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Friday, March 23, 2007


MUM MATTHEW SHARES LEAD IN SAFEWAY INTERNATIONAL
TOURNEY IN ARIZONA

Motherhood obviously brings the best out of Catriona Matthew the golfer.
The North Berwick player, make her comeback on the LPGA Tour after taking a seven-month break to give birth to her first child, shot a four-under-par 68 to share the lead with Young Jo in the Safeway International tournament over the Prospector Course.
"You don't know what to expect coming out here, since I haven't played for a while," said Mrs Matthew, pictured right.
Lorena Ochoa and Mi Hyun Kim were a stroke back and Beth Bader and Gloria Park were two strokes off the lead.
A total of 72 players were still on the course when play was suspended because of darkness at 6:06 p.m. Rain and lightning had delayed play for about two hours.
After giving birth to daughter Katie three months ago, Catriona went back to work on her game at North Berwick. Her off-season training paid off immediately.
"After such a long lay-off, I've been practising well," said Catriona, who has two LPGA Tour wins to her credit, the last in 2004.
She birdied the par-4 first hole, hitting a 7-iron from 164 yards to 10 feet and making the putt.
That was the first of Matthew's six birdies. She also had two bogeys, one with a three-putt on the par-5 13th hole.