ISPS HANDA WOMEN'S SCOTTISH OPEN

July 21, 2026

Lottie Woad

Dundonald Links

Press Conference

Q. Welcome to the ISPS Handa Women's Scottish Open. Can you talk about how pleased you are to be back and your feelings to be back where you won your very first professional title?

LOTTIE WOAD: Yeah, very excited to be back. Always love playing links golf and playing in the UK. So yeah, really nice to be back and see the course again. A little different to last year but yeah, got the family here as well. So it will be a fun week.

Q. In what way different? You played 18 holes today.

LOTTIE WOAD: I played both nines now. I think it's just a little firmer than last year, which it was very soft last year. So it's playing more how it's meant to be played. But you did expect that with the warm weather that we've been having.

Q. You've been on such an incredible journey since you started. You turned pro just one year ago. Can you talk a little bit about that and how after 12 months, reflect a little bit?

LOTTIE WOAD: Yeah, it's definitely been a long year. Played a lot of golf. A lot of new experiences. Yeah, it's nice to come back to where I guess it all started, my pro debut here. I've been happy with how I've been playing.

Definitely learned some things as well in the year, so want to treat this year more as my rookie year rather than the last few events I had last year. Just treat this one as my first year.

Q. Can you actually believe you came out as the first time, you won this tournament, and now with what you know you know?

LOTTIE WOAD: Yeah, I didn't appreciate at the time, obviously being my first event, I didn't know what to expect. But now I've been playing every week and playing with the same people and obviously seeing how good everyone is, yeah, definitely more special now.

Q. Can you talk about this week and how you'll use this week ahead of AIG, as well?

LOTTIE WOAD: It's been a pretty consistent year. Started the year pretty good results-wise. Started off slowly on Friday, and towards the back end of this year, trying to start the tournaments a bit better and obviously the win in Ohio was nice.

Then kind of had the month stretch of obviously losing that event, and then I believe at Evian, not the weekend I wanted there. Trying to take what I can from that, still playing good golf but also learning two those two weeks.

Q. How do you reset each week?

LOTTIE WOAD: Yeah, I think it's quite easy to do that out here. Every week you come into a new place, new course. You get into the routine of going through your preparation that you do every week and it's quite easy for me to reset every week. Each week is another opportunity to try and do well. I tend to move on pretty quickly.

Q. You were seen by Bethan at Royal Birkdale last week. Can you talk about what you went to do there and who you watched and what takeaways you had?

LOTTIE WOAD: Yeah, I was there to watch golf. I was playing Lytham on Sunday, so it was kind of on the way up. I had never been to an open before so it's cool to go there. Maybe watch Tommy through the day and have home support. That's a lot of people there.

Q. There was a huge amount of people, over 300,000. Did it feel a bit crazy?

LOTTIE WOAD: It was quite hard to watch, actually. It was hard to actually see the shots, so kind of underappreciated that, having people following along.

It was definitely playing firm, which I'd expect Lytham to play pretty similar. So watching those shots.

Q. Did you find it firm when you played on Sunday?

LOTTIE WOAD: Yeah, it was very firm off the tee, but I think they are just protecting them.

Q. You talked about a different challenge this year. Can you give an example of when you hit a certain club and you thought it was way different in terms of yardage, etc.?

LOTTIE WOAD: It's not way different, I think you're hitting it further off the tee and you're getting runs and you have short clubs in. The wedges last year were spinning back and you could play at every pin where this year, you have to allow for four or five years with a wedge but you can still be pretty aggressive.

Q. Last week, first two days, identical days, no wind in the morning or afternoon and pretty even. How rare is that, and how unlikely is that going to be here over the next two weeks and at Lytham?

LOTTIE WOAD: Yeah, usually there's a better side of the draw. I think it's nice when it's pretty similar. Gives it a fair test but you can't control that. You just hope you're on the better side, I guess.

Q. If you obviously helped attract a good crowd here last year and Nelly is here this week. Can you talk about what she brings to this event.

LOTTIE WOAD: Yeah, I think every event she's at, she's the person everybody is coming to see. No. 1 in the world, and especially when we play in the U.S., too. Last year I was playing with her and we got a really big crowd. Playing with her again this year so I expect it to be the same. Yeah, I like playing with a crowd. It's always fun.

Q. You, Nelly and Charley, same as last year, do you relish that?

LOTTIE WOAD: Yeah, I hope it goes same as last year, so keep things the same, I guess.