CATRIONA MATTHEW has tended to struggle to hit form at the Evian Championship, but the fifth and final major of the season has added significance this year as it falls a week before Europe’s defence of the Solheim Cup.
Matthew gained one of captain Carin Koch’s wildcards for the Solheim Cup that gets underway in Germany a week tomorrow so she is hoping for a good warm-up in France.
The Evian Resort course was bathed in sunshine for the final practice yesterday and Matthew is the only Scot to be included in the field of 140.
For South Korea’s world No.1 Inbee Park, the aim is to win the title and end any doubt over her claims on a career grand slam.
Park won the Evian Masters in 2012 – the year before the tournament changed its name and became a major.
Last month at Turnberry, Park won her first Ricoh Women’s British Open, her seventh major title, to sit alongside three LPGA Championships, two US Women’s Opens and the 2013 Kraft Nabisco Championship.
“Winning all the majors has always been my goal,” said the 27-year-old.
“I’ve got my name on every major championship trophy but I won Evian before it became a major. So it would be really good to win it again this year.”
Park has another remarkable feat in her sights this week. She won three majors in 2013 and victory on Sunday would again be a third major of the season. In June, she captured a third successive LPGA Championship.
“It’s already been a great season and I always love coming to Evian,” she continued. “It’s one of the most beautiful venues on the Tour.”
But Park won’t have it all her own way. For world No.2 Lydia Ko, it is the final chance to become the youngest winner of a women’s major. Morgan Pressel was 18 years and 10 months when she set the record at the 2007 Kraft Nabisco Championship.
Ko came close to winning the title as a 16-year-old two years when she finished runner-up to Norway’s Suzann Pettersen. Since then, the teenager has gone on to hold the world No.1 ranking and she has eight LPGA titles to her name.
“I never really think about records, but it is my goal to win one major before my career is done,” said the 18-year-old who has already declared that she will retire from the game at the age of 30.
South Korea’s Hyo-Joo Kim defends the title she won as a 19-year-old – she is the third youngest winner of a women’s major and started the Championship with a record 61.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here