LYTHAM ST. ANNES, England – Catriona Matthew celebrated her 2009 Women’s British Open victory with a 3 a.m. feeding of daughter Sophie at the kitchen table and a cup of tea. At age 39, she became the first Scot to win the title 11 weeks after giving birth.
“You just get on with it, don’t you,” Matthew said, rather matter-of-factly, of her remarkable feat 17 years ago at Royal Lytham and St. Annes.
As the AIG Women’s British Open returns this week to Royal Lytham, Matthew’s victory has become a kind of championship lore, a feat new moms like Alison Lee can’t even fathom.
“It's just so incredible and almost unbelievable to me,” said Lee, who made headlines contending at the U.S. Women’s Open at Riviera earlier this summer with her 13-month son Levi.
“It’s so, so crazy. For me, comparing it to my own experience, I couldn't even swing a club until six, seven weeks, and by the time I was 11 weeks, like I was still so slow. I couldn't hit the ball anywhere. And for her to come out here and win a major, I mean, I'm just trying to survive, and I feel like I'm doing pretty good, you know?”
There are five moms in the field this week at Lytham, including Ryann O’Toole, who is expecting her first child.
Former British Open champion Sophia Popov gave birth to her second child, a son, not even 10 weeks ago, and she’s playing this week at Royal Lytham. Said she’ll have a breast pump in the bag! pic.twitter.com/DNpWif9SWA
— Beth Ann Nichols (@GolfweekNichols) July 29, 2026
Sophia Popov, the 2020 AIG Women’s British Open champion at Royal Troon, returns as a mother of two, after given birth to son, Julian, nearly 10 weeks ago.
Popov said she’ll carry a breast pump with her during the round in case she needs to get more comfortable. If there were a tournament to come back to immediately postpartum, Popov said, this is the one.
“You can carry it 20 yards shorter and kind of get away with it, 'cause it's pretty firm,” she said. “I think that's why, and I love links golf, and the creativity, and just playing the elements more than your own swing, if that makes sense. You don't feel like you have to be perfect out here.”
Georgia Hall, the 2018 champion, rushed back to form after giving birth to son Connor in February so that she could return to Royal Lytham, where she won a home major at the tender age of 22.
Hall first picked up a club six weeks after giving birth at a driving range in Ireland. She thought she might top the first shot but left pleasantly surprised, with the goal of getting back to Lytham.
“I just spoke to [Catriona] and I said, I really don't know how you done it. You, like, couldn't dream of doing that. I couldn't,” said Hall. “She said, ‘Oh, it's lot easier with the second.’ So I was like, oh, when I have a second, I'm definitely not coming back.”
It’s never been more difficult to win on tour as a mom, given the depth of the game globally and the harried schedule.
Stacy Lewis was the last mom to win on the LPGA in 2020 at the Women’s Scottish Open. On the LET, however, a mom actually won as recently as this summer. In late June, Noora Komulainen, 35, clinched her first title on the LET at the Tipsport Czech Ladies in front of her 5-year-old daughter Elli, with husband Roope on the bag.
“It’s always been my biggest dream to win in front of them,” she said, echoing the thoughts of every mother that’s ever played.
Karen Stupples gave birth to son Logan in 2007, at a time, she said, that sponsors were “dropping like flies” if a player got pregnant. When Logan was only one week old, they somehow managed to get a passport photo taken for him with his eyes opened, knowing they’d need one when she played in the English Ladies Open.
“I hadn’t made any money in a long time,” said Stupples, “and I needed to get back on the horse pretty quickly.”
The 2004 British Open champion began practicing 6 weeks after giving birth, and when she turned up for the tournament around the 11-week mark, she hadn’t played a full 18 holes until the first round. She finished second that week, running out gas by the final round.
Logan, now 19, plays collegiate baseball at the Illinois Institute of Technology where he’s studying aerospace engineering. While Stupples was working for Golf Channel at Riviera, Logan launched a rocket in the Mojave Desert.
“The LPGA daycare helped raise Logan,” said a grateful Stupples.
Sophie Matthew, the wide-eyed baby in the photos 17 years ago at Lytham, now plays field hockey for Scotland and is considering coming over to the U.S. to study and compete in college. Older sister Katie will begin her second year at St. Andrews University this fall, studying business and international relations.
“Looking back, [husband] Graeme and I sometimes talk and wonder how on earth we did it,” said Matthew, who won again on the LPGA in 2011, “traveling with one toddler, then a toddler and a baby, and then two toddlers.”
Supermums, indeed.
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Moms at the AIG Women's Open still marvel at Catriona Matthew's historic feat
