Local heroine Catriona Matthew, the 2009 AIG Women’s Open champion, from North Berwick, will have the honour of hitting the first tee shot of the 2022 Championship at 6.30am at Muirfield on Thursday, in the company of last year’s Smyth Salver winner Louise Duncan, who has now turned professional, and Sophia Schubert, the recent runner-up at the Amundi Evian Championship, from Tennessee in the United States.
Speaking in her pre-Championship news conference on Tuesday, the twice victorious Solheim Cup captain said that it would be a great experience to be able to play a major practically on her own doorstep.
“To come and have a chance to play Muirfield in a Women’s Open, I think all the players will have watched the men play here over the years, and I think they are delighted to have that opportunity that they are now able to come here and play their own Open here. For me personally, obviously living and growing up along the road, I never would have imagined ever playing a major so close to home,” she said.
Matthew recalled being a litter-picker and a scorer at the men’s Open Championships at Muirfield as a youngster. She was a walking scorer for John Cook’s group in 1987, the year that Nick Faldo won with 18 pars.
She added: “I think it’s great to come here. Obviously over the last probably, ten years, we have started going to all The Open venues that over the last 50, 60 years, you’ve seen the men playing in, and I think that just elevates this championship that we are now going to courses that people are used to seeing The Open played on.”
Speaking of the challenge of the famous links, she said: “I think you have to try and do well on those first five holes. Certainly the front nine, I think in this wind, does play a little bit easier and the back nine, you’ve got 12, 14, 15, which are tough par 4s. I was hitting woods into I think all of them actually. And then on 17, you know, we are playing it pretty long, I would say, even though it’s downwind and 18 is no bargain. I had a wood in there as well. I think you’ve got to try and make your score in those first five holes, or first nine holes, and then kind of hang on, on the back nine.”
Despite it being tough, she described the Muirfield course as fair, rewarding good shots. “It’s not one of these ones where if you hit a shot down the middle of the fairway, you’re still watching it thinking, oh, is it going to kick into a bunker. I think here, if you hit a good shot you’re going to stay on the fairway and you’re going to stay on the green. I think in that respect, it’s probably quite fair. And I think I like the way you go in all different directions. You’ve got the wind; you’ve got it into; you’ve got it across; you’ve got it downwind. It’s a challenge because you get the wind in every direction on the holes. I think the par 3s are going to be tough. I don’t think any of the par 3s have any bail-out area. You just have to stand up and hit a good shot on them. I think (it’s good) if you can get four pars on the par 3s and obviously try to make your score in the first few holes and then kind of hang on, on the back nine.”
