Lawrie setting his sights on a knees-up

● Scot anxious to follow Ferguson’s advice that success must be celebrated

back out to support everybody. Then when you go back in they ply with champagne. No food all day and straight on the champagne. Wow. We were all just blazing.

“The following week was Dunhill Links and we got home Tuesday night late on. I played with my son Craig that week and that Thursday is the worst I have ever played at a tournament. I think I shot 79 at Carnoustie and I’ve never hit anything close to as bad as that. But, at the time it’s not a problem. You’ve just come back from the dead to win the Ryder Cup. It’s amazing how it affects you. It’s great at the time, but the next few days was not very pleasant.”

Lawrie, who is pleased to see Sir Alex is recovering following his recent emergency brain surgery, followed his visit to Loch Lomond Whiskies distillery in Alexandria by heading east to join Marc Warren and Michele Thomson in starting the big countdown to Gullane hosting both the Aberdeen Standard Investments Scottish Opens in July. Rickie Fowler won the men’s event when it was first staged at the East Lothian venue in 2015 and Lawrie is looking forward to being back two months’ time.

“I think it worked in 2015,” he said of a composite course that will again be in operation for an event that is now part of the European Tour’s Rolex Series. “I hadn’t played at Gullane much before then, but I thought it was good and I think the feedback from a lot of the players was really good. Before we went and they mentioned we’d be bussed up to the second tee (the first for event), you are not too sure and it might have been the same with building a new tee at the 18th.

“But I thought it worked and it was a good venue, which is obviously why we are going back this year.”