Kevin Craggs has just celebrated his first anniversary as coach to Catriona Matthew. In the past, he’s worked with Seve Ballesteros, Sandy Lyle and Colin Montgomerie, but he reckons no one matches the work ethic, dedication and all-round life balance of Scotland’s most successful woman professional.   

Catriona’s magnificent start to the new season confirms his impression. After a four month lay-off she came out all guns firing with a tie for eighth in the Honda LPGA Tournament in Thailand followed by an outright eighth at the HSBC Champions in Singapore.  

This year, Scotland’s only woman major champion – she memorably claimed the Ricoh Women’s British Open at Royal Lytham in August 2009 – is determined to make a sixth Solheim Cup appearance and add to her tally of seven career victories.  

Over the winter, the North Berwick-based 41-year-old laid the foundations to try and achieve her season’s ambitions. Despite the snow and the distraction of two young daughters – four year-old Katie and Sophie (nearly two) – she worked out in the gym and spent hours working on her game.  

Craggs is well aware of the punishing routine. “Catriona has worked really hard this winter,” he said. “She is an absolute pleasure to work with and I am honoured that I can say that I am now a friend as well as a coach. 

“I have played and worked with some of the best professionals but I have no hesitation in saying that she is the best Tour player I have ever coached.  

“She is very low maintenance, but such a hard worker and so organised. She also has great help from her husband Graeme. He is her caddie and so much more, He comes to the coaching sessions and everything is very much a team effort.” 

Craggs and Matthew first met at a training camp for the Scottish amateur squad in Desert Springs in Spain last year. He is coach to the Scottish Ladies’ Golfing Association and she supports the governing body as one of the Vice-Presidents. 

“At the training camp, she didn’t need to join in the work,” Craggs continued. “But she was the only one who ran every day and she was the first on the range in the morning and the last to leave at night. I know she has been working extremely hard this winter and I am sure she is going to have a great season. She wants to get into the world’s top ten.” 

Craggs views Matthew as the perfect role model for any sporting Scot. She spends hours in his impressive golf studio in his converted garage at his home in Dennyloanhead. It is there that she can watch videos of her swing and perfect her putting stroke on a green that he boasts “is the same speed as the ones at Carnoustie.” 

What does mystify Craggs is why this model professional does not attract more recognition, especially in Scotland. Yes, she did win awards after her Open triumph – and was awarded the MBE in the 2010 New Year Honours - but the hullabaloo that surrounded her win just weeks after giving birth to Sophie soon died down, and there was no legacy of lucrative sponsorship deals. In fact, there was virtually nothing. 

Matthew is far too modest to blow her own trumpet, but she is disappointed that her chosen sport does not generate more publicity. Even compared to men’s golf, the scraps are pretty mean.

 

“For some reason, women’s golf doesn’t seem to get much media coverage, perhaps that is the problem,” she muses. “But we have some very good players and it is a shame. The Scottish amateurs did well last year and it is good to encourage them in every way possible, and publicity does help. 

”I’m delighted with my own start to the year. Two top tens and now I have a short break when I’ll be back working hard in the gym and getting ready for the bulk of the season.  

“I’ll be playing on the LPGA Tour, but also in Europe.  For instance, I’ll be playing for Scotland alongside Vikki Laing in the European Nations Cup in Spain in April and I also hope to make the Scottish Open at Archerfield in August.”   

Despite having been on Tour in the US since 1995, Catriona and Graeme are not yet travel weary.  She still loves playing the game and Graeme, a qualified accountant and a very decent golfer in his own right, reckons the best golf courses in the world are the perfect office.  

But, come the end of next season, hard decisions will have to be made. Katie will be starting school and they want her to be educated in North Berwick.   

Before then, there is plenty opportunity to create more chances to add to her glittering career record.  

“I definitely want to make the Solheim Cup at Killeen Castle this September,” says the player who claimed Europe’s winning point in Sweden in 2003. “I just absolutely love the event. 

“I’m also really looking forward to the Women’s British Open at Carnoustie. I won a Scottish Amateur Championship there in the 1990s so I’ve already got good memories from the course.” 

With Janice Moodie about to give birth to her second baby and Mhairi McKay having also slipped back in the rankings, Matthew is far and away the leading Scottish Solheim hope. 

After her strong start, she is up into the world’s top 30 and eight on the LPGA rankings. It promises to be another great year.

EB

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