Catriona Matthew, Muirfield and a morning that nearly

She shares a joke with starter Alastair Scott. She takes a couple of practice swings and addresses the ball, just like the thousands upon thousands of shots she has hit over the last 27 years.

To observe the 52-year-old, it could be any tee shot at any tournament. That’s how relaxed she is. But this isn’t any tee shot at any tournament. It’s different.

For a start, it’s 6.30am. Matthew has been handed the honour of hitting the opening drive at her home major, a relatively recent addition to R&A-organised events and recognition for her stellar contribution to the game over three decades.

It’s also taking place at Muirfield, unthinkable just six years ago. In 2016, the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers’ vote to admit women failed, sparking a chain of events that saw what R&A chief Martin Slumbers describes as “one of the finest, if not the finest links we have” struck from the Open rota.

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Matthew grew up just a stone’s throw away, and her mother has made the short journey round the corner to watch this morning.

She worked as a litter-picker at the Open here. She was a scorer in 1992. But the prospect of playing major golf here herself seemed unlikely – if not impossible – half a decade ago. 

Yet here she is. A second vote a year after the first righted the wrongs, and contrition has been the order of the day since. This week marks Muirfield’s return to the major championship calendar.

It’s an understated affair. Matthew, arguably Scotland’s greatest-ever female golfer, a major champion and a Solheim Cup legend, has never hogged the limelight and so remains strangely underrated by many. That’s not the case for everyone, though.

“It…