WHEN you’re entrusted with the honour of clattering away the very first shot of an Open Championship, you have be out your bed long before the larks have peered wearily at the alarm clock.
The dawn patrol won’t be an issue for Paul Lawrie. “I’m 53 so I’m wide awake at 4:30 going for a pee,” said the Aberdonian with a smile.
At around 6:30am on Thursday, Lawrie will get the 150th staging of golf’s most cherished major going and the 1999 champion is relishing the prospect of getting up and at it. “It’s a great draw actually,” he added. “The greens will be pure and hopefully it will be flat calm.”
As ever on an opening tee, there will be the pre-shot stomach churning and nail nibbling. The first here at St Andrews is as accommodating as a homely B&B but the build up of nervous anticipation means that no fairway is ever wide enough.
Lawrie actually hit the opening tee-shot in the 2010 championship while his memories of playing in the inaugural Celebration of Champions at the 2000 Open as the Claret Jug holder still gives him the heebie-jeebies.
“I’m always nervous on the first tee, no matter what tournament I play in,” said Lawrie. “But this will be nervous because it’s the 150th Open and bit of a milestone. Fortunately it’s a nice, big fairway. Mind you, I could miss any fairway however wide it is.
“When we had the Champions’ Challenge in 2000, I had the first hit as defending champion and I hit a horrible pull hook and it was only about a foot from the out of bounds fence. Tom Weiskopf was next and as he went over he whispered in my ear, ‘thank f*** you went first’. He hit the same shot, right next to my ball.”
Lawrie was back in action last night at the Celebration of Champions in the company of five-times Open winner, Tom Watson. The experience of being in such exalted golfing company never loses its magic.
“I mean, you’re playing with a proper legend of the game and you hit a couple of poor shots and think, ‘I hope Tom is not watching this’,” added Lawrie. “I don’t tend to think of who I’m playing with. But in things like this, when you are playing with people like him, you do think about it and sometimes I can’t believe my name is on that trophy alongside someone like him. And that’s 23 years on from when I won it.”
Having retired from the main circuit, Lawrie underlined his competitive prowess as a senior with victory on the Legends Tour recently. He knows his days in the Open are numbered – he doesn’t want to be a ceremonial player – but the former Ryder Cup player is hoping the Old Course will suit this elder statesman.
“If it was a main tour course I’d be struggling but because it’s links and the ground’s really hard, I’m hoping I can bumble it round somehow,” he said. He just needs to get it safely off the first tee.
