THE tag of golfing Supermum was accepted with quiet, modest reluctance.
"I don't know about that; aren't all mums Supermums?," suggested Catriona Matthew in the aftermath of her Women’s British Open win at Royal Lytham in 2009.
Nearly a decade on, the 48-year-old will head back to England’s golf coast this week and reacquaint herself with the course upon which she conjured, well, the mother of all triumphs. Just 11 weeks after given birth to her second child, Matthew became the first Scottish female to win a Major. Here in 2018, she remains the last player from this country to claim one of golf’s ultimate prizes.
“I’ve never been back to Lytham since that and it’s amazing to think the British Open has never been back either,” reflected Matthew ahead of this return to a very happy hunting ground for the 2018 edition of the championship. “Graeme [her husband] is going to caddie for me again and come out of retirement. It will be great. Any time you get to go back to a course where you’ve had success is special. The fact it was my first Major makes it even more special.”
Prior to that 2009 event, Matthew, her husband and a host of other LPGA Tour players had to scamper from a blazing hotel during the Evian Masters. Matthew caught fire on the links the following week as she harnessed the rigours of Lytham to win by three shots from Karrie Webb. She was the only player to finish under-par.
“It was a bit of blur that whole week,” said Matthew. “It was quite a long time afterwards that I realised the magnitude of the feat. It was 11 weeks after Sophie was born. But you just got on with what was required; feeding and all that. You look back and think, ‘that was quite amazing’.
“I just went to the Open with no expectations and no pressure on myself. If only I could get that feeling every time I play? It was almost a one off. Going there, I thought a top-20 would be good and that was my goal. After the second round, the prospect of winning became a possibility but, if I’m honest, I still didn’t think I could do it. After the third round I was still up there and that changed the thinking.”
Matthew held a three stroke advantage heading into that final round and, despite an early wobble which led to her leaking two shots on her first three holes, the Scot did enough to stave off the menacing advances of Webb, who closed with a 68. Matthew’s one-over 73 got the job done.
Let the celebrations begin? Well, in a fashion. “My dad wasn’t that well back in 2009 and my mum was being a real trooper looking after things,” Matthew recalled. “They came on the Friday and I was doing media stuff and both Katie [her other daughter] and Sophie started screaming and howling and my mum said, ‘I’m not coming back’. On the Sunday after I’d won, my mum had been doing the three in the morning feed up until then so I said I’d get up and do it. I was sitting there with a cup of tea with the trophy on the table. My mum woke up and the three of us were sitting there. I was sitting there with Sophie feeding her and we were celebrating with our cup of tea.”
Scottish golf toasted her historic success with something a bit stronger.
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