Interview: Catriona Matthew - The green, green grass of home

On Monday it was back on the green for the snappers, but this time at Archerfield, East Lothian, where she practises, and where she was left, as they say, holding the baby – for Matthew, just approaching her 40th birthday, pulled off her history-making victory just 11 weeks after giving birth to Sophie, her second child.

Today she's at home in her native North Berwick, sitting in the kitchen of the family's large Victorian house on a perfect East Lothian summer morning. There's a magnificent view across the blue Firth of Forth, but also, more pertinently, across the 16th fairway of North Berwick's West Links, where she played her earliest strokes. Over a bowl of breakfast cereal, she is talking about the logistics of juggling an international championship golfing career with having children, and at a relatively late stage in life.

She is sparely built, sandy-complexioned, relaxedly barefoot, and matter-of-fact about juggling maternity with making sporting history. "It's really quite unbelievable," she says about her historic victory. "I hadn't actually realised that was the first Scottish lady to win a major, so that makes it even more special."

The euphoria, she says, is starting to die down a little, and life is beginning to get back to normal. What you mean by "normal", however, depends on your point of view. Clearly, maternity hasn't been allowed to interfere with the Matthew swing – post or prenatal – as Catriona, 40 later this month, also scooped the inaugural HSBC Brazil Cup in Rio de Janeiro in January while five months pregnant. And her older daughter, Katie, now two and a half, was just three months old when her mother came a close second at the Kraft Nabisco Championship in California in March 2007.

"I lost a lot of distance," she concedes about playing while five months pregnant, although it certainly didn't cramp her style at Rio. "You can't turn so well, and I was a bit tired before the end of the round." It didn't stop her winning, though.

Matthew suffered from gestational diabetes during both pregnancies, which she kept under control with strict diets, "so I think that helped me keep in trim". No ice-cream binges, then, she agrees. "But the diabetes goes away the moment you have the baby," she smiles, "so you can start pigging out again."

In general, she reckons she eats healthily, and was wielding a club again about five weeks after the birth. "I try to go to the gym two or three times a week, though that can be difficult sometimes with the two children now. But I think just swinging a club again and walking round the course gets you back into shape. Running after Katie keeps me fit as well."

Katie herself breezes into the room with all the insouciant charm of her years, declaring that she and her mum are going swimming – there's a pool virtually next door in the seafront landmark of the Marine Hotel.

She's eventually cajoled next door, and presently Graeme Matthew, Catriona's husband, caddy and all-round life-support system, reappears with a replete-looking Sophie, who sits in her mother's lap, spouting milky bubbles of contentment.

Graeme's feet, he tells me, have recovered since they were burned during the Matthews' somewhat fraught visit to the Evian Masters in France last month, when their hotel caught fire, and his feet bore the brunt of the damage as the couple ran out of a hotel door with bits of ceiling falling all about them. He's more excited about Sunday past, however.

"Just terrific," he says of Catriona's victory. "You couldn't dream of such a scenario – one minute you're running for your life through a fire, next minute you're watching your wife win the biggest golf tournament around."

At 11 and a half weeks, apart from some early colic, Sophie is proving a considerate baby. "She goes down at seven, is fed at 11 and she actually made it through till 5:30 this morning," says Matthew. "Graham does the late feed at about 11pm, and I do the early one around 5:30am. Quite often she settles back down and doesn't waken till eight. Katie woke up about 7:30 this morning."

There are no arcane mysteries in juggling pro golf and parenthood, it seems, but routine, she says, plays an important part. "We've tried to get Katie into a routine quite quickly. When you're travelling and working you've got to do that, and she's very good; she goes to bed at around 7:15 and sleeps until any time between seven and eight."

Matthew and her husband are taking it easy for a few days before jetting off to the United States for the Solheim Cup in Illinois, but in an average day at home, Katie might go to the local playgroup, "while I might go to the gym. But Katie still takes a nap usually between one and three, so I usually go to practise at Archerfield between about midday and three. With having Graeme here we just try and fit things around them."

How often does she get in a proper round of golf? "Quite often I'll just play nine holes on my own," she says. "I'll play 18 maybe twice a week." Amid the domesticity, she remains focused on her sport. "Obviously, I've always wanted to do well," she says. "I practise hard, doing more quality practice now, rather than just hours. I have to be quite focused and determined in what I do, so you're always busy, but it's also great fun. Katy's just at the age that she's starting to ask questions about everything and loves going to the beach and pool."

As for dinner, she and Graeme eat at home most of the time these days: "Graeme likes cooking, so we share it. Then it's the bathtime routine and off to bed. We read them stories and Katie's very good about going to bed. So about 7:30-ish it's all quiet and we can relax."

On tour, the regime is somewhat different. When playing in the US – with Graeme, as always, as her caddy – daycare is provided by the tour organisers, the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA), who lay on crche facilities for the numerous children brought along by golfing parents. "We can drop Katie off about two hours before my tee time and pick her up an hour later.

"They're quite flexible, and there are quite a lot of other children, about four or five of them Katie's age, so she enjoys it. It's the same ladies who run the care and they set up the room the same way every week, so it's familiar for her."

Sophie is not as yet a passport holder, and in fact when the Matthews head off to Illinois for the Solheim Cup, the women's golf equivalent of the Ryder Cup, neither daughter will be with them, although both will be with them in San Diego for the Samsung World Championship later in the year.

On such occasions, another essential component in keeping the show on the green has been the children's grandparents – Joan and Mike Lambert, who live nearby in North Berwick, and Graeme's parents in Melrose, where he grew up.

Does she have any pangs at being away from the children, particularly baby Sophie? Or, conversely, when she's with them does she find herself absently reviewing the day's play?

"No, I mean Sophie stayed with my mum and dad (when she and Graeme were at the Evian] and Katie went down to Graeme's mum and dad for the week, and I have every confidence in them. They've had enough experience."

The family's travel schedule will have to be rethought when Katie goes to school in a few years, and Matthew has said that she wants her children to attend school in Scotland. But, she says, that's a bridge they'll cross when they come to it. "In golf you never know how you'll be playing in a few years, so we'll just wait and see."

By this time, Katie, whose attention span regarding her mother's sport is a brief one (despite having her own toy clubs), is becoming impatient about the planned swimming trip, and returns to the kitchen sporting white daubs of sun-cream, just to make the point.

"Did your dad give you that cream?" inquires the golf champion, suspiciously. By way of reply, Katie returns bearing the tube, which proves to be Sophie's nappy-rash cream. Clearly, elevation to the golfing hall of fame doesn't enable one to sidestep the gunge of family life.

Matthew has mixed feelings about the inevitable "supermum" label: "Obviously it's not just me, it's a team effort. I've had an awful lot of help from my family and Graeme's family, and of course from Graeme."

She and her husband met at Stirling University when they were both studying accountancy and on golfing scholarships. Graeme, a tall, amiable man, chooses not to play so much golf these days. When I ask him whether, if Catriona's career flags in the future, he would go back to accountancy, he grins broadly: "You must be joking. I have the best office in the world – outside, and with the best golfers in the world."

As for his wife, motherhood, she says, has mellowed her. "I used to get quite annoyed. I think all golfers kind of get annoyed with how they play…"

"Catriona's a bit of a perfectionist," chips in Graeme.

"But I think having children puts things in perspective," she continues. "You don't have time to dwell on your bad round when you get home."

So was she snappy with her spouse-caddy after a bad round? "Not too bad," she replies, mildly, the rest being drowned out as Katie hollers, decidedly putting things into perspective. Pool time cometh.