It was Catriona Matthew’s first significant opportunity to ensure that she has a dual role at next year’s Solheim Cup and seizing it as she did offered some consolation for her failure to capitalise on a strong position at the RICOH Women’s British Open.
A best of the day second round 65 had put her within a couple of shots of the lead when she bidied three of the first four holes of her third round she briefly shared the lead with playing partner and ultimate winner Ariya Jutanagarn before the Thai woman pulled clear.
While others closed the gap on the final day the Scottish veteran was unable to capitalise on another fine start that had seen her again birdie the second and fourth holes of her final round, but she maintained her form sufficiently to leave Annika Sorenstam, the Solheim Cup captain, in no doubt that her golfing brawn will be as useful as her brain in Des Moines next year.
“That’s nice (to be top European). It’s always nice and I hadn’t realised that,” she said after her round.
“I think it’s double (Solheim Cup) points for majors. That’s how I understand it.”
If that sounds vague it is understandably so because while the American team standings are easily found those for the European team are not and Ladies European Tour officials could shed little light on them across the weekend.
Matthew has been a regular in it for the best part of two decades, debuting in 1998 and returning after a deeply controversial absence to sink the winning putt when it was reclaimed in 2003. She is among an elite handful of Europeans to have played on three winning teams.
For all that she understandably seemed slightly tired of references to age the 46-year-old’s competitive longevity is remarkable given that she was 25 when she made her debut on the LPGA Tour all of 22 years ago. No woman over the age of 30 has claimed a win on what is women’s golf’s pre-eminent tour this season, while the average age of winners in 21 events so far is below 22.
Matthew was entitled, then, to draw some satisfaction from her performance, particularly having set her next event, the Olympics Games, as a key target.
“It’s a very good week going into Rio. It was a great field,” she observed.
“Coming into the start of the week you’d be pretty pleased with a top five finish. The position I was in it’s obviously a disappointing finish, but I take a lot from it.”
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