It was an exciting week in women’s golf action from around the globe, catch up on what happened here:
LPGA
Lottie Woad, the 22-year-old from England in the second year of her professional career , won for the second time on the LPGA Tour at the Kroger Queen City Championship with a two-stroke victory over Korea’s Haeran Ryu.
It looked early like Woad may cruise to an easy win, but a costly double bogey on the front nine gave Haeran Ryu a legitimate chance at her fourth career victory. Woad stayed steady from there, going one under on her final 12 holes. During that stretch, Ryu had a couple critical mistakes of her own, with a bogey on the 10th hole and a double on the par 4 13.
The city of Cincinnati has seen one of the strongest groups of LPGA Tour winners with Woad joining Charley Hull, Lydia Ko, Minjee Lee and Ally Ewing. Woad and Ryu, ranked No. 10 and No. 12 respectively in the Rolex Rankings, should be in the top 10 when the new rankings are released today.
This was Woad’s sixth top-15 finish of the LPGA Tour season in 10 starts and her third top-10. She is gearing up for her first Solheim Cup this week, which this win helped her already inevitable position on Team Europe.
Other Notes:
- This was the first start of the season for Nelly Korda that she didn’t finish in the top two. Still, she didn’t show signs of poor form in any way, still notching her seventh top-10 finish. She is two away from tying her mark from a year ago.
- Ruoning Yin continues to play some of the best golf in the world, notching her third top-five finish in a row with a fourth-place finish in Cincinnati. She should be one of the favorites as we approach the beginning of major season.
- Jin Young Ko’s third round took her away from contention, but this was a massive week for the 15-time LPGA Tour winner trying to find some form. Ko had three fantastic weeks where she looked like the player who dominated much of the late 2010’s.
- Rose Zhang notched a 12th place finish that should be enough to get her in position to play in the U.S. Open in Los Angeles, near her hometown of Irvine.
LET
The story of the week in women’s golf happened on the Ladies European Tour at the German Masters, where 28-year-old Leonie Harm won for the first time in her professional career.
In 2013, Harm was struck by a drunk driver and was nearly killed. She was placed in a medically-induced coma and given little chance to ever walk again. Harm did recover and went on to have a fantastic amateur career while playing college golf at the University of Houston, where she was a two-time conference player of the year. After turning professional, the biggest moment of her career was probably a top-10 finish at the 2021 Women’s Open.
Until Now.
Harm won by one stroke over the LET points leader Casandra Alexander despite a 75 in her second round. The win took place in her home country, where she said she had plenty of support from the local crowds.
Other Notes:
- Alexander continues to play strong golf and should be taken as a serious threat in major champions, even if many American women’s golf fans may not know her name.
- German golf quietly seems to be in a very good place right now. Esther Henseleit is a very consistent player on the LPGA Tour and Alexandra Försterling and Helen Briem should be names that get consideration for the European Solheim Cup team.
Epson Tour
The Epson Tour saw a former LPGA Tour player, fighting to get her card back, win this week in Utah. Fiona Xu won by three strokes with a consistent three rounds where she never shot higher than 68.
Xu, from New Zealand, finished No. 8 in the 2024 Race for the Card Standings, but really has struggled since. Xu made just two cuts in 12 starts on the LPGA Tour in 2025, in her first event of the season and in the Dow Championship. She didn’t have any rounds in the 60s and finished her season off with an 89 at the Kroger Queen City Championship.
This season, Xu hadn’t made any cuts, with her only three-round performance coming at the no-cut IOA Championship. This week could be a big momentum driver for a player that is still young at only 21-years-old.
Other Notes:
- Former junior superstar Gianna Clemente had her best finish on the Epson Tour so far, finishing fifth. She now moves into the top 25 in the Race for the Card.
- Kaleiya Romero, sister of top amateur Kiara Romero, had a good week once again finishing in the top 15. She doesn’t yet have a win on the season but she should be a candidate to make the jump to the LPGA Tour if she continues this form.
- Outside of maybe Amari Avery, nobody on the Epson Tour is in better form than Annabelle Pancake-Webb, who had her second top-five finish in a row and third of the season. She sits at No. 4 in the Race for the Card standings, despite not having any wins yet.
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