An emotional Paul Lawrie ended a nine-year winless drought in capturing the Andalucian Open reports Fatiha ‘Tour Miss’ Betscher, Malaga, Spain.
The normally chirpy Lawrie was struggling for words in carding a final round 70 to win by a stroke and a 12-under par tally in sunny but windy conditions on the Parador Malaga course.
Paul Lawrie - 2011 Andalucian Open winner
Despite a bogey from a bunker at the last Lawrie held on to defeat Sweden’s and former Scottish Open winner Johan Edfors who carded a 68 and one clear of Chilean Felipe Aguilar (68)
Lawrie’s last victory was the 2002 Wales Open and since then he’s had five seconds while he’s also the first Scot in 15-months since Richie Ramsay to win on the Race to Dubai.
“Nine years is a hell of a long time and you have periods where you think it is not going to happen again but here we are and it’s really nice,” he said.
“But to be fair I am stuck for words and that’s not like me.”
Lawrie began the final day one stroke clear but quickly struggled in the bright but windy conditions in bogeying the first two holes that included finding a greenside trap at the second.
Lawrie then dropped a third shot in also finding a bunker at the fifth hole but he was not alone with those all around struggling to gain a winning foothold.
That came for Lawrie when he birdied three holes in succession at the start of his inward nine and then forged two clear of his rivals with a birdie at 14.
Lawrie hit a gap-wedge to 15-feet at the 10th, holed a 20-footer at the next and after landing his second shot short at 12, he chipped to four-feet for birdie.
At 14, he was also short of the green but chipped to eight-feet and holed the birdie putt.
A large Saltire-like vapour trail then appeared in the sky as Lawrie walking down the last two ahead but he put his approach shot in the bunker from where he took two shots from four feet to get up-and-down for bogey.
As Lawrie was lining up his first putt, caddy Dave Kenny was already in the process of removing the 18th hole flag as a momento.
It was the fellow Scot’s first win after previously caddying for fellow Scots Alastair Forsyth and Stephen Gallacher.
Lawrie earned a first prize cheque £144,472 to jump from 115th and into 24th place on the Race to Dubai. He also earned a start in May’s Volvo World Match-Play also in Spain and will move from 272nd on the world rankings to around 150th.
Also he was presented with a new watch and a round-the-world ticket by sponsors Turkish Airlines.
But Lawrie’s only concern was getting the heavyweight trophy home to Aberdeen given South African Louis Oosthuizen had the same trophy taken off him on a flight to Manchester with airline staff ridiculously deeming it a security risk.
“My start today was horrendous and I didn’t feel as though I did much wrong but then I walked off with two bogeys,” said Lawrie.
“But the biggest thing for me was that I stayed patient despite dropping three shots in those first five holes.
“I didn’t panic and I didn’t get ahead of myself and I then some beautiful shots around the turn.
“I just felt in total control today even when I was over-par early on, and I never felt it was going to get away.
“When you have that attitude and you get in that mood things kind of work out.
“So given it has been such a long time since I last won on Tour this win is huge. It’s absolutely massive for me and there is no question.
“The Open Championship and the Dunhill Links (2001) would go ahead of this win but this win would be next on the list of my six wins now on Tour.
“So it’s a huge thing to happen to me and hopefully the confidence will kick on.”
