On Sunday, Lottie Woad enjoyed what is becoming a regular tradition in her pro career.
With a final-round 69 at the Kroger Queen City Championship in Cincinnati, Woad, who is 22, won her second LPGA event (and third event in total) since turning pro in the middle of last year. Woad’s victory was the latest highlight in her rapid climb up the food chain in the women’s game. It was also a moment of affirmation for one of her more … eclectic competitive rituals: a bag of gummy bears that has served as her good-luck charm.
As the story goes, the tradition started with Woad’s caddie, David Taylor, a veteran LPGA looper who evidently shares her sweet tooth.
“So, back in the UK, we’ve got kind of little supermarket called Marks & Spencer, and they do this sweet called Percy Pigs, and it just so happened that Singapore had one of these little small supermarkets, and I came across it one night when we were out for dinner,” Taylor said. “So, I took them and I put them in the bag, and I said, ‘These are some birdie sweets.’”
Caddies are famously adept at discovering motivational tools for their players, and in Taylor’s case, the key to Woad’s heart was simple.
“Now, every player is driven by different things, some are financially driven, Lotte is in fact driven by sweets,” he said. “So, I put them in the bag, and I said, ‘Every birdie you make, we get one each.’ So it’s not she’s going to hit some mad sugar rush or anything.”
Woad is careful to point out that she’s not exactly housing gummy bears during the course of competition. The candies are a boost that helps to break up the monotony of life on the road.
“I don’t know, we’ve done it the last few events that we remembered,” Woad said with a grin. “Yeah, I think people think that we’re like stuffing our faces with sweets during the round, but like realistically we’re eating like four gummy bears.”
But Woad’s moment in the sun at the Kroger Queen City Championship was dually rewarding, and not just for the sugar high of a pro victory. As Taylor explained in an interview with SiriusXM, he’d made his pro an unusual promise: The next time she won an event, she could choose the design for the next tattoo on her caddie’s body.
Woad’s victory in Cincy meant that she had earned that right, and as you might expect, there was only one option that made sense.
“Actually, about one hour ago, I got a text message from her, and she’s finally chosen what to get,” Taylor said with a laugh. “She’s chosen the piece, and it is, in fact, going to be a little gummy bear with a crown on it.”
A gummy bear with a crown — fitting for the first crowning of a new LPGA heavyweight player-caddie pairing … and one that just so happened to come in the Queen City.