Matthew qualified for the LPGA Tour by tying for fifth at the 1994 LPGA
Final Qualifying Tournament to earn exempt status for the 1995 season. She soon established herself on the Tour, and her best seasons were 2001 and 2005, when she finished tenth on the money list. Matthew also qualified for the
Ladies European Tour in 1995 and plays several events on that tour each season. She won her maiden professional tournament at the
Holden Women's Australian Open in 1996. and first reserve for the 2000 matches held in her native Scotland. When
Helen Alfredsson hurt her wrist she was called into the team but Alfredsson recovered and Matthew did not play. She was somewhat controversially left out of the
2002 Solheim Cup team but was a captain's pick for the 2003 team, gaining the Cup winning point. She was a captain's pick for the 2005 team as well. She qualified outright for the 2007, 2009 and 2011 Solheim Cup teams. She teamed with
Janice Moodie to represent Scotland at the 2005 and 2006 Women's World Cup of Golf. and was a member of the victorious International team captained by
Annika Sörenstam in the inaugural
Lexus Cup. She won the 2007
Scandinavian TPC hosted by Annika. In January 2009, she won the inaugural
HSBC LPGA Brasil Cup 2009, an unofficial LPGA event with a field of 14 LPGA players and a Brazilian national amateur. Matthew was five months pregnant with her second child at the time of the victory. On 2 August 2009 at
Royal Lytham & St Annes, Matthew won the
Ricoh Women's British Open with a final score of 3-under-par over second-place finisher
Karrie Webb. It was her first win in a
major tournament. The victory came 11 weeks after she gave birth to her second daughter, Sophie. She was the first player from Scotland to win a women's major golf tournament. On 13 November 2011, Matthew won her fourth LPGA title at the
Lorena Ochoa Invitational in Mexico. At the
2013 LPGA Championship, Matthew finished runner-up after losing a sudden-death playoff against the world number one
Inbee Park. Matthew and Park finished the tournament tied together at five-under-par, with Matthew coming from seven strokes behind Park at the start of the final round. In the playoff, they both parred the first two extra holes, but Matthew lost out on the third extra hole when Park made birdie. In July 2016, Matthew was named as a vice-captain for the
2017 Solheim Cup but ended up playing in the match after an injury to Suzann Pettersen. On 21 September 2017, Matthew was announced as captain for the 2019 Solheim Cup, which took place at Gleneagles. Europe won the cup in 2019. In October 2019, Matthew was announced as Solheim Cup captain for 2021. On 6 September 2021, Matthew led the European team to defeat the US at the Inverness Club,
Toledo, Ohio. ==Personal life==