Catriona Matthew – Wikipedia

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Scottish professional golfer

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Catriona Isobel Matthew OBE (née Lambert; born 25 August 1969) is a Scottish professional golfer who plays mainly on the US-based LPGA Tour and is also a member of the Ladies European Tour.

Amateur career[edit]

Catriona Lambert was born in Edinburgh, and grew up in North Berwick. She learned to play golf on the Children’s Course and North Berwick West Links in the town. She had a successful junior and amateur career, becoming Scottish Girls champion in 1986 and Scottish Under-21 Stroke Play champion in 1988 and 1989. She captured the Scottish Amateur title in 1991, 1993 and 1994, and the British Amateur title in 1993.[1] She is also a two-time winner of the St Rule Trophy played at St Andrews.[2] She was a member of the 1990,[3] 1992[4] and 1994 Great Britain & Ireland Curtis Cup teams.[5] She graduated from the University of Stirling in 1992 having studied accountancy, this being one of a few British universities offering golf scholarships.[6]

Professional career[edit]

Matthew qualified for the LPGA Tour by tying for fifth at the 1994 LPGA Final Qualifying Tournament to earn exempt status for the 1995 season.[7] She soon established herself on the Tour, and her best seasons were 2001 and 2005, when she finished tenth on the money list.

Matthew also qualified for the Ladies European Tour in 1995 and plays several events on that tour each season. She won her maiden professional tournament at the Holden Women’s Australian Open in 1996.[7] She won the 1998 McDonald’s WPGA Championship on the Ladies European Tour. She was a member of the 1998 Solheim Cup Team[8] and first reserve for the 2000 matches held in her native Scotland. When Helen Alfredsson hurt her wrist she was called into the team but Alfredsson recovered and Matthew did not play.[9] She was somewhat controversially left out of the 2002 Solheim Cup team[10][11] but was a captain’s pick for the 2003 team,[12][13] gaining the Cup winning point.[14] She was a captain’s pick for the 2005 team as well.[15] She qualified outright for the 2007, 2009 and 2011 Solheim Cup teams.

She teamed with Janice Moodie to represent Scotland at the 2005[16] and 2006 Women’s World Cup of Golf.[17] and was a member of the victorious International team captained by Annika Sörenstam in the inaugural Lexus Cup.[18]

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She won the 2007 Scandinavian TPC hosted by Annika.[19]

In January 2009, she won the inaugural HSBC LPGA Brasil Cup 2009, an unofficial LPGA event with a field of 14 LPGA players and a Brazilian national amateur. Matthew was five months pregnant with her second child at the time of the victory.[20]

On 2 August 2009 at Royal Lytham & St Annes, Matthew won the Ricoh Women’s British Open with a final score of 3-under-par over second-place finisher Karrie Webb. It was her first win in a major tournament. The victory came 11 weeks after she gave birth to her second daughter, Sophie. She was the first player from Scotland to win a women’s major golf tournament.[21]

On 13 November 2011, Matthew won her fourth LPGA title at the Lorena Ochoa Invitational in Mexico.

At the 2013 LPGA Championship, Matthew finished runner-up after losing a sudden-death playoff against the world number one Inbee Park. Matthew and Park finished the tournament tied together at five-under-par, with Matthew coming from seven strokes behind Park at the start of the final round. In the playoff, they both parred the first two extra holes, but Matthew lost out on the third extra hole when Park made birdie.[22]

In July 2016, Matthew was named as a vice-captain for the 2017 Solheim Cup[23] but ended up playing in the match after an injury to Suzann Pettersen.

On 21 September 2017, Matthew was announced as captain for the 2019 Solheim Cup, which took place at Gleneagles.[24] Europe won the cup in 2019.

In October 2019, Matthew was announced as Solheim Cup captain for 2021. On 6 September 2021, Matthew led the European team to defeat the US at the Inverness Club, Toledo, Ohio.[25]

Personal life[edit]

Matthew’s husband Graeme is her caddy and on 18 December 2006 they had their first child, a daughter, Katie. Matthew gave birth to a second daughter named Sophie on 16 May 2009.[26]

In July 2009, Matthew and her husband escaped a fire at the hotel they were staying in while she played in the Evian Masters. Graeme suffered burns to his feet and was unable to caddy for two rounds.[27]

Matthew was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2010 New Year Honours[28] and Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2020 New Year Honours for services to golf.[29][30]

Professional wins (11)[edit]

LPGA Tour wins (4)[edit]

LPGA Tour playoff record (1–2)

Ladies European Tour wins (6)[edit]

Other wins (2)[edit]

1 The Ricoh Women’s British Open is co-sanctioned by the LPGA Tour and the Ladies European Tour.
Majors championships are shown in bold.

Major championships[edit]

Wins (1)[edit]

Results timeline[edit]

Results not in chronological order before 2019.

^ The Women’s British Open replaced the du Maurier Classic as an LPGA major in 2001.
^^ The Evian Championship was added as a major in 2013

  Win

  Top 10

  Did not play

CUT = missed the half-way cut
NT = no tournament
T = tied

Summary[edit]

  • Most consecutive cuts made – 10 (2001 LPGA – 2003 U.S. Open)
  • Longest streak of top-10s – 2 (four times)

LPGA Tour career summary[edit]

Year Tournaments
played
Cuts
Made
Wins 2nd 3rd Top 10s Best
Finish
Earnings
($)
Money
list rank
Scoring
average
Scoring
rank
1995 22 13 0 0 0 0 T12 37,832 101 73.59 90
1996 27 17 0 0 0 1 T5 76,490 79 73.12 66
1997 30 21 0 1 1 4 T2 221,276 33 72.15 31
1998 26 18 0 0 0 0 T13 118,157 63 72.33 54
1999 30 23 0 1 1 7 2 370,162 21 71.53 21
2000 28 23 0 0 0 7 5 278,382 32 72.10 24
2001 29 26 1 1 2 10 1 747,970 10 71.41 18
2002 28 26 0 2 0 8 T2 567,394 15 71.22 13
2003 27 26 0 0 1 7 3 506,273 21 71.22 20
2004 28 27 1 0 0 6 1 650,444 14 71.16 17
2005 26 25 0 0 6 12 3 776,924 10 71.46 12
2006 18 13 0 0 0 1 T4 191,153 65 72.90 83
2007 18 17 0 1 0 6 T2 518,366 28 72.16 25
2008 22 18 0 1 0 3 T2 433,726 41 71.92 35
2009 10 9 1 0 0 3 1 480,678 26 71.44 21
2010 18 14 0 0 0 2 T6 264,717 40 72.16 37
2011 19 18 1 0 0 6 1 692,340 16 72.04 11
2012 20 18 0 1 0 7 2 714,272 18 71.09 13
2013 21 18 0 1 1 5 2 643,896 21 71.50 28
2014 24 20 0 0 2 4 3 541,951 32 71.48 33
2015 22 17 0 0 0 2 T8 288,285 63 71.64 40
2016 23 22 0 0 0 2 T5 414,669 44 71.37 39
2017 18 11 0 0 0 0 T17 93,245 103 72.38 119
2018 17 8 0 0 0 1 T10 83,617 108 72.10 88
2019 11 3 0 0 0 0 T40 11,303 164 74.15 156
2020 2 1 0 0 0 0 T59 9,384 153 74.17 n/a
  • official through 2020 season[31]

World ranking[edit]

Position in Women’s World Golf Rankings at the end of each calendar year.

Team appearances[edit]

Amateur

Professional

  • Solheim Cup (representing Europe): 1998, 2003 (winners), 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011 (winners), 2013 (winners), 2015, 2017, 2019 (non-playing captain, winners), 2021 (non-playing captain, winners)
  • Lexus Cup (representing International team): 2005 (winners), 2007
  • World Cup (representing Scotland): 2005, 2006, 2008
  • Handa Cup (representing World team): 2015
  • The Queens (representing Europe): 2015, 2016
  • European Championships (representing Great Britain): 2018

Solheim Cup record[edit]

References[edit]

External links[edit]


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