'Everything Comes To An End' - Catriona Matthew Confirms Final AIG Women's Open Appearance

Catriona Matthew has confirmed that this week's AIG Women's Open at St Andrews will be her final appearance in the Major.

The Scot famously won the championship at Royal Lytham in 2009 just 11 weeks after giving birth to her second daughter, Sophie, to become the first Scottish woman to win a Major championship.

She has since gone on to captain two winning European Solheim Cup sides, and will also captain GB&I at next week's Curtis Cup.

Matthew, who turns 55 on Sunday, will hope to celebrate her birthday with a final round tee time, where she may well stop on the Swilcan Bridge for the last time like many great champions in the past.

"I think this will be the last time I play in this event. I think just you want to be - not like I have no illusion, I'm not going to be winning the event but I think a goal for me this week would be to try and make the cut," she said.

"You don't want to come and keep playing in the event when you're not competitive. It just felt being in St Andrews, in Scotland, the Home of Golf, what better place to play my last one.

"I think probably in a way a little bit of a mixture of relief, knowing myself that this will be the last one I'm going to play in. 

"Yeah, obviously you'll be a little sad that you're not in the event. It's so big now and it's such a buzz when you come to these events to play in them. But I've realised, you've just got to, at 55, you're not going to be competitive enough as I want to be. Everything comes to an end."

USA Solheim Cup captain Stacy Lewis, who won at St Andrews in 2013, is paired with Matthew this week in the AIG Women's Open tee times and paid tribute to the Scot.

"Catriona, she's meant a tremendous amount to women's golf, especially here in Scotland where, you know, we don't have a ton of tour players coming out of here, and you can see, because the weather," she said.

"She's been such a tremendous competitor and to go up against her in Solheim Cup and watch her be a leader there, and she's really become a leader in women's golf I feel like off the golf course and has helped us continue to grow. It's just a huge honour for me to get to play with her, and then also Karrie, someone that I've admired so much growing up. So I'm really, really excited for Thursday and Friday."

Once the AIG Women's Open ends, Matthew will head down South to Sunningdale Golf Club to try and steer GB&I to their first Curtis Cup victory since 2016. She admits her team will be the underdogs.

"Looking forward to that down at Sunningdale next week. I've been watching a lot of amateur golf: The ANWA, NCAA, the British Am. They are a great bunch, and we have a great team," she said.

"We had a weekend down there a couple weeks ago. We'll be big underdogs for that with the Americans but looking forward to it."

Matthew will have the World No.1 amateur, Lottie Woad, at her disposal next week - and she played a practice round with the Augusta National Women's Amateur champion on Tuesday.

"I've watched them a lot but they have never seen me play. So it was a little bit of pressure on me yesterday," she said.

"I thought, 'God, I'd at least let her see that I can still hit the ball'. Yeah, it's good. 

"When you're on the golf course, you can chat away to them, and it's important getting to know all the players. So I think that's been good in that respect."

Matthew's last win came at the 2013 Women's Scottish Open. She has won four times on the LPGA and six times on the LET.

Lexi Thompson is another Major winner who may well be making their final appearance in the AIG Women's Open this week, with the American announcing earlier this year that she would be retiring from a full playing schedule at the end of 2024.