Why Scottish golf should benefit from one of best-ever adverts for women's game

Catriona Matthew, Hannah Darling and Lorna McClymont all did their bit in one of the best adverts for women’s golf you’ll ever see and now it’s over to women and girls around Scotland to show it was worth something over and above the result itself.

I am referring, of course, to Great Britain & Ireland’s brilliant win over the United States in the 43rd Curtis Cup at Sunningdale, where captain Matthew and two of her players, Darling and McClymont, combined to deliver a huge boost to Scottish Golf’s current bid to increase female playing membership in the country to 30,000 by 2027.

That would represent a 15 per cent rise on the 2023 figure, with the plan having been described as “ambitious”, but, in Matthew, Darling and McClymont, the governing body in the sport’s cradle has three outstanding role models to use as headline names to try and attract a new generation of girls in particular to take up the game.

Broomieknowe's Hannah Darling, left, and Milngavie member Lorna McClymont show off the trophy after helping Great Britain & Ireland winthe 43rd Curtis Cup at Sunningdale. Picture: Chris Young/Scottish Golf

In Matthew’s case, of course, a winning Curtis Cup captaincy to add to her brace in the Solheim Cup was merely adding to an incredible legacy, with the only question now remaining to be answered being whether or not this was her final act in team golf or will she be staying on for a trophy defence in the 2026 contest at Bel-Air Country Club in Los Angeles.

“I think it’s a little bit early to decide on anything like that, but who knows?” the North Berwick woman, who was the first professional to be appointed as a captain by The R&A for either the Curtis Cup or Walker Cup, replied to being asked that by this correspondent on Sunday, adding with a smile that “I think we’ll just enjoy tonight first” and, judging by a photograph posted on social media of her dancing up on a chair later on, she certainly did.

Rightly so because this, after all, was only GB&I’s ninth win in total in the transatlantic tussle and first since 2016, when another Scot, Elaine Farquharson Black, was at the helm. Having picked up a combined 15 points from 60 up for grabs in the three subsequent contests, few probably gave the home team much chance for the 43rd edition, but, as well as a cracking captain and her two trusty lieutenants in Karen Stupples and Kathryn Imrie, this was a special group of players both on and off the course.

“I had a really good team,” insisted Matthew of Darling and McClymont joining forces with an English trio in world No 1 Lottie Woad and the Rhodes sisters - Mimi and Patience - and three Irish players as well in Sara Byrne, Beth Coulter and Aine Donegan at the iconic Berkshire venue. “They got on so well together, which always makes it fun when you’ve got a good bunch in the team.”

GB&I captain Catriona Matthew pictured during the match against the US at Sunningdale. Picture: Chris Young/Scottish Golf

In the case of Darling and McClymont, they’d both spent time in Matthew’s company before her exciting appointment. Darling, for instance, was part of a group of young Scottish girls who went to Des Moines in Iowa when Matthew made her ninth and final playing appearance in the Solheim Cup in 2017 before playing a few holes with her at North Berwick a couple of years later to mark International Women’s Day. It was evident then that Darling was a star in the making and, boy, did she enjoy having Matthew as her captain in a third Curtis Cup appearance at just 21.

“She was great with us,” said the Broomieknowe player, who, perhaps surprisingly, was left out of the opening session on Friday morning, but then won three points out of four. “We all knew her legacy and what impact she could have on a team and she really showed that. It’s a calm confidence that she brings and to have now won two Solheim Cups and a Curtis Cup shows how amazing she is as a captain.”

Concurring, Milngavie member McClymont, who already knew the 2009 AIG Women’s Open champion through her mentoring role with Scottish Golf, added: “Catriona was brilliant since we first knew we were in the team. It was great to have her experience in the team room and she’s a great person as well. With Karen and Kathryn also having had amazing careers, we knew we were in good hands.”

While she has now graduated from the University of Stirling, McClymont is taking up a role as assistant coach to Dean Robertson as the current Scottish Women’s champion gears up for a crack at the Ladies European Tour Qualifying School later in the year. “That will help keep her in a structured programme that she’s used to,” said Robertson, who was there primarily to support McClymont but also in his post as the GB&I men’s captain, as he beamed with pride after the 23-year-old delivered a crucial singles success.

Admitting she could have gone to the US instead, McClymont talked about how she was delighted to show young Scots that staying at home while careers are taking shape doesn’t necessarily mean that goals can’t be achieved. “Dean believed in me when I maybe didn’t have that same belief,” she confessed. “But, over the years I managed to get better and build up my confidence at the same time and now to do this feels amazing.”

Darling, meanwhile, took the US college route to try and develop her game after leaving school, with her final year now coming up at the University of South Carolina. “My goal is to start playing how I know I can play as I don’t feel like I have come near to that,” she declared. “It’s still been great, but I want to lead my team to a National Championship. Me and Lou (Swede Louise Rydqvist) are probably the two leaders on the team and I want to do that for all of us. I want to graduate and leave on a high.

“I’d also love to go and play well in the ANWA (Augusta National Women’s Amateur) again and maybe even get a win as that would be amazing. I know I can do it. It’s just about going out there and putting the ball in the hole.”

As a group, the GB&I players certainly did that very well indeed at Sunningdale, where a crowd of 16,680 - a record on either side of the Atlantic - over three days enjoyed golf at its very best and that tartan trio certainly did their country proud.