Champion that time forgot

The banks of Loch Lomond have rarely looked more bonnie, the golf course sloping down to the gently lapping water has never been more pristine, and the Barclay's Scottish Open is enjoying one of its best entries for years.

Colin Montgomerie could hardly keep his enthusiasm in check. If there was a better inland course in Great Britain then he insisted he hadn't played on it. And wasn't it great, said Monty, to have Phil Mickelson fly in from the United States and take on the cream of the European Tour.

But someone's missing the party. Someone significant not only because he remains the last European player to win one of his sport's four majors, but he also happens to be a Scot - and in 2003 this is his nation's premier tournament.

Paul Lawrie is out of sight, because he has chosen to practise on seaside links courses in preparation for the Open Championship which gets under way at Royal St George's next Thursday.

But Lawrie is also out of mind. Okay, so he hasn't pitched up here at Loch Lomond Golf Club, but no one seems to have noticed his absence.

The 34-year-old Aberdonian is the Open champion that time forgot. If it ever remembered his name in the first place.

Lawrie can point to the base of the Claret Jug, where his name is engraved beside the date 1999, as proof that he rose above the carnage of Carnoustie to win the world's most prestigious golf title.

But the cuttings book with his name in newspaper headlines is frustratingly thin. Instead, a glorious loser by the name of Jean van de Velde stole every last flicker of the spotlight.

The Frenchman lost his grip on the Jug, and on reality, when a bizarre paddle in the Barry Burn cost him a three-shot lead approaching the 18th green for the fourth and last time in regulation play.

Yet it was the wet-footed Frenchman who was feted around the world while Lawrie was left to ponder the fickleness of fame.

He said: "The recognition has been very poor. I don't think I have the respect from the golfing world that I should have.

"It's partly my fault in that I didn't go out of my way to become the glitzy superstar that I could have been. I preferred to go home and close my gate and be on my own with the wife and kids.

"But I still reckon that more was made of how van de Velde lost it rather than I won it. I shot four under that day, over probably the hardest Open course ever, to get into the playoff. And the play-off speaks for itself.

"I beat van de Velde by three shots and Justin Leonard by two over four holes, so I played the best by far."

Few golfers work harder at their game than Lawrie, to the point where he admits to being "obsessive" about practice.

And when it all comes right, as it did again when he sunk a snaking 40ft putt at the last to win the inaugural Dunhill Links Championship at St Andrews in 2001, no face can break into a bigger smile.

Yet the flaw in Lawrie's argument that due recognition has passed him by is exposed when he concedes: "Being in the limelight is something I don't enjoy.

"I don't enjoy talking about myself and don't feel comfortable about telling people what I've achieved.

"I'm just a golfer. I hit my ball, go and find it and hit it again.

"I don't like waving to the crowd and all that carry on. I've never liked that. I don't see the glitz and glamour of golf. I like to tap my ball in at the 18th and go home."

Home is a luxury house in the Granite City, bought with some of the £3.6million Lawrie has won in prize money.

"I'm lucky to have what I have," he said. " But I've worked hard for what I've got."

And now he's working hard for others, too.

Lawrie may feel left out, but he hasn't forgotten those who are starting out on the same path to glory, in what ever form that glory may eventually take.

Two of Britain's brightest prospects, Claire Hunter and Mark Loftus, are receiving direct help and encouragement from Lawrie.

And the act of putting something back into his sport is giving him more satisfaction than he could ever derive from seeing his own name in lights.

"I'm lucky that I have the financial clout to be able to do these things," he said. "But it gives me such a kick to have an involvement in Claire and Mark.

"When it comes down to it, as golfers I think we sometimes forget how lucky we are enjoying the life that we do.

"I do work hard, but no harder than some guy down a mine.

"I just happen to be a geezer playing golf, and I happen to be very good at it."

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