{"id":254725,"date":"2025-11-10T10:55:18","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T10:55:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/254725\/"},"modified":"2025-11-10T10:55:18","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T10:55:18","slug":"i-love-winning-ill-take-as-many-majors-as-i-can-get","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/254725\/","title":{"rendered":"I love winning. I\u2019ll take as many majors as I can get"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI want to win majors.\u201d Five words and one mantra that show Lottie Woad is not the sort for messing about. It is rare to talk to a 21-year-old with such clarity of purpose and phlegmatic belief. None of that \u201cliving the dream\u201d fare that sometimes comes with prodigies, no faux modesty or cocksure precocity, just faith in a rare talent. It comes as no surprise that Scottie Scheffler is an inspiration.<\/p>\n

Breakthrough acts in any sport need to be handled with kid gloves, but the Tiger Woods analogies<\/a> were made easier by a shared management company. The spoils of success also mean this interview was given to mark her new status as a brand ambassador for FM, a commercial property insurer. FM\u2019s other big partnership is with Rory McIlroy, which is an indicator of Woad\u2019s corporate clout.<\/p>\n

\"Lottie<\/p>\n

Woad was still an amateur when she won the Irish Open in July and three weeks later she triumphed at the Scottish Open, pictured, on her pro debut<\/p>\n

KATE MCSHANE\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n

Her peers have been just as impressed. Lydia Ko, who was a world No1 at 17, said she hoped to pick her brain when they played together at the AIG Women\u2019s Open. Charley Hull, England\u2019s cigarette-puffing star, was the runner-up in that tournament and said Woad gave her \u201cgoosebumps\u201d. <\/p>\n

None of this fazes Woad who, like Scheffler, is more pragmatic than romantic. She is still with her old coaches, just as Scheffler has stuck with the septuagenarian sage Randy Smith. Both were also amateur stars, with Scheffler winning the US Junior Amateur in 2013 and Woad triumphing at the Augusta National Women\u2019s Amateur last year. Neither gets too high or low or could be regarded as an open goal for interviewers. \u201cI look up to what Scottie\u2019s doing and how he\u2019s dominating but also just the demeanour he has as well,\u201d Woad says. \u201cI try to keep it pretty level because I feel like that\u2019s when I play my best.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the most notable features of Woad\u2019s armoury is her grit under pressure. At the Irish Open she led by seven after three rounds and never looked like stumbling, finishing with a 69. Three weeks later at the Scottish Open she was two ahead going into the final round, but Kim Hyo-joo drew level on the back nine. Here was the test of a tyro, but it was Kim who faltered, and Woad won by three. \u201cIt\u2019s a pretty good outcome I guess,\u201d she said with flatliner calm, adding that her mum had got the train up the previous night and she had feared it might prove a wasted journey.<\/p>\n

Her relationship with the pressure of a Sunday afternoon is telling. \u201cI find it more fun, to be honest,\u201d she says. \u201cI feel it can be pretty packed coming down the stretch, but then on Sunday it separates out. That may make people think about it a little bit too much and it just gives you an opportunity to move up and put the pressure on. I enjoy that.\u201d<\/p>\n

One story from this close-knit family archive shows just how serious the golf project has long been. During the Covid lockdown, when Woad was only 16, her parents installed a 300 square foot putting green in their back garden in Farnham. <\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

Woad\u2019s family built a putting green in their garden in Farnham so she could practise during the pandemic<\/p>\n

\u201cIt definitely saved me during lockdown because I would have been so bored,\u201d she says. \u201cI had a net as well, so I was just out there hitting and putting, trying to practise as much as possible because it felt like I was losing ground because England had a lot more restrictions than the US and some places in Europe. It was during the college recruitment process too. I could not go over to the US and visit the university or meet coaches, so they ended up recruiting me over Zoom and watching videos of me in the garden.\u201d<\/p>\n

The after-effects of the pandemic on a generation\u2019s mental health are still playing out, but Woad\u2019s burgeoning ambition was a guiding focus. \u201cI just missed competing and probably didn\u2019t play in a competition for two years,\u201d she says. \u201cThat was the sad aspect, but at the same time I got to spend time with my family, and you just try to take the positives from that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moving to Florida State University was clearly good for her, but the key figures from home remained pivotal figures: Steven Robinson and Nigel Edwards from England Golf, Luke Bone from Farnham Golf Club, and her parents Nick and Rachel.<\/p>\n

Georgia Hall\u2019s win at the Women\u2019s British Open in 2018 remains the only British major triumph for 16 years. Hull has come close on numerous occasions, but getting over the line is hard. \u201cI would watch a lot of Charley and Georgia when I was younger so it\u2019s kind of weird to be playing with them,\u201d says Woad. <\/p>\n

\"Georgia<\/p>\n

Hall\u2019s win at the British Open in 2018 remains the only major triumph by a British woman for 16 years<\/p>\n

JASON CAIRNDUFF\/REUTERS<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve seen first-hand how good everyone is out there. It\u2019s a big jump from the amateurs. You\u2019ve seen it this year where there was a different winner every week for a while so I\u2019m just looking to be in contention as much as possible, because when I\u2019m in position on Sundays, I feel that generally I can get it going pretty well.\u201d<\/p>\n

The morning after her win at the Scottish Open, she was at Royal Porthcawl in Wales for a practice session, and she seems perplexed by the suggestion that she might have had a night celebrating. \u201cIt was the Open that week,\u201d she says. \u201cThe goal was to try and win it, so it moved on quickly. We had to drive to Wales, which was quite a long way, but I knew Porthcawl would be a good test and I wanted to play as much as possible beforehand.\u201d Two weeks after turning pro she was installed as favourite in Wales and finished eighth. Not bad, but she wants much more in 2026.<\/p>\n

\"Lottie<\/p>\n

Woad with her family after winning the top amateur during the final round of the US Open in June<\/p>\n

PATRICK MCDERMOTT\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n

\u201cI was playing sport when I was two or three and I always wanted to win no matter what I was doing, and that\u2019s something that just continued as I got better \u2014 it made me want to win even more.\u201d Hence, she was somewhat irked when Robinson beat her in a pre-Open match at Porthcawl. \u201cI shot four or five under and I would have taken that in the Open, but yeah, he got the better of me there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Already the world No10, despite playing 30 fewer ranking tournaments than some above her, the future is now so bright that it is hard to imagine that this talented ball-striker might have been lost to football. Her grandfather\u2019s Yorkshire roots mean she is a Leeds United fan, and she was once part of Southampton FC\u2019s renowned academy. \u201cI got to 13 or 14 and couldn\u2019t do both to the level I wanted so I had to pick. I can\u2019t say if I was better at golf or football at the time, but I found golf more enjoyable. I love that there are so many aspects that you can spend hours on everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although she misses the team element of football and college golf, she says that pales alongside the enjoyment she gets from exploring different elements of her chosen game. All of which can be improved, she says. \u201cBut we\u2019re working with quite small margins.\u201d The vital statistics are the ones inside 15 feet and 140 yards. \u201cMy memory works pretty well and I can remember pretty much every shot I\u2019ve hit, so I go back to that and love stats.\u201d If she needs a break, she has friends and the more erratic form of Leeds United to take solace in; she says she will visit Elland Road again soon. That, too, is not a half-hearted passion. \u201cNo,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019m too keen.\u201d <\/p>\n

How many majors does she believe she can win in a field where there have been 14 different winners in a row? \u201cI\u2019ll take as many as I can get,\u201d she says. Is she ahead of her own expectations? \u201cI hoped that I could win and I believed that I could, but you can\u2019t expect it. Now I\u2019m looking forward to next year and having a full schedule to play.\u201d The thrill of her sporting year is that it is just the start.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI want to win majors.\u201d Five words and one mantra that show Lottie Woad is not the sort…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":254726,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[5904,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-254725","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-golf","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=254725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254725\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/254726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}