Paul Lawrie feels that seeing his beloved Aberdeen win a trophy for the first time in nearly two decades on Sunday was as good as winning a tournament with the one obvious exception.
“Not quite as good as the Open,” agreed the 1999 champion, who was among the 42,000 Dons fans at Parkhead with wife Marian and sons Craig and Michael.
“But having been a huge supporter of the football club for a long time, Sunday was definitely on a par with me winning any other trophy.
“To be honest, these days I get as much joy from seeing my Foundation players like David Law or Phillip McLean win tournaments as much as myself, but for the club to win was so special.”
Lawrie has had nothing but silence from his friends on the European Tour who have been accustomed to having the better of the football banter on the practice range.
“I’ve been getting stick for quite a while now from the rest of the Scottish boys as there’s a lot of banter amongst us every Saturday,” he said.
“So it’s nice that at the next tournament I go to I’ll not be the one getting the stick. None of them has texted me to say ‘well done’. Sam Torrance is a Celtic man but nothing. Nothing from (Celtic fan) Stevie Gallacher or (Rangers fan) Alastair Forsyth either. Isn’t that strange?”
Lawrie pulled out of the Trophee Hassan in Morocco at the weekend to be at the final but thinks he might choose his day job over the club if they reach the Scottish Cup final.
“Being a supporter since I was knee high it was great to see them win something again, and the Scottish Cup final is the same week as the Spanish Open and if we get through to that as well I’ll just need to wait and see what happens.
“Now we’ve won a cup and are one up now, I can probably miss the next one!”
Lawrie was especially pleased for Aberdeen chairman Stewart Milne, for manager Derek McInnes and long-serving skipper Russell Anderson.
“Stewart has put quite a bit into my foundation, always turns up at events and takes tables at charity dinners and never says no to us,” he said.
“I don’t know exactly how much he’s put into the club over the years, but the time alone must be considerable, and I think everyone connected with the club is chuffed to bits for him.”
Lawrie now plans to get back in the groove playing China and Korea on the European Tour and then Spain, Wentworth and Sweden, but he’s concerned about so much time off and a nagging neck injury.
“I generally don’t play much this time of year but the last couple of seasons I’ve been in all the WGC events and the majors. But it’ll be 11 weeks of a break by the time I play next and that’s a long time,” he said.
“To be honest the neck problem means that I could probably have only played one week since Dubai anyway. I played this morning in the North East Alliance and shot three-over, and I almost walked off on the back nine it was so bad.”
Lawrie’s been getting physiotherapy twice weekly and hopes to have it under control before he heads to the Far East to restart his season.
Meanwhile, he has a huge date this July with the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open coming to Royal Aberdeen and was at the city’s Royal Children’s Hospital on Wednesday to help launch the ARCHIE Foundation 10th anniversary appeal as the official charity of this year’s championship.
The appeal, which has also contributed to the children’s units at Raigmore Hospital in Inverness and Ninewells in Dundee, aims to raise necessary maintenance funds for the hospital as it marks 10 years and more than one million young patients having been through its doors.