Lawrie overcomes his early wobble to end long wait for victory

Paul Lawrie achieved his first European Tour win for nine years yesterday.

The 42-year-old former Open champion took the Andalucian Open in Malaga by one from Swede Johan Edfors.

With six runners-up finishes since his previous victory, Lawrie must have feared it was going to be another near miss when, from one ahead overnight, he bogeyed the first two holes and England’s Mark Foster birdied them.

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But, in a repeat of what happened at last year’s Spanish Open, Foster could not hold onto a three-shot lead.

Lawrie, despite dropping another stroke at the fifth, turned things round by starting the back nine with four birdies in five holes.

And the Aberdeen golfer, whose world ranking has dropped from 29th in 2000 to 272nd, could even afford a closing bogey to win with a level-par 70 and 12-under total of 268.

“It’s been a long time – 2002 seems a hell of a time ago,” he said. “I’ve had a few second places in there, but all of a sudden we’re there again.

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“It was going pear-shaped a little bit, but you’ve just got to keep going – that’s all you can do.

“I played lovely and the putter behaved better. I got on a nice run at the right time.”

Edfors was left to rue a three-putt bogey on the 15th after he had drawn level three times, but with a 68 he pushed Chilean Felipe Aguilar into third spot.

Foster, who like Lawrie was chasing his first victory in more than 200 Tour starts going back, in his case, to 2003, slipped back into a tie for fourth.

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Meanwhile, Kenneth Ferrie, who equalled the Tour record with his 60 in the third round, crashed back to earth with a bump as a 75 sent him tumbling down to joint 11th.

It was not a finish Spaniard Jose Manuel Lara will want to think about for too long either.

Tied for third with a hole to go and still in with a chance if Lawrie made a mess of the difficult 18th, he went out of bounds with his approach and ran up a triple-bogey seven.

A 14-footer at the 10th was the turning point for Lawrie. He followed it with a 25-foot putt and chipped close on both the 12th and 14th, the two par fives.

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To his immense relief it did not matter that he missed from under three feet in between those last two birdies or that he failed to get up and down from a greenside bunker at the last.

His sixth Tour victory came with a cheque for £144,472 and will move him up more than 100 places in the world.

Martin Laird made it a day of double celebration for Scotland as he took the Arnold Palmer Invitational to match Paul Lawrie’s win.

Laird started the day two shots clear but appeared to have squandered his chance when he found the water en route to a double bogey at the 11th.

But three birdies from then on and a brave two-putt at the last saw him hold off Steve Marino by one stroke to win on eight under.