Raised in North Berwick playing golf on the links Catriona Matthew claimed her most famous victory at the seaside when she won the British Women’s Open seven years ago so the mild disapproval she voices at finding herself preparing for the event on an inland course is wholly understandable.
In some ways this feels like a reversion to old ways by organisers since the Woburn complex, set in scenic Buckinghamshire woodland, hosted the event in eight of the 11 years before it was accorded ‘major’ status in 2001.
Since then it has been taken inland on only three occasions, each time at Sunningdale, while St Andrews, Turnberry, Lytham, Birkdale and Hoylake have all taken turns to host European women’s golf’s most prestigious tournament, while it will return to the Scottish coast next year to Kingsbarns and Matthew reckons that is how things should be.
“This is a nice course and the facilities here are great, but I think it’s a shame when it’s not on a links course,” she said.
“You think of that when you think of the British don’t you? You think of it being at a St Andrews, or Turnberry or Lytham… a links course. But I can understand why they come here. They’ll get good crowds.”
That point was reinforced by Brittany Lang, the Texan who won the US Women’s Open last month when she observed: “It’s kind of fun to play links golf. This is just like the rest of our tour.”
While, then, much play was made of Henrik Stenson becoming the latest man to win the Open earlier this month having warmed up by playing on links at the Scottish Open, that suggests Matthew will have gained little benefit from having spent last week at the Dundonald in Ayrshire playing in the Scottish Women’s Open, however she still feels she benefitted.
“It’s always nice to play under tournament conditions,” she said.
“I’ve always liked to play before big tournaments just having to take a score.”
As to her form?
“I feel as though I’ve been playing well this year so I’m looking forward to it.”
Well and truly in the veteran category, particularly when compared with the teenage winners of the first two ‘majors’ of the year, New Zealand’s Lydia Ko at the ANA Inspiration and Canada’s Brooke Henderson at the Women’s PGA Championship, Matthew is among the relative few who can remember playing in a British Women’s Open at Woburn, albeit she pointed out that the Marquess Course was not even built when this event was last here in 1999.
One player who should benefit from the choice of venue is Charley Hull, the 20-year-old who will be Matthew’s teammate at next month’s Olympics in Rio and grew up playing at Woburn, but she suggested that her local knowledge is of little benefit because she spends the summer competing so normally plays it in very different conditions.
Furthermore Hull seemed to acknowledge that something may have been lost in the choice of venue, observing: “This is kind of American. It’s quite similar to the courses we play on the LPGA Tour.”
She added that with her caddie on the bag she is playing it completely differently to the way she does when out with her friends so, one way or another, the impression is that home advantage has been pretty much negated for the leading British contenders.
The venue choice seems, too, to have played into the hands of the sport’s latest girl-wonder since Henderson, that most recent ‘major’ winner, struggled at Turnberry last year but said of the Marquess Course: “It’s my second Ricoh Women’s British Open and I love the course this year. It’s not the traditional links style, kind of more tree-lined which I won my first major on.”
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