Three birdies without a dropped shot on the back nine on Sunday saw Paula Reto into the AIG Women’s Open field as she finished in seventh place on her own in the ISPS Handa Women’s Scottish Open.

Reto had made two bogeys early on in her round at Dundonald Links in Troon on the second and third holes, and one of the three places up for grabs in the year’s final major championship seemed to slipping from her grasp. But she gritted her teeth and things got back on track with a birdie on the par-three 11th. Then she birdied 14 and 15 for a final round of one-under-par 71, which secured her the second of those three spots available.

She finished the week at 10-under-par. That was a gaping 11 strokes behind the winner, Lottie Woad of England, who turned her debut as a professional into a victory march. Woad’s closing four-under-par 68 gave her a three-stroke margin over runner-up Hto Joo Kim of Korea.

In a share of third was Spain’s Julia Lopez Ramirez, who took the first of the three spots for the AIG Women’s Open. The third spot went to China’s Mary Liu, who finished in 15th.

Although she was aware of the pressure on her to get that spot in the major, Reto tried to keep that to a minimum: “At the beginning of the week, I told myself I’m just going to enjoy the tournament. I’m in the tournament, here in the Scottish Open, and I love coming here and being able to play Scottish weather; it’s different.

“Obviously I love that you don’t have to hit perfect shots. So just that’s something I really love to do, and being able to qualify today, I made like a good save on the last hole. I was really hoping it would bring me in.

“I didn’t know where I was at all day. Obviously it was in my mind. I just kept reminding myself, hey, I’m here. But so many good things about this week, the people, volunteers and everything about this is great, and we had really good weather the whole week. So this is perfect.”