Catriona Matthew: I have a good chance to win at Rio Olympics
Tuesday 19 July 2016 13:08, UK
Scotland's Catriona Matthew achieved her goal when it was confirmed that she would be part of Britain's Olympic golf team, and she believes she has a good chance to win in Rio next month.
The 2009 Ricoh Women's British Open winner will join Charley Hull and major champions Justin Rose and Danny Willett to represent Great Britain at the 2016 edition of the Olympic Games.
Rose and Willett will compete for golf's first gold medal in over a century in a 72-hole stroke-play event from August 11-14, while Matthew and Hull will compete in the women's version of the event a few days later at the Olympic Golf Course from August 17-20
"It's been a goal of mine all year to try and make the Olympics," Matthew told Sky Sports News HQ. "So to have finally been finalised there on Sunday and be in is fantastic.
"I think I've got a pretty good chance, I've been playing well this year and I've had some good finishes.
"All the top women are going so it's going to be tough competition but if you can get your putter hot you never know."
The return of golf as an Olympic sport has been marred with controversy as all four of the top male golfers in the world pulled out due to concerns over the Zika virus, but for Matthew and the rest of the most successful females in the game, that wasn't an issue.
"I'm older, I've had my family so I didn't think the zika was a huge problem for me," she said. "You know obviously it's everyone's personal opinion, I think you've got to respect the people who are going."
Rory McIlroy cited Zika as the reason for his withdrawal from the games and drew both criticism and accusations of letting the game down from the Ladies European Tour chief executive Ivan Khodabakhsh.
While McIlroy admitted he may not even watch the Olympic golf tournaments, 46-year-old Matthew is hopeful that golf's return to the Olympics for the first time since 1904 will help to grow the game in countries that don't already have high numbers of participation.
She said: "It's going to be a great week and there are going to be two gold medal winners. For countries like us where golf's already played it won't make a huge difference but for other countries I think it will make a difference.
"A sport being in the Olympics gets more government funding and different things so hopefully it will grow the game in parts of the world where it's not really played yet."
