Paul Lawrie recalls his greatest triumph at Carnoustie

It was a nostalgic moment. For the first time in more than 18 years, Paul Lawrie found himself standing in the exact spot on the 18th fairway at Carnoustie armed with the 4-iron that helped him become an Open champion.
Paul Lawrie with the Claret Jug at Carnoustie.Paul Lawrie with the Claret Jug at Carnoustie.
Paul Lawrie with the Claret Jug at Carnoustie.

“I had 221 yards to the pin, left edge of the Rolex clock [on the hotel behind the green] was my line and just slow away and let everything else happen was all I was thinking,” he recalled, smiling, of the majestic blow that helped him become the first Scot to win golf’s oldest major in his native country since Tommy Armour had achieved the feat at the same venue.

On a return to the Angus venue to promote ticket sales for next year’s event, Lawrie resisted the temptation to see if he could emulate his laser-like blow from the play-off in 1999, but sometimes memories don’t need to be re-created.

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“Obviously, the adrenaline was flowing through me, so I knew it was going to go a bit further,” he added. “Back then, I was 205 for a 4-iron, so 221 was a big hit. I think it landed a bit short and ran up, which in links golf is what you’re trying to do anyway.” It had Peter Alliss salivating in the BBC commentary box. “Shot of the day – wonderful,” he exclaimed.

When the Aberdonian sat down with respected golf writer John Huggan to pen his autobiography a couple of years ago, the plan for the opening chapter was for Lawrie to recall every shot on the final day as he closed with a 67 in coming from ten shots behind to get his hands on the Claret Jug. That was quickly scrapped, though, when he discovered that the only ones he could clearly recall were in that play-off against Jean Van de Velde and Justin Leonard.

“I usually have quite a good memory for stuff like that, but I just couldn’t remember,” he said of what had happened earlier in the day, before recalling how he felt during the four-hole shoot-out he ended up winning by three shots as though it had happened last week. “Incredibly, I felt really calm and in control of the situation,” he added. “I didn’t feel nervous, whereas, with the opening shot of the Ryder Cup later that year, I was just totally out of control and my body was shaking. I couldn’t stop my hands shaking. It was just weird [at The Open]. Something came over me and I just felt totally in control.

“You hear a lot of players talking about that. When you go through things like that and come out the other end having done quite well, then you use that going forward for when you’re in situations where your body is maybe shaking a little bit and you’re not sure about what’s going on.”

Even Lawrie admits that Sandy Lyle’s sweetly-struck 7-iron from a fairway bunker to set up his Masters triumph in 1988 eclipses any other shot ever produced by a Scottish golfer, but, at the same time, it’s easy to see why that Wilson 4-iron and the other clubs he still has from that event are coveted possessions.

“The woods were sold for Bruce Davidson’s Grampian Houston charity and they are now up in the clubhouse at Inch because a member there bought them, but the bag, the irons and the wedges sit in my golf room, so I see them every day,” he said. “I actually stopped using that set of set of irons at the end of that year. I’ve not hit a ball with that set since then and the 4-iron has not really been anywhere.

“I stopped using the putter in 2000 and gave it to the St Andrews Golf Museum. They wanted a club that I had used and what better than the putter I holed out with. I used a Strata ball back then and my dad has the ball now and the cap as well in his house.”

Lawrie was the first qualifier to become Open champion, having come through a 36-hole test at Downfield to secure his place in the field. He’d won the Daily Express Scottish National Pro-Am, a Tartan Tour event, at Carnoustie and also given a decent account of himself in two Scottish Opens there, but boy did his life change that week at the age of 30.

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“The first couple of times I came back it was definitely strange and there were definitely goosebumps,” he admitted. “We play here every year in the Dunhill Links, so I’m very used to coming back. But it will always be an unbelievably special place for me, there’s no question of that, and I hadn’t actually been down there at the spot with the 4-iron and the putter (he did turn back the clock by using it to see if he could hole his birdie putt at the 17th in the play-off) since then. So that was a bit odd, knowing that was the club that hit the shot and the putter, which felt very light. Maybe that’s what’s wrong now – my putter is too heavy.”

l Tickets for The 147th Open at Carnoustie go on general sale at early-season prices from 9am today. Visit 
TheOpen.com/Tickets for full details.

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