By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Staff Columnist
KAPOLEI — When you have never won on the LPGA Tour, sometimes you need a sign that things can be different before you make them that way.
When you have gone seven years and 167 tournaments without a victory, a gesture of hope can make all the difference in turning the corner.
And, so it was for Catriona Matthew yesterday in the Cup Noodles Hawaiian Ladies Open where an eagle-two on the par-four 11th hole was as good as a certified omen from the heavens.
Matthew would call it, "the shot of the tournament," an improbable soaring shot with eyes that propelled her to a wire-to-wire three-stroke victory and a lot more.
Nancy Scranton, had she not already had the Kapolei Golf Course disappearing in the dust of the rear view mirror, might have said the same.
For leaving the 10th hole, Matthew, a 31-year old Scot, stared none too securely at a leaderboard that showed her hold on the lead more precarious than it had been since her opening-day 67.
Scranton had pulled even at five under and Wendy Ward and Annika Sorenstam, both veterans and past winners at Kapolei, were each lurking two strokes back when Matthew stepped to the tee on 11.
Suddenly, the race for the $112,500 first prize was getting interesting — and crowded. But on her 142-yard second shot, Matthew punched a 7-iron that providentially holed out on the fly, a smart bomb of a shot that found its target as if by laser guidance.
Matthew was as surprised as the gallery. "That’s something I’ve never, ever done before," she said, still shaking her head more than 30 minutes afterward.
"When I hit it, I thought it was looking a little big but it hit the pin and went in," Matthew marveled.
"It is obviously a boost when something like that happens," she said. "When something like that happens you have to wonder if it is (going to be) your week."
"It was a tremendous boost," said Graeme, her husband and caddy. "You have to think it is your week."
With it, she would leave the 11th with a surge of confidence, a bounce in her step and a two-stroke lead.
And it was the opposite for Scranton, who had doggedly been pursuing Matthew. "It was a body blow to her because it really had been level to that point. I felt it was a turning point," Matthew said. " I knew I’d have a bit of a cushion."
Enough to withstand a bogey on No. 15. Enough also to keep the pressure on Scranton, who eventually collapsed with a double bogey on 17 and a bogey on 18.
Matthew called the victory a "dream come true," which was altogether appropriate when the shot that won it looked like it came from a dream.
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