ST. ANDREWS, Scotland – Catriona Matthew will take her last stroll over the Swilcan Bridge this week.
She’s hoping it’s on Sunday.
“I believe this would be the final time I play on this occasion,” stated the 54-year-old Matthew, who hails from close by Edinburgh and famously received her solely main title on the 2009 Ladies’s Open at Royal Lytham, simply 11 weeks after giving start.
“I’ve no phantasm,” she continued. “I’m not going to be successful the occasion, however I believe a purpose for me this week could be to try to make the minimize. You don’t need to come and hold taking part in within the occasion if 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.”
Matthew, who’s taking part in her first world-ranked occasion since final yr’s AIG Ladies’s Open, hasn’t made a minimize at this championship since 2020. Her final top-10 got here in 2016 when he tied for fifth at Woburn. At St. Andrews, Matthew’s report features a T-7 (2007) and T-11 (2013).
She’s spent a lot of this yr not taking part in however making ready for the Curtis Cup at Sunningdale, the place she’s going to captain the Nice Britain and Eire squad in a pair weeks.
“My report in all probability hasn’t been pretty much as good as I’d have appreciated on this occasion,” Matthew stated. “I believe earlier than that I simply tried too arduous, put an excessive amount of strain on myself coming again. Taking part in in Britain, you’re desirous to play effectively in entrance of the house followers and household and mates. Delighted that I managed to get the win the one time however want my report had maybe been slightly bit higher than it was.”
Matthew will tee it up alongside fellow Ladies’s Open champions Stacy Lewis and Karrie Webb for the primary two rounds across the Outdated Course.
“She’s been such an incredible competitor and to go up in opposition to her in Solheim Cup and watch her be a frontrunner there, and he or she’s actually turn out to be a frontrunner in girls’s golf I really feel like off the golf course and has helped us proceed to develop,” Lewis stated. “It’s simply an enormous honor for me to get to play along with her.”
She may have a front-row seat to Matthew’s Swilcan goodbye.
