Paul Lawrie

Paul Stewart Lawrie MBE (born 1 January 1969) is a Scottish professional golfer who is best known for winning The Open Championship in 1999.

Life and career

Lawrie was born in Aberdeen. He turned professional in 1986 and became a member of the European Tour in 1992. He performed steadily without doing much to draw attention to himself, aside from a 6th place finish in the 1993 Open Championship. In his first seven seasons his only top 50 finish on the Order of Merit came in 1996 when he was 21st. However he also finished in the top 100 in all but one of the other six seasons, and picked up a debut tour win at the 1996 Catalan Open.

Lawrie's career was transformed in 1999. After winning the Qatar Masters, which is a European Tour event, early in the season, he went on to win the 1999 Open Championship at Carnoustie in July. This was the Open where the Frenchman Jean Van de Velde famously blew a three-shot lead on the final hole. Lawrie won a four-hole playoff against Van de Velde and the American Justin Leonard. An unusual aspect of Lawrie's victory was that he was neither leader nor co-leader at any time during his regulation 72 holes, only moving into a share of the lead when the leaders came back to him after he had completed his final round. Also, Lawrie came back from the largest third-round deficit ever faced by a major championship winner; going into the final day, he trailed the leader, Van de Velde, by 10 shots. This is also the record for the biggest final-round...
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