Former champion Catriona Matthew has introduced that she can be enjoying in her last Ladies’s Open on the Previous Course at St Andrews this week.
Marking her thirty first look within the main championship, the 2009 champion will wave goodbye to her residence followers within the residence of golf along with her husband, Graeme, as her caddie.
Her acknowledged aim is to make the lower, largely in order that her teenage daughters, who return to highschool on Thursday, can watch her play over the weekend.
At 54, Matthew is eligible to play within the Ladies’s Open till she’s 59, however has determined that she doesn’t wish to play if she’s not aggressive. She’s going to have fun her fifty fifth birthday on Sunday.
“I’ve no illusions. I’m not going to be profitable the occasion, however I believe a aim for me this week can be to try to make the lower. You don’t wish to come and hold enjoying within the occasion once you’re not aggressive. It simply felt being in St Andrews, in Scotland, the House of Golf, what higher place to play my final one?” she mentioned.
When requested if she’s going to make an emotional farewell on the Swilcan Bridge, she added: “I don’t learn about that; I’m nonetheless sort of aggressive.
“I believe most likely in a manner, it is going to be just a little little bit of a mix of aid, figuring out myself that this would be the final one I’m going to play in. Clearly, you’ll be just a little unhappy that you simply’re not within the occasion. It’s so huge now and it’s such a buzz once you come to those occasions to play in them. However I’ve realised, you’ve simply obtained to, at 55, you’re not going to be aggressive sufficient as I wish to be. Every part involves an finish.”
Matthew made her debut within the Ladies’s British Open, because it was identified then, in 1994 at Woburn, enjoying as an newbie, alongside Trish Johnson, along with her mum as her caddie. She has recorded eight top-10 finishes within the championship, together with the spotlight, her victory at Royal Lytham in 2009, simply 11 weeks after giving beginning to her second daughter.
“I believe on the time in 2009, 11 weeks after I’d had Sophie. Clearly the second was just a little bit simpler so it was simpler to come back again, however on the time you simply get on with it and also you don’t actually realise. It’s most likely not till you look again and mirror on it you assume, God, how did I try this?”
The double-winning European Solheim Cup captain, who led Europe to victory in 2019 and 2021, and likewise made 9 appearances as a participant, can be grouped with 2023 and 2024 US Staff Captain Stacy Lewis and Australian Corridor of Famer Karrie Webb for the primary two rounds, enjoying at 7.33am from the tenth on Thursday.
Matthew’s management legacy will proceed when she leads the GB&I Curtis Cup Staff in opposition to america facet at Sunningdale in England subsequent week. On Tuesday, she performed a practise spherical with GB&I staff member Lottie Woad.
