MY OPEN CRITICS HELD ME BACK FOR YEARS
NINE years it took him to get over the snide comments, the bitchy asides, the horrible feeling there were people who considered him less than a worthy Open champion. His wife Marian would tell him to get over it. His late coach, Adam Hunter, would tear his hair out urging him to prove them wrong. But Paul Lawrie couldn’t let it go. Couldn’t cope with the perception in some misguided minds that the 1999 Open at Carnoustie was all about Jean van de Velde’s collapse at the 18th and not about the magnificent golf the Scot played to take advantage. ‘I was young, I was angry and I didn’t handle it very well,’ says Lawrie now. Perhaps the worst thing was that people got entirely the wrong impression about the man from Aberdeen. Spend some time with him and he’s anything but surly or sulky, but funny, insightful and as genuine as they come. He tells a lovely story about the time he took the Claret Jug into a local school. ‘I told a little story about the trophy and its importance and how much it meant to win it, then the teacher asked if there were any questions,’ says Lawrie. ‘So, one kid stands up, he’s chewing gum and he says, “Are you telling me you’ve only got one of them?” I look at the boy and reply, “That’s right”. And he looks me straight in the eye and says, “It’s nae very good, is it?” ’ Now that is a tale Lawrie wouldn’t have been able to tell a decade ago. In fact, the Paul Lawrie story is among the best that British golf has, the man who turned pro at the age of 17 with a five handicap and rose from the ranks to win the most precious title in the game. ‘I thought it would be an unbelievable achievement to make it on the tour, so to win eight times and play in two Ryder Cups is way more than I imagined,’ he says. Lawrie will turn 50 on New Year’s Day, making him eligible for senior golf, and is hoping to play a number of events on the Champions Tour in America next year. ‘I think I’ll make a good senior,’ he says. ‘Maybe I’ll do a Monty and win some majors!’ Lawrie’s week at the 1999 Open began with a qualifier at Downfield. After making it through, he couldn’t find any accommodation, so decided to commute each day from Aberdeen. What were his goals? ‘It was interesting that half the field were raging about the high rough and the set-up being a joke,’ he says. ‘Adam kept saying to me that if I kept a double bogey off my card I could win. So, when I went in the rough, I hit it out sideways. I never tried to hit it forward once. I saw players trying to hit six- or seven-irons and you couldn’t do that.’ Lawrie was 10 shots back going into the final round and thought he’d made serious strides forward when he signed for a fabulous 67. He never expected to find himself in a three-man play-off for the title with Van de Velde and American Justin Leonard, after the Frenchman had made his disastrous triple-bogey seven at the 18th. Lawrie quickly seized control in extra time, with birdies at the first and second. At the fourth play-off hole, the 18th, he struck a four-iron so well it deservedly stands alongside Sandy Lyle’s seven-iron to win the 1988 Masters as the greatest shot played by a Scot in a major. ‘Sandy was always my idol, so if you say it was as good as his shot, I’ll certainly take that,’ says Lawrie. When arguably the most dramatic championship in the modern era had concluded, he drove home with the Claret Jug on the back seat. He had become the first qualifier to win The Open since exemptions were introduced for the top players in 1963. But that was not the story, as plenty overlooked Lawrie’s great play and concentrated solely on Van de Velde’s extraordinary cock-up. ‘I just found that extremely hurtful and I didn’t put my side of it across very well,’ says Lawrie. ‘It definitely held me back for seven, eight, nine years. If I’d listened to Marian and Adam instead of fighting people in the newspapers, I’d have won more things.’ He puts his side across well, now. ‘I never said I wasn’t lucky, I got the break of my life that day,’ he recalls. ‘My point was, plenty of players get such an opportunity, but you’ve got to be ready and I didn’t get enough credit for that. How many great players have been given chances to win majors but they don’t take their opportunity?’