Amateur Woad wins Irish Open but can’t take £58k prize money

Final-round leaderboard for the women’s Irish Open

-21 L Woad (Eng*), -15 M Sagstrom (Swe), -14 A Garvey (NZ), -12 C Hull (Eng), -10 H Screen (Eng), F Fernandez (Spa), C Tamburlini (Swi), K Rudgeley (Aus)

Selected others: -8 A Foster (Ire), A Hewson (Eng), -7 L Beveridge (Sco), D Harry (Wal), -6 M MacLaren (Eng) E Hamilton (Eng), -3 C Williams (Wal), M Rhodes (Eng), -2 G Hall (Eng), C Screene (Ire), -1 L McClymont (Sco*), Level L Maguire (Ire), + 3 E Fleming (Ire*)

* indicates amateur

Lottie Woad, an English amateur, won the Women’s Irish Open by six shots with a final-round score of 69 to claim her first Ladies European Tour title in command.

Madelene Sagstrom, a four-time Solheim Cup champion from Sweden, will receive the winner’s cheque because she is an amateur and won’t receive any prize money, though she will.

Woad, the world number one amateur, made six birdies and two bogeys on Sunday to win at Carton House despite the windy conditions on Friday and extended her lead to seven strokes in the third round on Saturday.

The 21-year-old becomes the first non-professional to win on the Ladies European Tour since Czech Open 2022 winner Jana Melichova. She broke 70 in all four of the four rounds.

Woad, who won the 2024 Augusta National Women’s Amateur title and placed 10th overall in the Women’s Open last year, carded just three bogeys throughout the week in County Kildare.

Overall, the England Golf women’s squad member Woad said, “It felt pretty comfortable.”

“A few moments at the beginning of the back nine had potential problems, but I persevered and made some nice birdies.”

It settled me in as soon as I birdied the second hole, where I put a nice 12-footer. It was pretty stress-free in the end, despite the fact that I did some good shots today and maybe didn’t hole as many putts as the other days.

Canice Screene carded a bogey-free seven-under-par 66, the joint-lowest round of the day, to finish in the top 40, while Anna Foster (72) held the lead in a share of 12th place on eight under.

Woad shot a par-fourth on Sunday after establishing a comfortable 54-hole cushion, picking up two birdies in her final four holes.

Woad of Surrey reclaimed that opportunity with a birdie three in the eighth inning and added another in the thirteenth.

The Florida State University player nearly holed her approach by dropping a shot at par five on the par-five 15th, but she bounced back with birdies on her next two holes, four at par five on the par-five 17th.

A par secured a winning score of 271, while Woad nearly completed the grandstand by holing a long birdie putt at the end.

Woad, who will be competing in the French Evian Championship next week, added that “it definitely means a lot.”

“I was able to concentrate even though I had a significant lead coming into today. I was delighted to get it done despite the fact that some excellent players were following me.