AR
Lottie Woad is on such a tear that you can count one of the world’s top players as a big fan. Lydia Ko is so impressed with the 21-year-old phenom from England that she’s been watching videos of her swing and trying to gain some tips.
MORE: AIG Women’s Open power rankings
That tells you plenty about Woad’s game as well as World No. 3 Ko’s humble nature and quest to keep learning.
Woad, who won the Women’s Scottish Open in her professional debut last week, is making her first start as a pro in a major this week in the AIG Women’s British Open, and she’ll be paired with former two past champions—Ko, who won last year at St. Andrews, and 2023 winner Lilia Vu.
“It’s a triple L group—Lilia, Lottie, and myself,” Kol, the recent LPGA Hall of Famer, said on Tuesday at Royal Porthcawl. “… It will be my first time playing with Lottie, so I’m excited. She’s coming in with a ton of momentum, and I think there’s going to be a lot of people that are going to come out and watch her.
“It’s going to be really cool for me to see the things that I could possibly learn from her and why she’s playing good,” Ko continued. “Just because you’re a higher-ranked player doesn’t mean that there’s something that I can’t learn from somebody else. She’s obviously playing great golf. I’ve seen her swing, and my coach has sent me a video of her swing as well because there’s aspects that I’m kind of going for that she has. It will be really cool to just be inside the ropes, pick her brain a little bit.”
Woad is on such a hot streak this summer—she won the KPMG Women’s Irish Open as an amateur and tied for third in the major Amundi Evian Championship to earn her LPGA Tour card—that oddsmakers have picked the former Florida State star to win this week.
“I don’t know how they do it, but I feel like I’m playing well,” Woad said from Royal Porthcawl on Tuesday of being picked to win. “So, I guess I was going to be one of the favourites. Obviously, everyone’s so good, so I feel like anyone can win, really. You’ve seen it this year, I think every winner has been different. So there’s many people it could be.”
MORE: Here’s the prize money breakdown for each golfer at the 2025 AIG Women’s Open
Woad is different, and she became the 20th different player to win on the LPGA Tour this season through the first 19 events. She made a huge leap from 62nd to 24th in the Rolex Women’s World Rankings.
The most recent World Amateur No. 1 shot a three-under 68 Sunday in Scotland to beat World No. 8 Hyo Joo Kim by three shots, and her steady play on the back nine was watched on linear television on CNBC, something that was added 24 hours before the final round. New LPGA commissioner Craig Kessler and the tour’s television partners made sure a potential win by the rising star wasn’t missed. That’s the power of Woad right now.
She has a cool confidence and routine to her play. If she was nervous, it didn’t show.
World No. 1 Nelly Korda played with Woad the first two rounds at Dundonald Links last week.
“Absolutely amazing. I was very impressed with her composure, her process,” Korda said on Tuesday at Porthcawl. “I think when it comes to her shot routine, especially under pressure and in the heat of the moment, sometimes people seem to fidget and kind of doubt themselves, but she stuck to it. She stuck to her process every single time, and I think that’s one of the main things that I noticed is how mature she is for her age and how comfortable she was in the heat of the moment.”
Lottie Woad laughs with her caddie during a practice round for the AIG Women’s British Open. Charlie Crowhurst/R&A
Pressure doesn’t seem to bother Woad. Surely, fans will be cheering her on at Royal Porthcawl in the United Kingdom.
“There’s always pressure, obviously, but I don’t think there’s any more than there was, from my perspective, before any of the last few weeks,” Woad said. “Kind of still was wanting to contend there, and that’s still the aim.”
In Scotland last week, Woad became just the third golfer in LPGA history to win in her professional debut. She’s the first since Rose Zhang did so at the 2023 Mizuho Americas Open, but Zhang was not an LPGA member at the time. Beverly Hanson was the first to do it when she won her pro debut in 1951.
Woad will never forget the streak she’s on this July. She won the KPMG Women’s Irish Open—as an amateur—by six shots. Then she finished tied for third in the season’s fourth major, the Amundi Evian Championship. Then there was the win. She’s taking her game right into the final major of the year on a course she played once before, about a month ago.
“I think it will be a really good test. Weather is always a factor in links golf,” Woad said. “A lot more to mind off the tee than St. Andrews last year. Definitely got to keep it in play. A lot of holes, par is a good score, and then you’ve got to take a chance on the par 5s really.”
Woad, who travelled with seven hours to Wales from Scotland by car with her family, earned $300,000 with her first paycheck and said she’ll get a new car, but she still has to take her driver’s license test. She’s already aced competing with the best players in the world.
Follow Golf Digest Middle East on social media
Main Image: Kate McShane
