Catriona Matthew will be playing for her third Aberdeen Asset Management Ladies Scottish Open title at Dundonald Links from Friday.
The 45-year-old from North Berwick won twice at Archerfield Links in 2011 and 2013. Although it’s a new venue this year, she has the same goal and said: “Obviously you want to win every tournament you play in and this being the Scottish Open, it’s very special to me.”
“It’s more exposed than Archerfield and more of a links course, probably in that there are no trees.
“I think it’s great that we’ve got the likes of Lydia, Suzann and Charley in the field. Obviously they want to play some links golf ahead of Turnberry. Hopefully this event can built like the men’s one has, keeping its slot just before the British, as that can only help attract more big players in the future.”
Ranked 49th on the Women’s World Golf Rankings, Matthew is still Britain’s top woman golfer, positioned one place above Hull, 19, from England.
The 2009 Ricoh Women’s British Open champion at Royal Lytham has vast links experience and added: “I’ve been really looking forward to these two weeks. I’ve been home for 10 days and getting in some good practice. I’ve also been playing a bit. I actually played the Scottish Open layout at Gullane, as the members did on the Tuesday and Wednesday after it.”
The Scot, who holed the winning putt for Europe at The 2013 Solheim Cup in Colorado, is well placed to qualify for an eighth Solheim Cup appearance when the matches take place at St Leon-Rot in Germany in two months’ time. She is currently lying in the final automatic qualification spot from the Women’s World Rankings and added: “I’ll be trying to play well these couple of weeks and also in Portland and Canada.
“That is a big goal as I love that week. It is always great fun playing in a team. Playing match-play is also different for us.
“I feel like I am playing well. Obviously I was disappointed about the US Open but I’ve had a couple of lessons since then with Kevin Craggs and I’m hitting the ball well.”
