Paul Lawrie will look to draw on the memories of his greatest triumph as he bids to mount a title challenge at The Senior Open Presented by Rolex on the 25th anniversary of his Open victory at the same venue.
The Scotsman memorably came from ten shots back to defeat Jean van de Velde and Justin Leonard in a play-off to win the 1999 Open Championship at Carnoustie.
Lawrie is back at the historic Angus links venue this week for the fifth and final Major Championship contested by players aged 50 and over in 2024.
“I’ll always have memories of what happened 25 years ago, which is unbelievable if you think it's that long ago,” said the 55-year-old, who boasts three top-20 finishes in his four appearances at the Senior Open.
“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.”
While the game has advanced through technology in the quarter of a century that has since passed, Lawrie hopes his winning record at the course – often referred to as “Carnasty” due to its difficulty – to be to his benefit.
“I think the golf course is set up reasonably tough this week,” he said. “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.”
Lawrie has made just three appearances on the Legends Tour so far this season – a decision taken with a view on prioritising his time on representing players in his sports agency and his foundation, which aims to encourage as many young people to pick up the sport.
He also opted to not take up his spot at last week’s The 152nd Open because he didn’t feel he could be competitive in a tournament of that stature.
But while he may be short of competitive action, his results – including tied third at the OFX Irish Legends last month – are giving him confidence he can win one of golf’s most sought after titles in the senior game.
“I still love tinkering and practicing and working on stuff with Alan McCloskey, my coach,” he said.
“I feel as though I'm ready. I'm not underplayed. I play a lot of golf. I just haven't played a lot of tournaments but the ones I've played have not been too bad.
“I've been all right. I've been competitive. So we'll see what happens.”
And while here to compete this week, Lawrie also talked about having one eye on the exciting recent successes of Scottish players both on the biggest stages in men's professional golf.
Last week, that success belonged to Calum Scott – a player Lawrie knows well through his foundation – who won the Silver Medal at the Open Championship as the low amateur at Royal Troon.
It followed on immediately from back-to-back triumphs by Robert MacIntyre and Ewen Ferguson on the DP World Tour at the Genesis Scottish Open and BMW International Open, with MacIntyre also claiming the RBC Canadian Open on the PGA Tour earlier this year.
Lawrie, who has eight DP World Tour wins to his name, believes it is potentially the start of a prolonged period of success among Scottish golfers.
“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.
Massive congrats @CalumScott03 👏 pic.twitter.com/2aPHUGjv17
— Paul Lawrie (@PaulLawriegolf) July 21, 2024
“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.”
