Championships

England to meet Spain in Girls’ Amateur final

The R&A

13 Aug 22

3 mins

Lottie Woad and Cayetana Fernandez Garcia-Poggio will meet in the final of the Girls’ Amateur Championship.

History will be made tomorrow when the final of the R&A Girls’ Amateur is played alongside the Boys’ Amateur Championship for the first time at Carnoustie. Tomorrow’s 36-hole finals of both championships will also be live streamed for the first time and can be watched on The R&A’s website at www.randa.org as well as on The R&A YouTube channel. In glorious sunshine over the famous Angus links today, the pair came through quarter and semi-final ties to seal their place in the final showdown. In the 93rd Girls’ Amateur, Woad defeated fellow English player Rachel Gourley 5&4 in their semi-final while Spain’s Fernandez Garcia-Poggio beat Nathalie Borg from Sweden 4&2 in their last-four meeting.

Delight for Spaniard

Fernandez Garcia-Poggio, ranked inside the world’s top 50, won the opening hole against Borg in their last-four tie but found herself one down after the 7th. However, while Borg made three bogeys in five holes from the 8th, the Spaniard made key birdies at the 11th and 14th to ease to success. “I feel really happy,” said Fernandez Garcia-Poggio. “I’m very proud of myself again. In the afternoon I played really good golf. Tomorrow I hope I play like I did today. “Maybe this morning I was a little bit nervous so I just focused on playing well and making pars because here you can win a hole with pars. So I tried to play my best golf and focus on playing the best shots I can. I’m tired now after 36 holes but I’m very happy to be here. And I hope my family will come tomorrow to watch me.” In-form Woad, who has a win in the Sir Henry Cooper Junior Masters and five other top-ten finishes to her name this year, made a great start against Gourley after two birdies in the opening five holes. Gourley replied with an excellent eagle at the 6th but made bogeys at the 8th and 9th and then double bogeyed the 10th to hand Woad the ascendancy. Woad’s birdie at the 12th then helped her close out victory.

Lottie Woad, winner of the Sir Henry Cooper Junior Masters this year, was one of four English players to make the quarter-final stages and the only one left standing after her win over good friend Rachel Gourley in Saturday's semi-final.

Woad limits mistakes

Woad said, “It feels amazing to reach the final. I had a couple of tough matches today but I’m glad I got through. “I just kept it solid today and didn’t have too many mistakes. I didn’t have a bogey this morning and only dropped one shot today I think. It’s very easy to drop shots on this course so it’s really about trying to make your opponent make mistakes. “It’s definitely easier when you get up early because then it forces them to chase which is quite hard on this course. I had a nice start then Rachel eagled the par-5 so it got a bit tight from there. It’s a long day tomorrow, 36 holes, after a lot of rounds already so it’s going to be a lot of survival of the fittest really.”

Quarter-final round-up

Earlier, in the morning’s quarter-final ties, Woad proved too strong for Emily James from Wales to win 6&4. Fernandez Garcia-Poggio was made to battle by Eila Galitsky, the only Thai player in the field, before coming through 2&1. Borg defeated England’s Amelia Wan by one-hole while there was also a narrow victory for Gourley who came through an all-England tie with Ellise Rymer at the 19th. The Girls’ Champion tomorrow will secure exemptions into the Women’s Amateur Championship, the US Girls’ Junior, subject to age eligibility, AIG Women’s Open Final Qualifying and, by tradition, an invitation to the Augusta National Women’s Amateur. The Girls’ Amateur final tees off at 8.15am tomorrow, with the Boys’ Amateur showdown following at 8.30am. The Girls' and Boys' Amateur championships are supported by EventScotland. Follow the live blog and scoring at www.randa.org