Surrey’s Lottie Woad captured the 93rd Girls’ Amateur Championship after beating Cayetana Fernandez Garcia-Poggio from Spain 7&6 in the 36-hole final held at Carnoustie in Scotland.
Woad, who is a member at Farnham Golf Club and plays off a +7 handicap, arrived at the championship in fine form, having won the Sir Henry Cooper Masters in April and played a leading role in England women’s victory at the European Ladies’ Team Championship and the Home Internationals.
The 18-year-old international went behind in the match when Garcia-Poggio, the reigning Spanish Ladies’ Amateur champion, birdied the fourth hole, but Woad levelled the scores with an eagle at the sixth and went 1up with a birdie at the par-3 eighth.
She cemented her lead at the par-3 13th when a poor chip from Garcia-Poggio from behind the green left her with too much to do. Woad maintained her steady play finding fairways and greens and matched her Spanish opponent’s birdie four on the 14th to stay two up.
A cold putter wasn’t helping Garcia-Poggio and she narrowly missed birdie putts on the closing three holes which might have reduced the deficit as Woad stayed two up going into the afternoon round.
Garcia-Poggio bogeyed the 19th to allow Woad to go three ahead, but her birdie at the 21st clawed one back. Woad, though, then produced a brilliant run of three birdies in a row from the 22nd thanks to brilliant approach play and moved to four up after the 24th. The Spaniard found trouble with a bad lie in the fairway bunker on the 27th and Woad moved a commanding five up, and finished the match off in style with a further run of three straight birdies from the 28th.
Speaking after the biggest win of her career, Woad said: “It’s amazing to add my name to the trophy, I can’t believe it. Winning the gold medal at the Europeans with England was the highlight of my career, but this tops it now. It’s been a good year with a busy run of events. I’m glad to finish it off with victory in my last junior event.”
She added: “I thought it was going to be close after the morning round, but I got a few good birdies and holed some putts to give me some breathing room in the afternoon. I didn’t really miss a fairway in both rounds and was hitting approach shots close to make the putts. We both played well, so it perhaps looks a bigger win than it was, as we did exchange birdies. There was no real wind, so perfect scoring conditions.”
The win secures Woad exemptions into the Women’s Amateur Championship, the US Girls’ Junior, AIG Women’s Open Final Qualifying and, by tradition, an invitation to the Augusta National Women’s Amateur.
For the full scores from the 93rd Girls’ Amateur Championship, click here.