Charlotte Naughton is 18 years old, plays her golf at Longhirst Hall near Morpeth in Northumberland, and has qualified for the AIG Women's Open at Royal Lytham & St Annes. She told BBC Radio Newcastle she had always dreamed of playing in the tournament. Now she has two routes in.

Naughton won the European Ladies Amateur Championship in Sweden, which earned her an exemption — a guaranteed spot — in the field. She also won the AIG Women's Open Amateur Series, a season-long competition running from May to July, finishing top of the standings with 31.85 points. The tournament's official site lists her as exempt under both categories, meaning she qualified twice over AIG Women's Open.

The AIG Women's Open is one of the five major championships in women's golf. This year's edition marks the 50th anniversary of the tournament, staged at Royal Lytham & St Annes in Lancashire — a links course (the windswept, sandy, seaside type that golf was first played on) famous for its punishing bunkers and tight fairways. Charley Hull and Nelly Korda, two of the biggest names in the women's game, are among those also in the field BBC Sport.

Naughton's CV already runs deep for someone who turned 18 this year. She won the World Junior Girls Championship and the Junior Orange Bowl in Florida by seven strokes — a tournament Tiger Woods also won earlier in his career. She was part of Europe's Junior Ryder Cup team in New York in 2025. And she was the youngest member of the Great Britain & Ireland Curtis Cup team — the amateur side that faced the United States in California under captain Catriona Matthew, a former Women's Open champion herself BBC Sport.

The R&A's Curtis Cup page lists Naughton with a world amateur ranking of 60th. Her GB&I teammates included Beth Coulter, Sophia Fullbrook, Lily Hirst, Isla McDonald-O'Brien, Nellie Ong, Patience Rhodes, and Davina Xanh The R&A.

For a player who has spent her teenage years in junior and amateur ranks, Royal Lytham will be a different kind of test. The bunkers are deep enough to require sideways escapes. The wind off the Lancashire coast changes club selection from one shot to the next — a club that reaches a back pin on a calm morning might come up 30 yards short in a afternoon gust. Every shot is exposed to the weather, and four days of careful work can unravel with a single swing.

Naughton told BBC Radio Newcastle she was keen to embrace the opportunity rather than be overwhelmed by it. The step up from amateur to major-championship golf is steep, but she has spent the last two years collecting trophies on the biggest junior and amateur stages available to her. Royal Lytham is the next one.