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Paul Lawrie enjoys enormous prestige in Scottish and European golf. It is no coincidence that he has had aspirations to captain Team Europe in the Ryder Cup. At the age of 55, he thinks it is already a dream that will remain unfulfilled. "I was a bit late," Lawrie said.
The 1999 Open Championship winner gave an interview to National Club Golfer, in which he recalled several passages of his career associated with the Ryder Cup. Among them, his contact with the possibility of captaining Team Europe.
This was part of what Paul Lawrie had to say about it:
"I would’ve thought the captaincy is gone for me now. I tried three times to be the captain. I tried for Gleneagles [2014], but I was a bit late deciding that I wanted to do it there. They chose [Paul] McGinley who did a magnificent job.
"Then I went for it in 2018, and I think it was down to Thomas Bjorn and myself, and they chose Thomas. Again, Thomas did a fantastic job, fair enough. And then, I went for it again in Rome and didn’t get it and they wrongly gave it to [Henrik] Stenson, because I think everyone could see he was thinking about going to LIV or talking about LIV and that wasn’t allowed at the time."
He added:
"Then Luke [Donald] got it and Luke was magnificent. Luke was up there as much as McGinley for me with the job he did, considering the result of the previous outing that they had. I’ve always said that if you’re a winning captain, you should be allowed to defend. So the fact that he’s got it again is the right thing to do."
Paul Lawrie's career at a glance
Paul Lawrie comes from a thoroughly golfing background, having been born in Aberdeen, Scotland, in 1969. At the age of 17, he turned professional, although he played for a few years initially in Scotland.
Between 1990 and 1991, he won three professional tournaments in his country and earned his European Tour (now DP World) Tour card. Initially, his results were not outstanding, but he managed to keep his tour card.
His first European Tour victory came at the 1996 Catalan Masters, when he defeated Fernando Roca by one stroke. Paul Lawrie would go on to win another seven tournaments in Europe until 2012.
Undoubtedly, the most relevant moment of his career was when he won The Open Championship in 1999. There, Lawrie defeated Justin Leonard and Jean Van de Velde in a four-hole playoff.
This victory not only made him a major champion, but also gave him several records. Lawrie entered the fourth round 10 strokes behind the leader, and made up that distance to force the playoff. It is the largest deficit ever recovered to win a major championship and also to win on the PGA Tour.
Paul Lawrie was also the last European to win a major until 2007 (Padraig Harrington) and the last Brit to win a major until 2010 (Graeme McDowell). He is still the last Scot to win a major championship.
Lawrie participated twice in the Ryder Cup as a player (1999, 2012) and won the second one. In addition, he was vice-captain in 2016.
