Dame Laura Davies will miss this week’s AIG Women’s Open for the first time since 1980 after the former champion opted against bidding farewell to the event at St Andrews.
The legendary golfer has decided not to use the final year of her exemption as a former champion, despite having the opportunity to wave goodbye to her Major Championship career at the Home of Golf.
"I'm just not playing enough golf now to warrant a spot in the field," said Davies, who is set to commentate on the event.
“As it gets closer, I'm getting sadder and sadder with the fact I'm not going to be playing there.
"It has been a week that I've always looked forward to. It was a really tough decision, but I think it's the right decision. I wouldn't be looking forward to it because my game is not good enough.
"Since I've been commentating, I've played less and less golf. "'ll still play some seniors golf, but when I turn up to play against younger players, the game is just not good enough.
"Initially, when I was just doing five or six events commentating a year, it was fine because I was playing enough golf. I had a spell where I didn't play for eight months and by the time I came back and tried to play, the game was just gone and the mindset was gone."
Several all-time greats have called it quits at St Andrews, with the likes of Jack Nicklaus playing his final Open Championship at the property in 2005 and Tom Watson bowing out on the iconic links five years later.
But for Davies, the temptation to make her way across the iconic Swilcan Bridge one more time in tournament play wasn't appealing.
"If you're just turning up because you just want to cross the bridge at 18, it's for the wrong reason," Davies said. "I like to be the centre of attention for playing great golf, not just for the sake of being there. That doesn't appeal to me at all, to be honest with you. They'd have wanted me to do it and I'd have hated every second of it.
"I went to play the US Senior Open a few weeks ago and if I'd have done well there, I might have regretted it [not playing the AIG Women's Open] a little bit. As it turns out, I got heat stroke and didn't even finish 36 holes in the end.
"I hit it OK but I only went like 27 holes before I had to withdraw. If I'd had a nice top five, top 10 finish there and played good golf in the back of your mind, you always see you've got one more in you and that might have been the regret, but now it's not."
