Lottie Woad holds nerve to clinch Queen City Championship title in Ohio

[p]The 22-year-old rising star from Surrey had taken a grip on the tournament with a scintillating five-under-par 65 on Saturday that gave her a three-shot lead heading into Sunday's final round at Maketwah Country Club in Cincinnati.[/p][p][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/woad-lottie/z9mmqaAC/"]Woad[/a] got off to a dream start, with two birdies in her opening five holes to drop to 13 under, before a double-bogey on the sixth checked her progress.[/p][p]However, she hit back with a bogey on the next hole and then completed the back nine at level par to clinch her second LPGA Tour title after her victory at the Scottish Open last July.[/p][p]Her closing 69 left her on 12 under for the tournament with an aggregate 268, two shots clear of South Korea's [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/hae-ran-ryu/8fKOxFeb/"]Ryu Hae-ran[/a], who finished on 10 under after a three-under-par 67 final round.[/p][p]The victory was the latest stop on what has been a meteoric rise for Woad, who this time last year was preparing to play in the US collegiate championship before breaking through with a maiden LPGA win in Scotland two months later.[/p][embed guid="2a426dce-4ca3-4a5a-827a-8448e42b4369" url="https://x.com/LPGA/status/2056132511877448074?s=20" social-type="twitter" /][p][b]"This one is definitely a little sweeter than the first one because I wasn't really expecting it,"[/b] Woad said.[/p][p][b]"This one I've seen how good everyone is out there, so it's good to win again. I just played pretty good tee-to-green. I hit a lot greens, hit a lot of fairways. And it's pretty windy out there, so I think that was the key obviously to having the lead."[/b][/p][p]Japan's [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/yamashita-masayuki/4W1zfoM4/"]Miyi Yamashita[/a] finished third on nine under after running out of holes in a dazzling six-under-par 64.[/p][p]The 24-year-old from Osaka's round included a run of four straight birdies to finish, but it was not enough to pull her closer to Woad on the leaderboard.[/p][p][b]"It's been a while since I had a good score like this, and the wind was strong, but I was able to play with a really good feeling throughout the round,"[/b] Yamashita said.[/p][p]China's [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/yin-ruoning/Ye6tQIW5/"]Yin Ruoning[/a] was four shots off the lead on eight under after carding a four-under-par 66, one shot ahead of [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/doherty-amanda/Iwfdgo1j/"]Amanda Doherty[/a] of the United States and South Korea's [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/ko-jin-young/8KXKMJBN/"]Ko Jin-Young[/a], who tied for fifth place on seven under.[/p]