Scot Louise Duncan lifts Women's Amateur title with record win at Barassie

West Kilbride’s Louise Duncan wrote her name in the record books as she won the R&A Women’s Championship final by the biggest margin in the event’s 128-year history.

Louise Duncan poses with the Womens Amateur trophy following her 9&8 win over Iceland's Johanna Lea Ludviksdottir in the final of the R&A Womens Amateur Championship at Kilmarnock (Barassie). Picture: Charles McQuillan/R&A/R&A via Getty Images.

The 21-year-old Stirling University scholar crushed Iceland’s Johanna Lea Ludviksdottir 9&8 in the 36-hole title decider at Kilmarnock (Barassie) to become the first Scot since Alison Rose in 1997 to claim the coveted title.

“It’s definitely the best week of my life, and to do it in Ayrshire it’s been brilliant, I couldn’t have written it any better,” said Duncan, who is the 17th Scottish player to claim the prize.

“I definitely wasn’t quietly confident coming into the week. My first goal was to make the match-play stage and see what happened from there, but I didn’t think I’d get this far.”

West Kilbride's Louise Duncan is the first Scot to win the R&A Women's Amateur Championship since 1977. Picture: Charles McQuillan/R&A/R&A via Getty Images.

Duncan, who had former Italian Open champion and Stirling University head performance coach Dean Robertson caddying for her, set up her triumph by winning three out of four holes around the turn in the morning round.

That burst, which included an eagle-3 at the 11th, helped her sit down to lunch with a five-hole lead and there was no way back for Ludviksdottir after the Scot started the afternoon circuit with her second eagle of the day.

Duncan’s winning margin eclipsed Joyce Wetherhed’s 9&7 victory over fellow English player Carol Leitch in the 1922 final at Royal St George’s.

“Hopefully a few drinks,” she added of how she planned to celebrate the success. “I need it to settle the nerves, I don’t know why I’m still nervous, I feel like it’s not even real.”

The success has secured spots for Duncan, who is coached by Iain Darroch at West Kilbride, in this year’s AIG Women’s Open at Carnoustie and Evian Championship in France, as well as next year’s Augusta National Women’s Amateur and US Women’s Open.

She will be the first Scot to compete in the Augusta National event, which was held for the first time in 2019.

‘’It’s mental, I can’t believe it,” she said of those rewards. “It’s ridiculous and I am over the moon.”

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