World’s number one amateur female, Lottie Woad, is looking to emulate her amazing feat of 2024, as she produced an amazing three birdies on the final four holes to win the event, becoming the first European to win the event in its history in the process.
Lottie, it’s been a great start to the year hasn’t it – talk us through your college season so far in 2025?
“We’ve played around six events, and yeah, I’ve just played pretty solid, got a couple of wins and, most importantly, I didn’t finish outside the top three.
I’ve been consistent and in contention around the lead, which I’m happy with, and everything’s feeling pretty solid heading into the ANWA.
It’s all positives really. I’ve seen some improvements on certain parts of my game that I was working on during the off-season, inside like 75 yards, so that’s always nice to see.
There are definitely some things I could work on but it’s always nice just to see the areas that you’re working on improving in the stats.”
You landed your first ever hole-in-one last week, tell us about that?!
“I hadn’t had one before, so that was nice. It was funny because I had a message on Instagram from one of the England Golf coaches a week before, asking if I’d ever had a hole-in-one, and I was like “Oh, I’m gonna try and get one!”.
I then got one almost straight away, so that was funny! It was an 8-iron from 159 yards downhill. I saw it go in which was nice!”
What is it like to drive down Magnolia Lane knowing all the greats before you that have been there?!
“It’s always special. I’ve been the last two years and it was incredible the first time and you still kind of get all the same feelings when you go back.
The drive is so special and then seeing the course, once you’ve seen it on TV, you get to see all the holes you’ve watched certain players play, and you get to play them yourself.
It’s really special. It is just like what you see on TV. It’s very green, the grass is very green and it’s kind of just like you’re hitting off the carpet really.
It’s perfect. And then you have all the trees and the flowers in full bloom for April which is pretty cool. It’s very colourful and while some might say it doesn’t meet the expectations of what you see on TV, I would say it definitely does.
Last year after the win, the next day I got to go into the clubhouse and got to have a tour, see the Crow’s Nest, which we don’t have access to, so that was all really cool. When I was in the clubhouse they arranged for me to meet Danny Willett too which was cool.”
No doubt you’ll be looking to defend your title this year?!
“I’m obviously trying to win it again but the main aim is to stay in contention for the final day at Augusta and see where that puts me.
But it would be cool to go back-to-back. That said, anyone in the field really can win it, they are the best 70 in the world so it wouldn’t surprise me if anyone was challenging and I could name most of the field really!”
You’ll be joined by England Women’s teammate Patience Rhodes at Augusta this year. What advice have you got for her?
“Just to enjoy it and have fun. Not everyone gets to experience this and take it all in but at the same time, it can be tough to focus on the golf during your first time.
There are a lot of new things so I think you just have to make sure you get everything done that you need to do and get everything ready for the tournament.
We have so many commitments during the week aside from golf that we have to do, so it’s just about managing time.”
What other events are big ones on your radar this year?
“We’re into the close season with the college season now, we’ve got our conference championships coming up and then regionals and nationals and then straight after that I’ve got the US Open.”
Will you be looking forward to some of the events representing England and being back alongside some friends and coaches?
“I see most of our team because we’re based in the US, so I see them at a lot of college events, which is nice, but yeah, getting to catch up with some of the coaches I don’t see as often will be nice.”