Lottie Lands ANWA Crown in Dramatic Finale

Augusta, Georgia, United States: With birdies on three of her last four holes – a finish to rival any in the long history of the Masters Tournament – Lottie Woad held off a surging Bailey Shoemaker to win the fifth Augusta National Women’s Amateur (ANWA).

Woad, an Englishwoman who is in her sophomore year at Florida State University, began the final round with a two-stroke lead but found herself trailing by two after bogeying the par-five 13th.

By that time, Shoemaker had shot up the leaderboard with six birdies and no bogeys, with two holes to play. She parred in to post a six-under 66, the lowest final round in tournament history, eclipsing Jennifer Kupcho’s closing 67 to win in 2019.

Needing to play her last five holes in two-under to regain a share of the lead, Woad maintained her composure, taking deep breaths and, as she explained later, trying her best to stay in the moment. She made a 10-foot par save at 14 after her drive hit a tree, then made birdies at 15, 17 and 18 to win by one.

Paired with Shoemaker, Thailand’s Eila Galitsky played the final six holes in three-under to sign for a 74 and secure a share of eighth place on 217. Galitsky, the 2023 Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific champion, was joined in tied eighth by Malaysian Mirabel Ting, who also carded a closing 74. 

Rin Yoshida carded a 71, highlighted by an eagle-three at the eighth, to finish equal 14th on 218 – ahead of fellow-Japanese Hinano Muguruma and Sayaka Teraoka (tied 17th, 219) and Mamika Shinchi (29th, 224).

Fourth in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), Woad, who shot a final-round 69 to finish the championship at eight-under, said: “I was hoping it was going to be a nice stress-free day, but it was far from that. In the end, it’s a cooler way to finish.”

Shoemaker, a freshman at the University of Southern California, started the day at one-under, four strokes behind Woad. Known for her short-game and putting, she holed birdie chances at the second, fifth and seventh to pull within two strokes of the lead when she made the turn.

“Once the putts started going in, I thought there might be a chance,” she said. “So I just kept it rolling.”

On the second nine, she birdied the 11th and 13th to tie for the lead. Then, at the par-three 16th, she received the kind of favourable break that can decide a tournament. Shoemaker pulled her tee shot and feared it wouldn’t clear the water. “Go! Go!” she shouted, and the ball cleared the pond, bounced twice and settled within five feet of the hole, setting up her final birdie.

Woad was checking the scoreboards the entire day. Rather than get discouraged when she saw her lead disappear, she said she reminded herself how fortunate she was to still have a chance to win such a prestigious title.

“To be in the mix on the back nine at Augusta is something that everyone dreams about. I was trying to really embrace it,” she said. “I didn’t really have anything to lose at that point.”

While Shoemaker was hitting balls at the Tournament Practice Facility to stay loose in the event of a play-off, Woad used her length off the tee to set up her clinching birdies on the final two holes.

At the uphill 18th, she had 130 yards left for her approach and took a slightly abbreviated swing – “a little nine-iron, shoulder to shoulder,” she said.

Her ball settled past the hole and to the left, leaving her a downhill 15-foot putt for the victory. “It was a bit of a double-breaker, and luckily it broke back right at the end,” she said.

Woad’s previous biggest triumph came at the 2022 R&A Girls’ Amateur at Carnoustie, where the list of Open champions includes Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Tom Watson and Bernhard Langer (Senior Open) – like her, all winners at Augusta National as well.

Woad was a member of the triumphant European Golf Association team against the Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation at last year's Solheim Cup-style Patsy Hankins Trophy in Spain, winning 3½ points from a possible five. She halved her final-day singles against Chinese Taipei’s Tiffany Huang Ting-hsuan.

A first-team All-American in 2023, she was making her second appearance in the Augusta National Women’s Amateur, having finished 13th last year. “Playing this course before, I was really confident with the lines off the tee, because when I first came here last year, I didn’t realise how tight and demanding it was off the tee,” she said.

With her victory, Woad wrote a new chapter in the short but storied history of the Augusta National Women’s Amateur.

The inaugural championship was held in 2019 and featured a final-round duel between Kupcho and Maria Fassi. Although Kupcho, the number one ranked women’s amateur at the time, pulled away to a comfortable victory, the defining image of the championship came when the two women fist-bumped on the tee at the par-three 12th, in the heart of Amen Corner.

After a year’s hiatus due to Covid-19, the tournament resumed in 2021. Tsubasa Kajitani, a 17-year-old from Japan, won in a play-off over Emilia Migliaccio (who this year became the only player to compete in all five editions of the event). One week later, Hideki Matsuyama became the first Asian golfer to win the Masters and credited his young countrywoman with inspiring him with her victory over the same sporting ground.

In 2022, the tournament gained an even younger champion in Anna Davis, 16. The left-handed high school sophomore from Southern California, ranked 100th in the world, pulled off a come-from-behind victory on the strength of her chipping around Augusta National’s fast and undulating greens. Her easy-going demeanour and retro-styled bucket hat became instant symbols of the future of women’s golf.

Last year, Rose Zhang arrived in Augusta as the resounding world number one and proceeded to set a championship scoring record through 36 holes with rounds of 66-65 at Champions Retreat.

She began the final round at Augusta National with a five-stroke lead but struggled from the start. Regaining her composure, she won on the second hole of a play-off against Jenny Bae. Zhang said her victory, combined with earlier wins in the US Women’s Amateur and the NCAA Championship, completed ‘the trio of amateur golf’.

Zhang turned pro less than two months later (although she has remained a student at Stanford University) and promptly won in her LGPA Tour debut. Bae also turned pro, after graduating from the University of Georgia, and won in her second and third starts on the developmental Epson Tour.

Their victories in the professional ranks added to an accumulating list by alumnae of the Augusta National Women’s Amateur. On the LPGA Tour and the Ladies European Tour alone, former competitors at Augusta have won a total of 40 events.

Since the Masters was first played in 1934, only two players have birdied the 17th and 18th holes to win by one stroke, as Woad did in the Women’s Amateur, Arnold Palmer in 1960 and Mark O’Meara in 1998.

“It's just really cool,” she said, “to be standing in the same place as the Masters champions have stood.”