Matthew makes strong case
● Outstanding Solheim Cup record sets up Scot to lead the team at Gleneagles
behind Laura, but two years is a long time. I think it’s time for some younger players to take over. It was an amazing week for me. Initially, I was disappointed not to be playing, then excited about being vice-captain, then I did get in. I’m just pleased that I played so well.
“It was difficult coming in as a last-minute replacement, and I had some big shoes to fill taking over from Suzann, but I certainly felt that I did my part for the team. Let’s hope this will be the catalyst for a strong finish to my season. It’s given me a lot of confidence as I played some good golf on all three days, though especially in the singles. I played really appointed as one of Sorenstam’s vice captains for this encounter and, despite having to switch to a playing mode, that would still seem to be a logical appointment. If anything, in fact, the Scot’s impressive performance can only have strengthened her credentials, especially as she will now have earned the respect of younger Europeans such as Georgia Hall.
Asked about the 2019 captaincy, Matthew, who had her mum, Joan, almost bursting with pride as she watched from outside the ropes here, said: “It is tough to think about that right now, but I have said before I’d like to do it. I think it would be a tremendous honour, especially to get to do it in your home country.”
Appetites for the event’s third staging on Scottish soil after Dalmahoy in 1992 and Loch Lomond eight years later should certainly have been whetted by a fantastic spectacle in Des Moines. Some of the golf over the three days was probably the best witnessed in the event, with Lexi Thompson, for example, covering seven holes in eight under par as she recovered from being four down at the turn against Nordqvist in the singles to finish all square.
“Definitely,”repliedmatthew when asked if the event was a boost for the next match, even though the result means the Americans will be heading to Perthshire with a chance of claiming a third hat-trick. “Hopefully a lot of people have watched it at home on TV. From what I’ve read, it has been a fantastic spectacle on television. The bigger the crowds the better at Gleneagles. As players, we thrive on having lots of people out watching.”
As she closed this particular Solheim Cup chapter, Matthew admitted it was “difficult” to pick out a particular highlight but settled on the 2002 match at Barseback in Sweden. “That was my first winning team (she played on three) and I got the winning point against Rosie [Jones] in the singles. That was probably the most special,” she said. Watching on TV back home in North Berwick, her two young daughters, Katie and Sophie, seemed more impressed about what mum was wearing on this occasion than for her golf. “Very slightly,” she said, smiling, to being asked if this performance would make her cool with her kids. “Their biggest comment was that I was wearing a skirt. That went down well. I got the seal of approval for that.” The countdown has now started in earnest to the 2019 Solheim Cup at Gleneagles and Scottish fans are being urged to give the same wholehearted backing to the event as the Ryder Cup at the same venue three years ago.
”I think there’s huge interest in golf events in Scotland, but my worry for 2019 is, will the Scottish public come out?” admitted Paul Bush, Eventscotland’s chief operating officer as the baton was handed over for the next instalment in the transatlantic tussle. “Without being critical, I think there is a degree of complacency in Scotland. We are blessed with so many golf events, week in, week out, but we have to try and make the Solheim Cup a bucket-list event.
“In 2014, people all wanted to go to the Commonwealth Games. They didn’t know what it was. But it stuck out. They felt, we’ve got to go. I think there was some of that with the Ryder Cup, but none of that with the Solheim.
“Some people don’t know the Solheim is coming. They don’t know what it is, and they certainly don’t understand the talented group of athletes from Europe and America. It is a unique combination.”
Attendances at both the Aberdeen Asset Management Ladies Scottish Open at Dundonald Links and the Ricoh Women’s British Open at Kingsbarns last month were pretty poor, though, in fairness, the weather during both events didn’t help in that respect.
“I was really quite disappointed about those two weeks as this is world-class sport,” added Bush. “My concern looking forward is we’ve got to get to a position where people still consider it worthwhile investing in golf events.
“We are by far and away the most proactive, successful golf nation in Europe in terms of events. We are streets ahead