By Zach Cavanagh
It took some time, but Ryann O’Toole is finally a winner on the LPGA Tour.
After 228 starts on the LPGA Tour, O’Toole, a 2005 San Clemente High School graduate, closed out her first career tour victory with a bogey-free, 8-under-par 64 in the final round to win the Trust Golf Women’s Scottish Open on Sunday, Aug. 15, at Dunbarnie Links in Fife, Scotland.
O’Toole, 34, finished 17-under-par for the tournament to hold off a hard charge by world No. 6 Lydia Ko of New Zealand, who finished three strokes behind O’Toole despite a course-record 63 in the final round.
“I still feel like I’m in shock and the tears are going to come later when things die down,” O’Toole told The Associated Press. “I’m excited and happy. The hours and grind and heartache this sport brings, the constant travel, for this moment, I hope it only happens again and again.”
It’s been quite the journey for O’Toole to this first tour win.
O’Toole graduated from UCLA in 2009, and after three wins on the Symetra Tour, she earned her LPGA card in 2011. O’Toole had her share of highlights with 11 top-10 finishes coming into 2021, including three top-10s each in 2016 and 2018, but she had never finished higher than third, which she did twice in 2016.
“I’ve been obviously working my whole life for this and dreaming about it since I was a kid,” O’Toole said to LPGA.com. “I feel like 10 years now, wondering, when is it going to happen, and I just feel like this year’s been very much kind of aligning and things are falling together, and I just was trying to stay patient.”
In the Scottish Open, O’Toole shot a 4-under 68 in the first round, 1-under 71 in the second round and another 4-under 68 to enter the final round in a tie for the lead. O’Toole jumped into the pole position with birdies on the first three holes. O’Toole was caught on the sixth hole, but she regained the lead with a birdie on the ninth hole and never looked back.
Zach Cavanagh
Zach Cavanagh is the sports editor for Picket Fence Media. Zach is a multiple California Journalism Award winner and has covered sports in Orange County since 2013. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram @ZachCav and follow our sports coverage on Twitter @SouthOCSports. Email at zcavanagh@picketfencemedia.com.
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