Woad looks to take LPGA form into US Open

Britain's leading female golfer, Lottie Woad, is doing everything she can to capitalise on LPGA-winning form before this week's Women's US Open near Los Angeles.

The 22-year-old Englishwoman competes at the famed Riviera Country Club fresh from last month's victory at the Kroger Queen City event in Cincinnati, which lifted her to fifth in the world rankings.

It was her first professional win in the United States and was arguably the biggest step Woad has taken since joining the paid ranks last summer, when she won the Scottish Open on her pro debut.

But she has not been sitting back to bask in the glory of this latest triumph, instead flying coach Luke Bone from his base in Farnham, Surrey, to Florida to intensify preparation for this week's event, traditionally the biggest on the women's golf calendar.

Woad decided to swap last week's Shoprite LPGA tournament in New Jersey for time on the range with Bone, with whom she has worked since her junior days at Farnham Golf Club.

"We were just doing some work here in Tallahassee," Woad told BBC Sport. "It was good, just kind of a little reset.

"The last time I saw him was Chevron [the year's first major in April] and he was at an event before that. But it was kind of nice to do some work away from the tournament.

"He usually comes to the majors, but I decided I wanted to try him coming a week before. I'm still kind of working out what I like best.

"You know, I'm still very new to pro life. The US Open is a very hectic week and I feel like that you're limited to what you can actually get done on that week. So it's nice to go into it having done a lot of the work."

She has flown early to the west coast of the US to be fully acclimatised for this week's major, imbued with the confidence of her Ohio triumph.

And the key to that victory on 17 May was worked out by the player herself. She had been bemused by an uncharacteristically erratic performance on the greens while missing the cut at the Mizuho Americas Open earlier in the month.

"My putting was pretty poor and I'd been putting pretty good this year," Woad said. "OK, it could be me, it is probably is me, but, I thought I'll check the putter.

"The grip was just a tiny bit off, but obviously as golfers, we're pretty specific. So it was bugging me a little bit. I got it regripped and then, yeah, all good."

Woad beat a quality field, holding off South Korea's Haeran Ryu to win by two shots, with major winners Miyu Yamashita and Ruoning Yin trailing in her wake.

The spectacularly in-form Nelly Korda and former world number one Lydia Ko shared eighth place.

"I think it was probably a more important win for me than the first one," Woad said. "The first one [in Scotland last July] was obviously amazing, but it all happened so quickly.

"I had just turned pro right before that one and then went off and played loads of events. I didn't really get time to reflect on it.

"I don't know how many events I've played now, but a lot more events, playing each week, travelling each week. Seeing the competition, seeing how good everyone is.

"I think to win again, to get the second one was more important for me."

Remarkably for someone ranked so highly, Woad will compete in the US Open as a professional for the first time. She does so having posted high finishes in the past three majors.

As an amateur, she shared third place at the Evian Championship last July, narrowly missing out on the play-off, won by Grace Kim.

She backed that up by finishing joint-eighth at the AIG Women's Open at Royal Porthcawl and was tied for seventh at the Chevron.

On current form, Woad is Britain's best hope to emulate Dame Laura Davies (1987) and Alison Nicholas (1997), the only other UK winners of America's national championship.

Professional life has been such a whirlwind that Woad does not readily recognise her encouraging form in the five biggest events on the women's calendar. "I kind of forgot," she smiled.

"They're so spread out, it's kind of hard to remember where you finished in the majors. But yeah, I've been playing pretty nicely in them.

"US Open, I'm assuming, is going to be set up tough like it always is. So Riviera, I've heard great things. I'm just really excited to go see that course and, yeah, ready for the challenge that is US Open."

Always as much a test of tenacity as technique, Woad is bidding to keep the Harton S Semple Trophy in European hands after Maja Stark's victory at Erin Hills last year. Kettering's Charley Hull is the other big British hope but missed the cut in New Jersey last week.

Woad appears to be revelling in tour life. The hardest question for her to answer concerns the worst bits of being pro golfer. "I don't know, I mean, I love it," she said.

"It's pretty cool for me to play golf and it'd be my job, but obviously there's a lot of travel involved. I think it's probably the worst bit.

"You know, we play a pretty rigorous schedule in the LPGA. I've already been to Asia twice this year and I've been to the West Coast to do two different swings.

"I live in Florida. So a lot of travel that maybe doesn't quite flow as well as it as it should, but I know they're working on that."

Nevertheless, Woad describes her mood as "relaxed and pretty confident" and she is buoyed by the way her beloved Leeds United comfortably preserved their Premier League status.

In women's golf, she is one of the in-form players heading into the sport's biggest week. Woad is comfortable, though, that Chevron champion Korda will command most attention in the build-up to the Pacific Palisades event.

"She's obviously going to be one of the favourites and always is at most events she plays," Woad said.

"I will try and go under the radar a little bit. I'm not sure if I'll be able to or not, but I think for this year, I have been able to kind of quietly get on with things a little bit more than I could do last summer."

Given Woad's explosive start to her pro career, it is perhaps prudent to question how much longer that will remain the case.