ARIYA JUTANUGARN was certainly made to work for her Ladies Scottish Open title but the rewards made the effort well worth it. Not only did the Thai pick up the winner’s trophy and a cheque for £225,000 at a soaking wet Gullane but the 22-year-old’s victory also ensured she jumped up two places to reclaim the world number one spot she held for two weeks in June of last year.

If the first two days of the tournament saw the course bathed in gorgeous sunshine, the weekend could not have been more different with the players having to battle with brutal winds on Saturday and almost constant rain yesterday.

Jutanugarn was joint leader going into the final round and she started off in solid fashion, going through the first five holes in one under par. Her sole bogey of the day came at the sixth before three consecutive birdies consolidated her place at the top of the leaderboard. Her strongest challenge was coming from Australia’s Minjee Lee and when the Thai, who was one up going into 18, went into the rough from her tee shot on the last, it looked like the Aussie might nick it at the death.

But Lee missed a birdie putt from five feet and Jutanugarn saved par to to clinch victory on thirteen under, with both shooting a final day 66.

South Korea was well-represented on the leaderboard with Jin Young Ko and Haeji Kang tying for third ahead of their compatriot Amy Yang and the top European, Carlota Ciganda and the leader after two rounds, Tiffany Joh, bounced back after a poor third round to finish with a 70 to finish to tie for eighth place.

Jutanugarn, who won the US Women’s Open last month, came into this week admitting she did not like links golf in the slightest but that a links win was on her bucket-list. That is now ticked-off.

“This win means a lot to me because before this, I never thought I could win on a links course,” she admitted.

“Coming into this week though, I told my caddie that I really want to win on a links course, even just once in my life. It feels good to win the tournament but I also had so much fun because this really challenged me.”

Following her victory, Jutanugarn will go into the Women’s British Open on Thursday as one of the favourites to take the title. The 11-time LPGA winner is reluctant to put too much pressure on herself though.

“I feel pretty good about my game but there are still things that I want to improve like my short game,” she said.

“I don’t know if I can win next week. I know it’s going to be tough and it will be hard conditions. But I feel a lot better on a links course now so I hope I’ll be able to bring my A-game to the Open.”

Best of the Brits was Bronte Law who finished in a tie for seventeenth on three under par while the top Scot was Kelsey MacDonald whose 74 yesterday saw her finish in a tie for 59th place on three over for the tournament, which wasn’t enough to claim one of the three available spots for this week’s Women’s British Open at Royal Lytham St Annes.

As a result, on completing her final round at Gullane yesterday, MacDonald last night embarked on the five-hour drive down to Lancashire to fight for a spot in the fourth major of the year at today’s final Open qualifying.

MacDonald may have been disappointed with elements of her game yesterday but she has good form in qualifying competitions having made it through to the US Open from final qualifying last year. And so despite her final round and her lack of practice on today’s qualifying course, she is hopeful she can do enough in today’s 18-hole shoot-out to grab a spot for the Open.

“I didn’t play particularly great – my short game was poor and that’s what let me down,” she said of yesterday’s round.

“There’s a lot of qualifying spots available (today) but unfortunately I’m going to be playing it blind. But that’s the way it is – my preparation was for this week and that’s paid off . I’m yet to get into a British Open so fingers crossed – I’d really love to be there.”

Someone who did have better luck in terms of grabbing a Women’s Open spot was Cheyenne Woods, Tiger’s niece, who shot 71 yesterday. The American finished on level par, tied for 35th place, to ensure she will be on the first tee at Royal Lytham on Thursday and the 28-year-old admitted she was thrilled to have avoided today’s qualification event.

“I was thinking about the chance of qualifying,” she revealed.

“I was tracking down who was in and who wasn’t going into today and where I stood. My goal was to get into red numbers, I thought that would give me a great shot. Unfortunately I didn’t manage that but thankfully it was still enough.”

Woods watched Tiger’s resurgence at last week’s Open with relish although she admitted his impressive performance did not surprise her in the slightest.

“It’s exciting to see him back up on top and playing well," she said.

"He looked like he was in total control of his game so it was really good to see. I think we all see he’s got that confidence and the game to back it up."

Woods has never played Royal Lytham but she admitted she will more than likely be on the phone over the next few days to Tiger, who has played three Opens there, with his best finish a tie for third in 2012. “I might give him a call and see if he has any two cents he can share,” she said.