DID YOU KNOW – JOHNNIE WALKER CHAMPIONSHIP AT GLENEAGLES
• Paul Lawrie will be looking to make history by becoming the first player to successfully defend the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles, after his victory in 2012. Should he prevail again he would become the fifth Scot to win the same European Tour event in back-to-back years. He would follow: Bernard Gallacher (1974-75 Dunlop Masters), Sandy Lyle (1981-82 Lawrence Batley International), Sam Torrance (1982-83 Portuguese Open) and Colin Montgomerie (1994-95 Volvo German Open, 1996-97 Murphy’s Irish Open and 1998-2000 PGA Championship).
• Should Paul Lawrie triumph he would make European Tour history and become the oldest player to retain a European Tour title, aged 44 years and 236 days. He would beat the record currently held by Jean-François Remesy, who was 41 years and 21 days when he won his second consecutive Open de France in 2005.
• Thomas Björn won in 2011 in a five man play-off defeating George Coetzee, Mark Foster, Pablo Larrazábal and Bernd Wiesberger. This was the first time a European Tour event had witnessed five players in a play-off since Paul Azinger beat Glen Day, Anders Forsbrand, Mark James and Bernhard Langer, at the 1992 BMW International Open.
• Paul Lawrie made European Tour history in this Championship in 2000. Starting round one from the tenth tee, the 1999 Open Champion recorded a hole-in-one. This feat was matched by Thomas Levet in this event in 2007. These are the only two players to begin a European Tour event with a hole-in-one.
• Since the event became part of The European Tour International Schedule in 1999, four of the winners have made this event their first victory. They are: Warren Bennett (1999), Paul Casey (2001), Søren Kjeldsen (2003) and Emanuele Canonica (2005).
• When Paul Lawrie won the 2012 Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles he became the first player to win three different European Tour events on Scottish soil. His other two wins are, the 1999 Open Championship and 2001 Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.
