AUGUSTA, Ga. — Lottie Woad takes two practice strokes, her head peering over at the cup as she rehearses her ideal follow-through. She shuffles her feet forward, separating them to shoulder width as she gently places her left hand on her leather grip. She rests her mallet putter behind the ball. One more look. She pulls the trigger.

Behind every triumph at Augusta National is a process. Woad has hers down to a science.

The Florida State sophomore’s pre-putt ritual over that 16-footer on No. 18 — the one that capped off her birdie-birdie finish to come back and win the Augusta National Women’s Amateur by one shot — was a routine she has executed thousands of times. All she had to do was stick to it. That part was never in doubt for the 20-year-old.

It turns out that following a game plan is Woad’s specialty. Her Augusta National course management strategy has been mapped out since she first played it during the 2023 ANWA final round. Her practice sessions are scheduled down to the minute. She recently started working with a sports psychologist to learn breathing techniques for critical moments. Anytime she spots a leaderboard, Woad stares it down: She wants to know exactly where she stands, at all times.

“Lottie is almost an obsessive-compulsive golfer,” says Steve Robinson, Woad’s caddie on Sunday and her coach for the England national team. “But you need a little bit of that to be a great player.”

The winning moment for Lottie Woad.#ANWAGolf pic.twitter.com/bedGPJ4wRQ

— Augusta National Women’s Amateur (@anwagolf) April 6, 2024

On Sunday, Woad’s behind-the-scenes preparation — and unwavering trust in it — was validated to the highest degree, especially when her beloved plan was momentarily shattered in pieces.

That tends to happen on this golf course.

As Bailey Shoemaker stormed ahead, stringing birdie after birdie together en route to a final-round scoring record of 66, Woad knew she needed to give herself a handful of birdie chances on the gettable closing holes to make up some ground. But after a disastrous series of misses on the 13th hole, it became suddenly apparent that she’d have to dig even deeper.

On the par 5 that closes out Amen Corner, Woad blocked her tee shot, badly. There aren’t many places to miss a tee shot on the sweeping dogleg, but the righthand side didn’t do her any favors. Woad then misjudged the wind and placed her lay-up significantly farther back than she intended. She hooked her pitching wedge approach to the green. The trouble didn’t stop after she reached the putting surface.

“I want to say my first putt was going in the water, I hit it so hard, and luckily it stopped,” Woad said.

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She walked away with a bogey. Shoemaker was pulling ahead — the USC sophomore suddenly had a two-shot lead. What Woad did next won’t necessarily make the highlight reels, but it epitomizes how and why she won this golf tournament.

“The bogey was the turning point for her,” says Florida State head coach Amy Bond. “It’s like, OK, I didn’t come here to finish second.”

Still brushing off her blunders, Woad’s 14th tee shot hit a tree, leaving her 215 yards in, a positon far too long to put any sort of spin on her approach. The shot skirted past the pin and came to rest long of the green, a nearly impossible position for an up-and-down. Woad’s chip trickled onto the putting surface, but it was never going to stay close: She left herself with a 10-footer to save par. A 10-footer to stay in it.

Woad, ranked fourth in the world among amateur female golfers, might have veered off of her road map on that 14th green, but the mentality behind it — the methodical, even-keeled drive that is evidently in her blood — got her back on track. That innate ability to stay in the moment, never getting too high or too low but staying fierce enough to compete, is Woad’s secret weapon. Well, it’s not so secret anymore.

She curled in the putt and walked away with par.

“(I learned) that I’m never out of it,” Woad said. “When it was tough out there, I hung in. That’s going to give me a lot of confidence. Mistakes are bound to happen around this course. It just wasn’t a good time for me to make one, but I did, and it happens. I just stayed calm and knew that I could get some back.”

That she did. Woad made three pressure-packed mid-range putts for birdie in her final four holes. Whether she knew it or not, she was always prepared to make those three birdies.

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On the 18th green, the humble college sophomore called an uncharacteristic audible as her ball made its final rotation into the center of the cup. Woad raised her right forearm ever-so-slightly and clenched her fingers.

“I’ll rarely first pump. I probably threw a little one in there,” Woad said. “That’s probably the most you’ll get out of me.”

That’s the thing about game plans. Sometimes the most satisfying part is earning the privilege to abandon them.

(Top photo: Warren Little / Getty Images)