To say that Lottie Woad is off to a great professional debut wouldn’t be wrong. After all, following her more-than-amazing run at the 2025 Amundi Evian Championship, where she grabbed her Tour card, the Englishwoman is looking to make a statement this week at the 2025 ISPS Handa Women’s Scottish Open. But every day of her solid run at Dundonald Links, however, is proving to work against other pros in the field, including Nelly Korda.

And it’s starting to sting Korda. Despite opening up her first ISPS Handa Women’s Scottish Open run with a solid 4-under 68, Korda was forced to sit behind Woad, the tournament leader. It did not get better in the following rounds as well, despite Korda’s second-round score of 66 and third-round score of 70. In fact, added to Korda’s frustration was the fact that she slipped on the leaderboard, now 5 strokes behind Woad.

So the 15-time LPGA winner decided to share her frustration following the third round and said during a press conference, “Yeah, bogey-free, definitely missed a couple more greens. Wasn’t hitting it probably as good as I was the first two days. But there was a tiny bit of a different wind direction. Yeah, three-putted one of the par 5s for par. That kind of always stings a little bit. But other than that, I made some really good par saves and just didn’t really capitalise on some of my good shots. But that’s golf. That’s okay. I still have tomorrow.”

Not everything went against her favor, however. If we take a look at her other stats, she has delivered a pretty solid performance in the third round. For one thing, she hit 8 out of 14 fairways, achieved a driving distance of 274.0 meters, and recorded 29 putts. Aside from that, she also successfully landed 13 out of 18 greens in regulation, along with 1 sand save. These stats do deserve a nod from us; however, we still cannot deny that Korda’s frustration comes from the right place.

Despite a breakthrough season last year that yielded seven titles, including a major, Korda has yet to find the winner’s circle this year. Nevertheless, she’s posted four top-10 finishes and four top-20 finishes, with two runner-up spots highlighting her strong play. On the other hand, Korda has consistently made the cut in all her events and has only slipped outside the top 30 once, which occurred at her most recent start at the 2025 Amundi Evian Championship.

Yet, somehow, despite the “stinging” feeling following her third-round finish behind Woad during her search for her first 2025 win, Korda has nothing but good things to say about the Englishwoman.

Nelly Korda says Lottie Woad “deserves to be where she’s at” despite the competition

Lottie Woad entered the 2025 ISPS Handa Women’s Scottish Open on a high note following her impressive victory at the 2025 KPMG Irish Women’s Open three weeks prior. Additionally, a week later to that, she finished third at the 2025 Amundi Evian Championship, which allowed her to earn the necessary points to secure her LPGA Tour card through the Elite Amateur Pathway (LEAP).

Having announced her decision to turn professional last week, Woad caught the attention of Nelly Korda with her performance. The two-time major champion quickly commended her emerging rival, describing it as a “deserving” start for the LPGA Tour’s newest pro. Korda also reflected on Woad’s T3 finish at the 2025 Amundi Evian Championship, stating at the 2025 ISPS Handa Women’s Scottish Open, “Yeah, she’s had an amazing run the last couple weeks and deserves where she’s at right now, and it’s going to be exciting to see where her career goes.”

The former world No. 1 amateur is now aiming to replicate Rose Zhang‘s achievement by winning a title in her professional debut at Dundonald Links. Zhang made history at the 2023 Mizuho Americas Open, becoming the first player in 72 years to accomplish this since Beverly Hanson at the 1951 Eastern Open. So, it’d be interesting to see if Nelly Korda could clinch her first win of the season with a competition as strong as Lottie Woad.

Lottie Woad, in fact, is reasonably happy with her performance at the event. During the presser after her third round, Woad said, “Bogey-free is always nice.” Woad was able to card some solid scores of 65, 65, and again a 67 for the first three rounds. She additionally said.”Just hit a lot of greens, hit a lot of fairways, and then holed a few nice putts. … I think my wedges were pretty good. Same as yesterday. I laid up on I think most of the par-5s and managed to make birdie on them still.” 

Definitely, quite the final around awaits the fan this time, and the winner definitely might turn out to be a surprise.