Catriona Matthew has become the latest golfing great to choose the Old Course at St Andrews as the venue for an Open farewell.
Scotland’s most famous course and Scotland’s most successful golfer of recent times – this week is the perfect time and place to wave goodbye to the biggest tournament Catriona won in a glittering career.
Let’s hope it’s on Sunday rather than Friday but, in the bigger picture when you look at her reputation in golf, it won’t really matter how many rounds she plays or what scores she posts.
I’m going to St Andrews on Friday and Saturday and fingers crossed I get the chance to see her hit a few shots.
Catriona is 54 and knows that her days of competing to win at the very top are behind her.
But she still gets as nervous on the first tee as she ever did, which shows how much playing well means to her.
Merely taking part in 30 Opens in a row is an achievement in itself.
Her 2009 victory, added to four titles on the American LPGA Tour and six in Europe, adds up to an incredible career.
But there’s no doubt that Catriona’s contribution to the Solheim Cup and, specifically, captaining Europe to home and away wins has elevated her status.
She’s been a once in a generation leader.
Catriona combined aura – which you can only get by achieving great things as a player – with real tactical insight and calm decision-making.
The GB&I amateurs who she will be captaining in the Curtis Cup at Sunningdale next week should be like sponges, soaking up every bit of advice they can glean.
That will be a career improvement experience money can’t buy.
Catriona is a perfect representation of Scotland as country – she doesn’t go seeking headlines or the spotlight and lets her achievements speak for themselves.
You can be sure she’ll continue to give a lot back to the game of golf and to try and help young Scottish players follow in her footsteps.
You get swamped with facts and figures when you’re at an Olympics but one of the most eye-catching was the high percentage of female athletes who are mums.
Britain had a record, nine, in Paris.
And they brought home eight medals between them.
Amber Rutter won silver just three months after giving birth, which was amazing!
It’s great to see that women’s football is starting to grasp that the days of having to sacrifice a career to be a mother are disappearing.
And they’re not alone in realising that providing childcare is a big part of getting the best out of their footballers.
There are so many examples of mums being better as athletes after they have had children than before.
I’ve seen it plenty of times in curling.
The women come back with new motivation and perspective when they’ve got family to drive them on and to give them a healthy sport-life balance.
It’s only right that governing bodies and employers take away as many hurdles as possible.
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