ST. ANDREWS, Scotland – It’s impossible to overstate the brilliance of Catriona Matthew’s major championship victory 15 years ago at Royal Lytham & St. Annes. She became the first Scot to win the Ricoh Women’s British Open just 11 weeks after giving birth to her second child.
Matthew’s Sunday night celebration involved a joyful 3 a.m. feeding at the kitchen table with her mom and daughter Sophie, a cup of tea and the trophy sitting nearby.
“I couldn’t even swing a golf club until nine weeks after birth,” said Stacy Lewis, the last mom to win on the LPGA four years ago. “I couldn’t imagine winning a golf tournament 11 weeks after having a child. I mean, that in itself is so impressive.”
Husband Graeme rightly notes that had Matthew pulled off such a feat in today’s viral age, when women’s sports enjoys a much higher profile, it would’ve been a far bigger story that it was in 2009, when British papers hailed her as a “supermum.”
“It’s probably not until you look back and reflect on it you think, God, how did I do that?” said Matthew. “Even now, myself and Graeme look back and think how did we travel with them both, traveling on tour with the two of them and all the luggage and up in the middle of the night with them. You wonder how on earth you ever managed to play any semi-decent golf.”
This week, at the venerable Old Course, Matthew will make her 30th and final appearance in the AIG Women’s British Open, which became a major in 2001. She’ll no doubt have a moment on the Swilcan Bridge to celebrate a career that included four LPGA victories, 104 top-10 finishes and two wildly successful stints as Solheim Cup captain. This will be her final LPGA appearance, though she will continue to play some senior golf.
With Matthews’ two daughters – Katie and Sophie – starting back to school on Thursday, both are keen for mom to make the cut. At 54, Matthew is exempt to play until she’s 60, but with such a small senior schedule available for female players, it’s tough to stay sharp.
“I think probably, in a way, a little bit of a mixture of relief, knowing myself that this will be the last one I’m going to play in,” said Matthew.
“Obviously you’ll be a little sad that you’re not in the event. It’s so big now and it’s such a buzz when you come to these events to play in them. But I’ve realized, you’ve just got to, at 55, you’re not going to be competitive enough as I want to be. Everything comes to an end.”
Matthew first competed in the Women’s British Open at Woburn in 1994. Her mom caddied for her that week, and she remembers being nervous to tee it up alongside LET player Trish Johnson.
Over the past three decades, Matthew has seen this event grow in massive ways, from venues to purses to behind-the-scenes trimmings.
For example, this week marks only the second time in championship history that a daycare service has been provided for tour players. Lewis was off to check it out with 5-year-old daugther Chesnee after her pre-tournament press conference at St. Andrews.
Eleven years ago, Lewis became only the second woman to win a major championship over the Old Course. The two-time major winner said the most exciting news of the week so far has been her grouping with Matthew and LPGA and World Golf Hall of Fame member Karrie Webb.
“She’s really become a leader in women’s golf, I feel like, off the golf course,” said Lewis of Matthew, “and has helped us continue to grow.”
Lewis is especially grateful for women like Matthew who paved the way for working moms.
Now she’d like to see those same women have more of a platform at the next stage, one that includes more playing opportunities, so that if champions like Matthew wanted to extend their major championship appearances, they could come in competitively sharp. It’s difficult for an LPGA player to have a Tom Watson-like run at a British Open, as he did at age 59, with so few senior events on the calendar.
“I do think it’s something as a tour, as the LPGA, that we can do better of is continuing to celebrate our past players, keeping them involved in the LPGA somehow,” said Lewis. “I think it would be very cool to see kind of a senior LPGA event with Epson players to allow the mentoring process.”
After this week’s final competitive experience over the Old Course, Matthew heads to Sunningdale to captain Great Britain and Ireland at the Curtis Cup. She played a practice round earlier this week in St. Andrews with Augusta National Women’s Amateur champion Lottie Woad.
The next generation would be wise to glean as much as they can from the tough and humble Matthew, who rather quietly became the best Scot to ever play the tour.