'How cool would that be?' - Open champion might retire if he pulls off another Carnoustie win

Twenty-five years after driving north towards Aberdeen on the A92 from Carnoustie with the Claret Jug sitting in the back seat of his car, Paul Lawrie could well have played his last round of competitive golf if he’s making the same journey on Sunday night as a winner once again at the Angus venue.

“Well, yeah,” he said of an opportunity in this week’s Senior Open presented by Rolex to book-end his career, having announced himself to the golfing world at Carnoustie when beating Frenchman Jean van de Velde and American Justin Leonard in a play-off to win the 1999 Open and now finding himself teeing up there in the over-50s’ version for the first time at an age when he still feels competitive in the world of the so-called golfing round bellies.

“I stopped playing on the main tour in 2020 and I’ll never play another main tour event and doubt I’ll ever play in another Open as I don’t see that people like me are competitive in that so you are playing in that just to tell people how many Opens you’ve played and I’m not that kind of guy. If I can’t comfortably finish top 20 or 30, I don’t want to take a space off somebody when you are not competitive and making the cut doesn’t mean you are competitive.

Paul Lawrie, the 1999 Open champion at Carnoustie, conducts an interview ahead of the Senior Open presented by Rolex. Picture: Kenny Smith/Getty Images.

“To win here or a Senior Open would be the icing on the cake. I’ve not played poorly this year. I’ve only played three (European Legends Tour) events and been 16th, 19th and third. Probably should have done better in Ireland, but, like everyone says, winning isn’t easy. I hit a couple of wrong shots at the wrong time, making a double on ten which was just stupid. Winning at any level, though, is tough as these guys can play.

“So, for me to win this week, I’ll need to be on it. I’ll need to putt a bit better than I’ve been putting. But I’d like to think that come Sunday I should be there or thereabouts with a chance and that’s all you are looking to do.”

Speaking soon after Andy Murray had announced he’ll be retiring after the upcoming Olympics in France, it was put to Lawrie that he’s also one of Scotland’s favourite sporting sons on the strength of not only that major win and two Ryder Cup appearances but lots of things he’d done over the past 25 years in his native North East in particular but also further field in Scotland to give something back to the game.

“I wouldn’t go as far as to say that,” he said, modestly. “I’ve done alright, but I’m nowhere near the level of Andy Murray, Kenny Dalglish, whoever. I’ve never even dreamt of being at that level. But I had a nice run at it. I gave it everything I had.

Paul Lawrie plays his approach to the first green during the Senior Open Championship presented by Rolex Pro-Am at Carnoustie Golf Links. Picture: Kenny Smith/Getty Images.

“Didn’t have an awful lot of talent, dug it out the dirt more than some people did, a bit like Padraig [three-time major winner Harrington], though he obviously went on and did better. But I am looking forward to this week and, if I could do something special this week, it might just be the last event I play - how cool would that be? Now you are talking (laughing).”

Lawrie had Craig, his oldest son, caddying for him in last year’s event at Royal Porthcawl and will have his other boy, Michael, on the bag this week. Both accompanied the 55-year-old as he arrived at the venue on Tuesday morning before playing in the pro-am then heading back to the Granite City to take in new Aberdeen manager Jimmy Thelin’s first home game against Airdrie in the Premier Sports Cup.

“A wee bit odd,” he said of the siblings both being with him on this occasion, “because Michael was six months old when I won here and Craig was four and he was into Thomas the Tank Engine at the time and didn’t know what a golf ball was. They are both golfers and Craig had a go at being a tour player but has now stopped playing and is working for us at the sports agency and Michael is running the foundation at the minute and working at the golf centre.

“It’s great to have them with me and I absolutely love it. They are both very good at caddying and are opposites. They do it differently, which I like. It’s like having two caddies and that was quite popular for a while where guys were having two different voices. We are looking forward to it.”

In an event that sees German Alex Cekja defend the title, Lawrie is flying the Saltire with Colin Montgomerie, Greig Hutcheon, Euan McIntosh, Gary Orr, Scott Drummond, Andrew Oldcorn, Scott Henderson and Doug McGuigan. The latter three all came through 18-hole qualifiers at venues nearby on Monday.

“Being 55, my memory is not the best and I’m up twice in the middle of the night (he later pointed out that it was just once) for a p***,” joked Lawrie in reply to being asked if he still gets a buzz when he comes back to the scene of his greatest triumph. “Listen, it’s always nice to come back to places that you’ve won tournaments. Whoever you are, it’s special to do that.

“Especially how it looks out there as that’s how it looked when I won here in 1999. The rough was up and the tall grass looks great on the mounds and dunes. I’m looking forward to it as it’s always nice to play here. I was 30 when I won here, so that was still quite young to win something of that size. They say you are normally a little older than that when you kind of, not peak but win big tournaments like that.

“At the time, you just do what you do but, as time goes by and think that nobody else (meaning no other British player) has done it since and you then realise how big it really was. At the time you know you have won The Open and it’s magic and things are happening, but you don’t really realise the magnitude of it until a bit later when you have maybe stopped playing so much and all these guys are trying to win it and nobody has done it.”