Leading amateur at St Andrews set to be key player for Catriona Matthew in Curtis Cup

Woad adds another accolade with accomplished performance at St Andrews

You won’t get any prizes for guessing who Great Britain & Ireland captain Cartriona Matthew will be looking to inspire the home side to victory in next week’s 43rd Curtis Cup at Sunningdale.

Step forward Lottie Woad, who, on the back of creating history earlier in the year by becoming the first European to win the Augusta National Women’s Amateur, has now claimed the Smyth Salver as leading amateur in the AIG Women’s Open at St Andrews.

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Signing off in style with a birdie, the 20-year-old from Farnham in Surrey closed with a 73 for a one-under-par total, finishing joint-tenth and four shots ahead of her closest of three challengers, Julia Lopez Ramirez, after the Spaniard had set the clubhouse target following a last-day 71.

Lottie Woad smiles on  her way to winning the Smyth Salver as leading amateur in the AIG Women's Open at St Andrews. Picture: Michael Reaves/Getty Images.Lottie Woad smiles on  her way to winning the Smyth Salver as leading amateur in the AIG Women's Open at St Andrews. Picture: Michael Reaves/Getty Images.
Lottie Woad smiles on her way to winning the Smyth Salver as leading amateur in the AIG Women's Open at St Andrews. Picture: Michael Reaves/Getty Images.

“It was good,” said Woad of her week’s work after becoming the second successive English player to secure the honour after Charlotte Heath at Walton Heath 12 months ago. “I knew what I had to do the last few holes. Definitely played quite tough. So it was a little bit of a grind, but got it done in the end.”

This accolade came hot on the heels of her also winning the Mark H McCormack Medal for topping the women’s World Amateur World Ranking this year.

“Yeah, it's definitely been amazing,” she admitted of her season. “Probably didn't imagine it. All the best players were playing at Augusta; it's hard to win. But I had confidence in my game.

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“Then getting to play in all these events, as well, and playing well in a few of them has definitely given me a lot of confidence going into my next year of college.”

She’s still got a couple of years left at Florida State and intends to see that out. “I don't think this will change anything,” she insisted. “I've still got a lot more things I want to work on. I'm in The Open and US Open next year. So I get to play those as an amateur and just learn more.”

At Sunningdale, Woad will be joining forces with Scottish duo Hannah Darling and Lorna McClymont, with Matthew aiming to add a winning Curtis Cup captaincy to her back-to-back triumphs as a Solheim Cup skipper.

“Yeah, I think she can obviously bring a lot,” said Woad of the North Berwick woman, who is being assisted at the Surrey venue by her long-time friend and fellow Scot, Kathryn Imrie. “Having a winning Solheim Cup captain as a Curtis Cup captain is really good for us.

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“I think both teams are very new. I don't think many people have played Curtis Cup before. So having her experience at these sort of events is going to really help us. I think she will just have a good idea of who to put together for pairings and stuff like that.”

Speaking at St Andrews earlier in the week, Matthew admitted that Woad would be a key member of her battle plan against an American side being led by Meghan Stasi.

“It's just her all-around game. There's no real weakness,” said the Scot. “The main thing is she's mentally tough. I go back to that finish she had at ANWA where it looked like Bailey Shoemaker had kind of stolen it from her, and then she birdied three of the last four. That kind of shows someone who can dig deep and do it when they have to.”

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