IRVINE, Scotland \u2014 Lottie Woad played bogey-free Friday and took advantage of unusually calm conditions toward the end to post a 7-under 65, giving the English star a two-shot lead over top-ranked Nelly Korda and Nanna Koerstz Madsen in the ISPS Handa Women\u2019s Scottish Open.<\/p>\n
Woad is making her professional debut, which only means she gets paid at the end of the week. She looks no different from the last couple of weeks, when she won the Women\u2019s Irish Open and then tied for third in the LPGA major in France at the Amundi Evian Championship.<\/p>\n
Korda birdied her last two holes for a 66 to get to within two shots, hopeful she is trending in the right direction as she goes for her first win of the season. Koerstz Madsen also shot 66.<\/p>\n
Woad, who played her college golf at Florida State, was at 12-under 132 after spending two days before the largest crowd at Dundonald Links, playing in the same group as Korda and Charley Hull of England.<\/p>\n
Woad\u2019s finish at the Evian Championship earned her an LPGA card, prompting her to turn pro. The Women\u2019s Scottish Open felt no different from her other July events. It was all about trying to ride the momentum.<\/p>\n
She dismissed the notion that she has started her pro career by taking a 36-hole lead in a tournament co-sanctioned by the LPGA and the Ladies European Tour.<\/p>\n
\u201cI played in seven majors now so I\u2019ve had all that experience, and obviously the LET events, too,\u201d Woad said. \u201cSo wasn\u2019t really new things I guess. Kind of knew how to deal with it.\u201d<\/p>\n
She has missed only two greens each of the last two rounds on the links course just to the north of Royal Troon on the Ayrshire coast. It\u2019s a strong field with the final major of the year, the AIG Women\u2019s Open, next week at Royal Porthcawl in Wales.<\/p>\n
The biggest help was the wind, or lack of it. The breeze gave way to calm conditions, and Woad ran off four birdies on the back to seize control.<\/p>\n
Korda, winless after a seven-victory season in 2024, made her lone mistake with a bogey on the par-5 18th as she made the turn. She handled the calm conditions on the front nine to get in the final group.<\/p>\n
\u201cApparently this is not really Scottish weather. It\u2019s pretty soft, so I\u2019ve been hearing this is not the typical weather and course they usually play out here,\u201d Korda said. \u201cBut overall, when you get good rounds under your belt, that\u2019s always a step in the right direction. My main focus is this week. I\u2019m trying to finish as best as I possibly can.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sei Young Kim had a 67 and was three shots behind, followed by Hyo Joo Kim (66) who was four shots off the pace.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"IRVINE, Scotland \u2014 Lottie Woad played bogey-free Friday and took advantage of unusually calm conditions toward the end…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37687,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[427,99],"class_list":["post-37686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37686\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}