25 years ago, Jean van de Velde’s misery was Paul Lawrie’s ecstasy as he became the first Scot in 68 years to win the Claret Jug on home soil.
Lawrie was a 16-year-old on the verge of turning pro when fellow Scotsman Sandy Lyle triumphed at Royal St. Georges in 1985 to end 54 years of Open Championship drought for the game’s founding nation, but until Lawrie’s come-from-behind victory at Carnoustie in 1999, the Scottish fans had been deprived of cheering one of their own home.
“It’s nice. It’s always nice when you drive in,” Lawrie said ahead of the Senior Open Championship at the venue he hoisted the Claret Jug at a quarter of a century ago. “Always have memories of what happened 25 years ago, which is unbelievable if you think it’s that long ago. It’s always nice.
“Played here a couple weeks ago on a corporate thing, and every time you come you get the little goosebumps and brings your memories back to what happened a while ago. It’s always nice.”
Despite the fond memories, he concedes that there is only so much that past success at a venue can inspire with the drastic changes the sport has undergone in the intervening years.
“Well, it’s totally different now,” Lawrie said. “The game is totally different. I think the golf course is set up reasonably tough this week. So it might play a little bit like it did back then.
“But apart from that, the whole game has changed. Technology, balls, everything so it’s a different kind of kettle of fish now. But the golf course will be the same. The golf course will still play pretty tough. The golf course here stands test of time better than most. They don’t have many new tees out there. They don’t really have to. The length is always pretty good. So should be a good week.”
Going from a two-time European Tour winner to a major champion changed Lawrie’s life overnight, and he admits that it took some getting used to as suddenly, all doors were open and he found himself regularly crossing the Atlantic to compete on the PGA Tour.
“When you go from a decent player who has won two events to winning the biggest event in the word, there’s a fair chance things are going to change for you,” he recalled.
“But the biggest change was my schedule. Obviously now I’m not in just the European events. I’m in any event in the world that I want to play in for the next five years.
“So getting used to that was a little difficult, and I was travelling to America to play golf for the first time competitively, and you’re playing all over the world. You can play in any golf tournament that you want.
“I took a little bit of time but not long. Like anything, you get used to it. Change is easy the more you do it. There was a lot of changes happening back then. We moved house obviously and we were able to do things we couldn’t do before. It was all good. No negatives, I can assure you.”
Despite still being exempt for another four Open Championships, Lawrie opted not to compete at Royal Troon last week, with an eye on the Senior Open instead and the Staysure PGA Seniors Championship in Aberdeen the following week.
“I’m 55; I was never an athlete but I’m no longer an athlete,” he sheepishly grinned.
“And also, I don’t want to take a place in a tournament of that size when I’m not competitive and I’m not playing a lot of golf. If I was playing full-time, I think I would still play. But I’m not playing full-time.
“So I feel as though you’re keeping somebody out of a big tournament by doing that because even if I made the cut it would have been a big effort for me to make the cut. So you shouldn’t really be playing in tournaments if that’s a good week for you.
“The rest of the boys who are my age are still playing full time, so if I was them, I’d be playing a hundred percent, too. But I’m not. I don’t play much golf. Thought I’d better give it a skip.”
As the last Scot to win a major championship, he’s naturally held in extremely high esteem in his native land, but the up-and-coming crop of Scottish golfers look primed to challenge for majors in the near future after a few successful weeks on the DP World and PGA Tours, and a young Scot taking leading amateur honours at the Open Championship.
“Obviously Bob winning The Scottish Open was amazing,” he said. “To win your home open is probably the one that any golfer wants. I mean, I said for a long time that if I was allowed one more event, I would like it to be The Scottish Open.
“So he clearly, rightly so, was over the moon with what happened there and did brilliantly.
“But Ewen Ferguson winning BMW was a massive week, as well. So we had two winners in recent time come through and we had Calum Scott winning the Silver Medal at The Open last week. Calum has been in our foundation for a little while. We know Calum quite well and what he’s capable of. His ceiling is quite high to what he’s going to be.
“So it’s exciting times coming through. It’s nice to see the boys winning tournaments.”
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