Board, there are two walls dedicated to Lottie Woad, a club member since 2012 and someone who, in the past month, has become the talk of golf. 'We're going to need a bigger room with more walls,' Ben Beagley, Farnham's general manager, tells The Athletic. 'We're already wondering if we should rename the room after Lottie in honour of her growing number of wins.' At the weekend, 21-year-old Woad won the Scottish Open at Dundonald Links by three shots — in what was her professional debut on the LPGA Tour. It was the first time since 2018 a women's golfer had won their inaugural LPGA event after turning pro and only the third time it has happened. 'If you don't know who Lottie is, you don't follow golf,' Amy Bond, who coached Woad on the golf team at Florida State University in the U.S. after she enrolled in 2022, tells The Athletic. Woad's win in Scotland followed an Irish Open victory at the start of this month and a third-place finish a week later at the Evian Championship, one of the women's game's five majors. Across the two events, she had to forego winnings of around half a million pounds ($660,000) as she was still an amateur. Those finishes did however help her qualify for an LPGA tour card — which everyone back in her hometown of Farnham, a short drive southwest of London, always knew was coming. 'Anyone who has known Lottie in recent years has known she is destined to do great things,' Beagley adds. 'The only thing that may have surprised people is the speed at which she has gone about it.' This week, at the Women's Open in Royal Porthcawl, Wales, the former amateur world No 1 will try to replicate her golden form of recent weeks as she tees off alongside stars such as reigning champion Lydia Ko and 2023 winner Lilia Vu. It will be Woad's first major since turning pro. Winning would mean taking home $1,425,000 (just over a million pounds) and becoming the 42nd golfer to win the championship in its 49-year history. One of the people who knows what it takes to win is Woad's compatriot Karen Stupples, who won The Open in 2004. 'Every time Lottie tees up, she wants to win,' says Stupples, who also attended Florida State. 'She's not going out there thinking that she's not going to win. And sure, there's a lot of money on offer, but she's never a player to think about that. She sets goals for herself and she's very matter-of-fact about how she wants to achieve them.' Stupples was an assistant captain of Great Britain and Ireland's Curtis Cup-winning team last year as Woad starred in their first defeat of the United States in that biannual Ryder Cup-style team event for eight years. The biggest takeaway from that weekend for Stupples, who met Woad there for the first time and has stayed in touch since, was how 'incredibly unselfish' she is. 'She was the amateur world No 1 but she didn't act like it,' Stupples says. 'There was a shyness to her and her abilities, but she was fully aware of what being a world No 1 entailed and the responsibility she had within the team.' Asked by the Florida State sports media department to name the most famous person whose number she had saved in her phone, Woad answered that it's Stupples, who is one of her mentors. 'My name will be very quickly supplanted,' Stupples laughs. 'She's insanely well-rounded. She knows exactly what she has to do. She has a plan for everything. There's no real advice that I could possibly give her that would help. I mean, she knows that I support her 100 per cent and I'm always going to be there if she needs somebody. But she's got a great team around her of people that have supported her throughout her career.' A big part of that team is Luke Bone, who began as Woad's swing coach at Farnham's junior academy when she was seven. He will be with her again this weekend, just as he was when she became the first European to win the Augusta National Women's Amateur title in 2024. There was no green jacket like the male pros receive when they win The Masters at that U.S. course but the world was made aware of her talent. A year ago, as an amateur, she finished tied for 10th in The Open at St Andrews in Scotland. But it might have been different had Woad, who has the same management team as her golfing idol, fellow Brit Justin Rose, not walked away from football as a teenager. A Leeds United fan, she was at Southampton's centre of excellence but shifted her focus to golf. By winning in Scotland, she collected a prize of $300,000 on the same day England's women beat Spain to retain the European Championship. Woad listened to Sunday evening's match on the radio as she made the seven-hour road journey from Dundonald, near Glasgow, to south Wales with parents Rachel and Nick, keen to get a Royal Porthcawl practice round in on the Monday morning. Once she passes her driving test, Woad intends to buy herself a car using golf winnings which after this week will surely grow. She plans to borrow coach Bond's car to take her test when she is back in Florida in a couple of weeks, where she will remain for the next year, combining tournaments with her sports management degree studies. It is not just the car Woad will return for. 'I made the mistake of saying, 'The ice cream is on me if you win',' Bond laughs, with Woad now having triumphed at two tournaments in less than a month. She was recruited to Florida State during the pandemic, so the first time Bond watched her play live was at the British Girls Amateur Championship in 2022 — a week before Woad moved to the campus in the city of Tallahassee. 'The first hole I watched her play, she made birdie, and I thought to myself: 'Wow, this is gonna be a very good relationship'. And then she won that week,' Bond says. 'What sticks out most to me with Lottie is her work ethic and love of the game. She loves the process and to practice. That to me is something you don't see very often these days, somebody that truly loves every bit of the process of playing golf.' Beagley recalls a time when the course at Farnham was closed because of snow but Woad turned up anyway to hit balls on the driving range and record every shot in a notebook, as she has done since her early teens. It is not uncommon for Farnham members to see her spend eight or more hours there, fine-tuning her game. 'She's always been dedicated and has this ability to practice for hours,' Beagley says. 'She's extremely committed and has been for a long time.' Bond recalls Woad looking 'eerily comfortable' when battling it out at the Evian, where she missed out on a play-off for the title by one shot. Woad's unfazed calmness stems not just from her golfing ability but also the meticulous nature Stupples mentions. 'She always has a plan,' Bond says. 'She would call or text me every Sunday night and ask about the plan for the week, so she could set her schedule around our schedule and what we were doing. As much as we want all of our players to do that and come up with their own practice plan, she's the only one that's ever truly followed through with it by having a plan of what she wanted to accomplish every single week.' Woad, who was given her first set of clubs aged three, is described by those who know her as shy and humble but almost everyone will tell you she has a great sense of humour once you get to know her. 'She's still a little embarrassed by how well she's playing and that people appreciate her,' Bond says. 'I've sat at dinners with her where little girls have come up and recognised her and asked for a photo. Her first instinct is to put her head down and for her face to turn red, but then she gets up and does it. I love that she's still humble enough to be embarrassed by people recognising her.' Bond's advice when she turned pro was to 'stay Lottie Woad'. 'She's pretty special and pretty phenomenal,' adds Bond, who will be watching every shot at The Open on television from her home in Florida. 'If you don't follow her, you need to, because she's going to do some special things.' By all accounts, she already has. This article originally appeared in The Athletic. Southampton, Leeds United, Golf, Global Sports, Women's Golf 2025 The Athletic Media Company
New York Times
2 days ago
- Sport
- New York Times
Lottie Woad: Golf's emerging superstar who used to practice in the snow
Farnham Golf Club is a 6,613-yard course in the English countryside — yet they are running out of room. Last year, during a refurbishment of the clubhouse of the 18-hole venue founded in 1896, they created a place for meetings and called it the 'Champions Room'. Along with an Honours Board, there are two walls dedicated to Lottie Woad, a club member since 2012 and someone who, in the past month, has become the talk of golf. Advertisement 'We're going to need a bigger room with more walls,' Ben Beagley, Farnham's general manager, tells The Athletic. 'We're already wondering if we should rename the room after Lottie in honour of her growing number of wins.' At the weekend, 21-year-old Woad won the Scottish Open at Dundonald Links by three shots — in what was her professional debut on the LPGA Tour. It was the first time since 2018 a women's golfer had won their inaugural LPGA event after turning pro and only the third time it has happened. 'If you don't know who Lottie is, you don't follow golf,' Amy Bond, who coached Woad on the golf team at Florida State University in the U.S. after she enrolled in 2022, tells The Athletic. Woad's win in Scotland followed an Irish Open victory at the start of this month and a third-place finish a week later at the Evian Championship, one of the women's game's five majors. Across the two events, she had to forego winnings of around half a million pounds ($660,000) as she was still an amateur. Those finishes did however help her qualify for an LPGA tour card — which everyone back in her hometown of Farnham, a short drive southwest of London, always knew was coming. 'Anyone who has known Lottie in recent years has known she is destined to do great things,' Beagley adds. 'The only thing that may have surprised people is the speed at which she has gone about it.' This week, at the Women's Open in Royal Porthcawl, Wales, the former amateur world No 1 will try to replicate her golden form of recent weeks as she tees off alongside stars such as reigning champion Lydia Ko and 2023 winner Lilia Vu. It will be Woad's first major since turning pro. Winning would mean taking home $1,425,000 (just over a million pounds) and becoming the 42nd golfer to win the championship in its 49-year history. A 'majestic' approach shot on the 17th by Lottie Woad 🙌 — Sky Sports Golf (@SkySportsGolf) July 27, 2025 One of the people who knows what it takes to win is Woad's compatriot Karen Stupples, who won The Open in 2004. 'Every time Lottie tees up, she wants to win,' says Stupples, who also attended Florida State. 'She's not going out there thinking that she's not going to win. And sure, there's a lot of money on offer, but she's never a player to think about that. She sets goals for herself and she's very matter-of-fact about how she wants to achieve them.' Advertisement Stupples was an assistant captain of Great Britain and Ireland's Curtis Cup-winning team last year as Woad starred in their first defeat of the United States in that biannual Ryder Cup-style team event for eight years. The biggest takeaway from that weekend for Stupples, who met Woad there for the first time and has stayed in touch since, was how 'incredibly unselfish' she is. 'She was the amateur world No 1 but she didn't act like it,' Stupples says. 'There was a shyness to her and her abilities, but she was fully aware of what being a world No 1 entailed and the responsibility she had within the team.' Asked by the Florida State sports media department to name the most famous person whose number she had saved in her phone, Woad answered that it's Stupples, who is one of her mentors. 'My name will be very quickly supplanted,' Stupples laughs. 'She's insanely well-rounded. She knows exactly what she has to do. She has a plan for everything. There's no real advice that I could possibly give her that would help. I mean, she knows that I support her 100 per cent and I'm always going to be there if she needs somebody. But she's got a great team around her of people that have supported her throughout her career.' A big part of that team is Luke Bone, who began as Woad's swing coach at Farnham's junior academy when she was seven. He will be with her again this weekend, just as he was when she became the first European to win the Augusta National Women's Amateur title in 2024. There was no green jacket like the male pros receive when they win The Masters at that U.S. course but the world was made aware of her talent. A year ago, as an amateur, she finished tied for 10th in The Open at St Andrews in Scotland. But it might have been different had Woad, who has the same management team as her golfing idol, fellow Brit Justin Rose, not walked away from football as a teenager. A Leeds United fan, she was at Southampton's centre of excellence but shifted her focus to golf. By winning in Scotland, she collected a prize of $300,000 on the same day England's women beat Spain to retain the European Championship. Woad listened to Sunday evening's match on the radio as she made the seven-hour road journey from Dundonald, near Glasgow, to south Wales with parents Rachel and Nick, keen to get a Royal Porthcawl practice round in on the Monday morning. Once she passes her driving test, Woad intends to buy herself a car using golf winnings which after this week will surely grow. Advertisement She plans to borrow coach Bond's car to take her test when she is back in Florida in a couple of weeks, where she will remain for the next year, combining tournaments with her sports management degree studies. It is not just the car Woad will return for. 'I made the mistake of saying, 'The ice cream is on me if you win',' Bond laughs, with Woad now having triumphed at two tournaments in less than a month. She was recruited to Florida State during the pandemic, so the first time Bond watched her play live was at the British Girls Amateur Championship in 2022 — a week before Woad moved to the campus in the city of Tallahassee. 'The first hole I watched her play, she made birdie, and I thought to myself: 'Wow, this is gonna be a very good relationship'. And then she won that week,' Bond says. 'What sticks out most to me with Lottie is her work ethic and love of the game. She loves the process and to practice. That to me is something you don't see very often these days, somebody that truly loves every bit of the process of playing golf.' Beagley recalls a time when the course at Farnham was closed because of snow but Woad turned up anyway to hit balls on the driving range and record every shot in a notebook, as she has done since her early teens. It is not uncommon for Farnham members to see her spend eight or more hours there, fine-tuning her game. 'She's always been dedicated and has this ability to practice for hours,' Beagley says. 'She's extremely committed and has been for a long time.' Bond recalls Woad looking 'eerily comfortable' when battling it out at the Evian, where she missed out on a play-off for the title by one shot. Woad's unfazed calmness stems not just from her golfing ability but also the meticulous nature Stupples mentions. 'She always has a plan,' Bond says. 'She would call or text me every Sunday night and ask about the plan for the week, so she could set her schedule around our schedule and what we were doing. As much as we want all of our players to do that and come up with their own practice plan, she's the only one that's ever truly followed through with it by having a plan of what she wanted to accomplish every single week.' Woad, who was given her first set of clubs aged three, is described by those who know her as shy and humble but almost everyone will tell you she has a great sense of humour once you get to know her. 'She's still a little embarrassed by how well she's playing and that people appreciate her,' Bond says. 'I've sat at dinners with her where little girls have come up and recognised her and asked for a photo. Her first instinct is to put her head down and for her face to turn red, but then she gets up and does it. I love that she's still humble enough to be embarrassed by people recognising her.' Advertisement Bond's advice when she turned pro was to 'stay Lottie Woad'. 'She's pretty special and pretty phenomenal,' adds Bond, who will be watching every shot at The Open on television from her home in Florida. 'If you don't follow her, you need to, because she's going to do some special things.' By all accounts, she already has. (Design: Eamonn Dalton for The Athletic; Florida State Athletics, Getty Images)
Yahoo
24-07-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Top amateur Lottie Woad will make pro debut at next week's Scottish Open
Two days after Lottie Woad nearly won an LPGA major, she turned professional. As the first graduate of the new LPGA Elite Amateur Pathway (LEAP) program, she heads to the tour with a full card in hand for the rest of 2025 and all of 2026, and will make her pro debut at next week's ISPS Handa Women's Scottish Open followed by the AIG Women's British Open at Royal Porthcawl in Wales. She also accepted LET membership following her emphatic win at the KPMG Women's Irish Open. Woad, 21, has a propensity for rising to the occasion. With victories at Augusta National, Carnoustie, Baltustrol and a top-10 finish at the British Open at St. Andrews, the shy Woad has a flair for the dramatic on the biggest, toughest stages. Known for her tireless work ethic and complete game, when it comes to Woad's success at the next level, there's one intangible that cannot be underestimated: Her undying love of the game. 'More so than probably anybody I've ever seen,' said FSU coach Amy Bond, who describes her star player's golf IQ as through the roof. Lottie Woad is in it to be the best Woad isn't playing to please her parents, Rachel and Nick. She's not in it for the money, though she does need to buy a car when she gets back to America. The external praise? Woad turns shy even when kids approach her at dinner for an autograph. She's humble that way. Sure, Woad has opened up more to the idea of media attention since she won the 2024 Augusta National Women's Amateur, but she's not looking for validation there either. Woad wants to be the best, and she loves everything about the grind to get there. 'It's so obvious that something inside of her is driven by this,' said Luke Bone, Woad's swing instructor since age 7. 'That pressure is hers and hers alone.' Woad first rose to No. 1 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking in June 2024. Her 70.42 career scoring average after three seasons at Florida State sets a school record. A five-time winner at FSU, Woad's 27 top-10 finishes sets another record, highlighting her consistent play. She won at Augusta National with birdies on three of the last four holes, and in seven LPGA major championship appearances, has finished in the top 35 on four occasions. 'I've always loved being under pressure and under the gun,' she told Golfweek, calling the experience of those majors invaluable. Lottie Woad called her shot at Evian Woad arrived back home in England at 2 a.m. Monday morning after a wild finish in France. While sitting at Evian's famed beer garden on Saturday afternoon, Woad told her team she thought she could shoot 30 on the front nine. 'By golly, did she shoot 30,' said Bond, who was desperate to keep track while on a plane headed back to the U.S. Trailing by five going into the final round, Woad needed to finish in the top 25 to secure her LPGA card, but that wasn't top of mind. She put the pedal down just as she'd done the week before on the LET, when she won by six at the Irish Open. Seven birdies in the first 13 holes put Woad at the top of the board, and there were chances down the stretch that could've won it outright or gotten her into a playoff. In the end, she finished one stroke shy of extra holes, taking a share of third with Minjee Lee but not the money. 'I did have a look after and was like, oh no,' said Woad with a laugh of Lee's $523,761 paycheck. Woad is behind half a season on CME points When it comes to CME points, Woad will have to start from scratch as a pro. A short-term goal is to amass enough in the coming months to qualify for the Asian swing and season-ending CME Group Tour Championship. 'I'd love to win an event,' said Woad, 'and the future Solheim is definitely on the radar.' Woad moved up 79 spots in the Rolex Rankings after Evian and is now 64th in the world. She's already had a conversation with European captain Anna Nordqvist. While she took Monday off – her first day without touching a golf club in three weeks – she had a putting lesson scheduled with Nick Soto on Tuesday. She'll see Bone later in the week at Farnharm Golf Club, where she's now an honorary member and Bone is head pro. He'll be back on the bag at the British Open, one last hurrah, before she gets a professional caddie in place. Woad will still be represented by Excel Sports Management as a pro, joining a list of stars that includes Lydia Ko, Rose Zhang and Michelle Wie West. As an amateur, she had NIL deals with Titleist/FootJoy, Novellus and Upper Deck. Golf seems 'effortless' to Woad, others say Next week's Scottish Open at Dundonald Links offers an ideal tune-up for Porthcawl, which Woad recently played for the first time. She won the 2021 Welsh Women's Open Stroke Play on a different course, Newport, but enjoys any good challenge in the wind. 'It seems effortless to her,' said fellow Englishwoman and Florida State alum Karen Stupples from the broadcast booth at Evian. Bond recently looked back on the first email Woad ever sent FSU, back in 2020, when she was ranked 1,151st in the world. Four years later, she'd ascend to No. 1. In 20-plus years of coaching, Bond has never seen a player drill down so much into the details as Woad. After struggling in the rough around the greens at the 2024 U.S. Women's Open at Lancaster, she went to work at FSU's short game facility, strengthening a weakness. 'I feel like I can get up and down now from anywhere,' she said. Woad announced her plans to turn professional on the same day Craig Kessler officially began his role as the 10th commissioner of the LPGA. Finding ways to elevate a rising star like Woad should be among the priorities for a tour that lacks household names in the U.S. One thing feels certain: Woad is a player with staying power. This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Top amateur Lottie Woad turns pro, set to debut next week in Scotland
NBC Sports
23-04-2025
- Sport
- NBC Sports
FSU playing 'really good golf' ahead of NCAA champ
Florida State head coach Amy Bond breaks down her team's emotions after the tragic shooting in Tallahassee, the Seminoles' form heading into the Lexington regional of the NCAA DI women's golf championship and more.
USA Today
03-04-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
College golf's No. 1 player among those to miss cut at Augusta National Women's Amateur
College golf's No. 1 player among those to miss cut at Augusta National Women's Amateur EVANS, Ga. — Florida State coach Amy Bond had never seen Mirabel Ting have a two-way miss until the first round of the Augusta National Women's Amateur. Ting, one of the best ball-strikers in the country and the hottest player in college golf, didn't have a clue what was going wrong in her opening 76. 'Yesterday I just wasn't able to accept what happened with my irons, and I keep asking myself why, why, why. Why do I have these kind of shots? And why and why. The more whys I have, the worse it gets,' she said. 'I just tried to play with what I have today, and it was exactly the same. Nothing really changed, but I just stopped asking myself why.' The relief of Ting's second-round 4-under 68 was written on her face. It wasn't enough to make the cut at Champions Retreat, but college golf's No. 1 player could leave feeling good about the effort. 'We just have to focus on what's in front of me,' said Ting, who finished at even par for the tournament to miss the cut by one. 'Hopefully, me and my team will get a ring on our fingers at the end of the season, yeah.' Thirty-two players made the cut at Champions Retreat, which fell at 1 under. Those 32 will tee it up in the final round of the Augusta National Women's Amateur on Saturday at Augusta National Golf Club. The entire field will play a practice round at the iconic venue Friday. Ting finished in the top 10 at last year's ANWA and wanted to get into the top 5 this year. Her teammate, Lottie Woad, won the title last year and goes into the final round in a share of the lead at 9 under with Oregon's Kiara Romero. 'Especially looking back at my season, I have 5 out of the 6 wins,' said Ting. 'I came into this tournament with a lot of expectations. I think that is one of the biggest mistakes I've made. I shouldn't have put so much pressure on myself and expect so much in this event.' USC's Bailey Shoemaker, who shot 66 in the final round of last year's ANWA to finish second to Woad, missed the cut this week after two consecutive rounds of 74. Rachel Heck, the former Stanford star who hadn't played in a tournament since she led the Cardinal to a national title last May, will head back to her day job in private equity and her role as a public affairs officer in the Air Force Reserve after rounds of 75-73. Former ANWA champion Tsubasa Kajitani, who briefly gave up the game and moved back to Japan to take a job with Callaway, shot 80-85 to finish last. Kajitani plans to head to Japan LPGA Q-School later this year.
