Solheim Cup: Catriona Matthew ready to go after late call-up
Wednesday 16 August 2017 21:52, UK
Catriona Matthew is embracing the challenge of her unexpected late call-up to play in this week's Solheim Cup after it was announced she would replace the injured Suzann Pettersen.
Matthew accepted the role as assistant captain to European skipper Annika Sorenstam in July last year, although the Scot still hoped to qualify as a player for the contest at Des Moines Golf and Country Club in Iowa.
But the veteran was unable to make the top eight in the qualifying standings and was overlooked for one of Sorenstam's four captain's picks when they were announced shortly after the conclusion of the Ricoh Women's British Open.
Matthew was placed on standby as the first alternate for the team, and she will now make her ninth consecutive appearance in the competition after Pettersen was forced to pull out with a back injury, and the Norwegian will take Matthew's place in the backroom team.
"Obviously I was delighted when Annika asked me to be vice-captain. I was kind of looking forward to that role and I was preparing myself for that," said Matthew, who has played on three winning European teams and holed the winning putt in Sweden in 2003.
"I heard just before I flew over that Suzann had a sore back and wasn't quite sure, but obviously I was playing next week so I'd been home and practising and playing, so it's been a difficult two days.
"I'm gutted for Suzann not to be able to play. I've played in a few of these with Suzann, she's a great competitor and I feel really sorry for her. But it is a tough week and you want to give it your all, but you're not 100 per cent, you perhaps can't do that.
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"So obviously I'm delighted to be playing now, and I think it's great that Suzann is going to do the vice-captaincy and we can switch roles. Hopefully I can be as good a leader as she's been all through the years on the course.
"I thought this was probably one of my last chances of getting on the team, and obviously I was disappointed when I didn't. But I'm very excited to be playing now.
"I've been practising hard the last couple of days and I like the golf course, so I'm just going to go out there and play our best," added Matthew, who also revealed that she would be teaming up with Pettersen's caddie as there is not enough time for her regular bagman to fly out.
She said: "I found out this morning that obviously that Suzann was not going to play, but I did play the golf course on Tuesday because Suzann was unsure what she was going to do. So I'm actually going to steal her caddie and use Mikey.
"You couldn't bring someone else out at this late stage, but he's seen the course and he's worked for me before so now there are two Scots on the team!"
Sorenstam is confident that Matthew will be an excellent replacement for Pettersen on the team, although the European captain has had to draw up a new set of plans for her pairings.
"It's been a lot of juggling, to put it mildly," said the Swede. "I was just glad that Suzann called me on Saturday. I had a plan, I called it plan A, and then we started a plan B. Needless to say, we have had a lot of plans back and forth, and when Suzann and I spoke this morning, I kind of threw out plan A, and now we're sticking to plan B.
"Catriona has obviously played many times and she knows many of the players, and she's very easy to pair with so it's not going to be any more difficult. As a matter of fact, I think we're already ready with plan B. And we're going to stick to it. And hopefully there will be no plan C."
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