One player has singlehandedly set the golf world ablaze with her incredible performance this season. Lottie Woad first turned heads earlier this summer when she dominated at the KPMG Women’s Irish Open, winning by six shots… as an amateur.
She nearly followed that up with a major victory, finishing T3 at the Amundi Evian Championship, just one shot shy of a playoff. And she didn’t stop there. After announcing her decision to turn pro two weeks prior, Woad won the Scottish Open and made history as the third woman ever to win in her professional debut — a mic-drop moment that let players know she’s a force to be reckoned with.
Throughout her exciting breakout season, one aspect of Woad’s game that’s drawn attention is her putting. She’s currently tied for fourth on the LET for Average Putts per GIR, with an average of 1.72 putts over 115 greens in regulation. She’s also tied for fifth on the LET for Average Putts per Hole, averaging 1.63 putts over 144 holes played. Simply put, once Woad is on the green, she’s dangerous.
However, during a press conference on Tuesday at the FM Championship, Woad revealed that her putting chops might have something to do with a simple change she made with her coach a couple of years ago.
The change? Switching the color she used to mark her ball.
Why Woad changed the way she marked her ball
If you look closely, you’ll notice that Woad marks her ball with a long, red line. But she didn’t always do this. About two years prior, Woad marked her ball with the same long line — only in black ink.
For Woad, as with many other tour pros, this bold line serves as an alignment aid, helping players ensure their putterface is aimed precisely at their intended start line.
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So, when Woad and her putting coach noticed her aim was slightly off on putts, they worked together to find a solution. While many tour pros may have experimented with the thickness or length of the line — or even having one at all — Woad and her coach considered that color could be impacting her performance on the greens.
“We’d use SAM, which tells you your aim, and with the black line I was being inconsistent,” she said. “So I just tried a few different colors.”
After a bit of trial and error, Woad narrowed it down to two colors: red and blue.
When asked what factors led to this result, Woad explained the vibrance of the two colors allowed her to distinguish her start line with more accuracy.
“The red and blue were quite bright. With the black I feel like with the black alignment on the putter, I kind of got a bit lost in it,” she says. “It kind of just stands out a bit more to me.”
In the end, Woad went with red and hasn’t looked back since.
“I said, well, red goes with the putter shaft, so in the end I picked red and it’s been way better,” she says.
If it were anyone else, I might chalk it up to superstition, but after an electric debut season I might just have to follow in Woad’s footsteps and order a few $2 red permanent markers to try this out in my own game.
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