'A really special moment' - Scottish golfer on joining Sergio Garcia as European Young Master

The 15-year-old Bruntsfield Links player is still pinching himself after becoming just the second Scot after Barry Hume, who did it in 1998, to win the European Young Masters.

It was mission accomplished for Lawson as he carded rounds of 68-63-70 at Penati Golf Resort in Slovakia before then winning a play-off against Dutch player Tom De Herrypon.

“It’s starting to sink in now,” admitted the Queensferry High School pupil. “At the time, I was definitely overwhelmed with excitement. It’s definitely the biggest win of my career as this is the first one outside of Scotland.”

The victory came hot on the heels of Lawson being in contention in the recent R&A Junior Open at Kilmarnock (Barassie) before ending up joint-second behind Korean Seonghyeon An.

“I played really solid in the Junior Open, so I knew I was in good form coming into this event and definitely thought I had a good chance,” he added. “Then, after having a good first round, I knew I was in there and the second round flew me to the top of the leaderboard and I just had to try and keep going.

“I got off to a slow start in the final round, missing a couple of putts early on that I probably should have holed. My mindset changed from me leading by a few shots to then thinking I was just one off the lead, but I didn’t let that get to me. I managed to pick up a couple of birdies on the way in and ended up getting the job done, which was brilliant.”

Sergio Garcia won the event’s inaugural staging in 1995 while other champions since then have included Rafa Cabrera Bello, Matteo Manassero and Renato Paratore.

“Yeah, it does,” said Lawson of feeling good about joining players who have gone on to become DP World Tour winners on a roll of honour. “When I got the trophy and looked at the names of all the previous winners, it was a really special moment for me.”

After arriving home early on Sunday morning, Lawson was looking forward to “chilling out for a couple of days” before starting to get himself ready for next week’s Boys’ Home Internationals at Conwy in Wales then, straight after that, the Boys’ Amateur Championship at Moortown in England.

“I had a really good year last year, when I had lots of top fives without managing to get over the line,” said Lawson. “This year I think after winning an event, that gave me a lot of confidence and I’ve now had four wins this year. It’s been a great year and I am really pleased with it.”

One of his targets going forward is to represent Europe in the Junior Ryder Cup and, if he can tick that off next year in New York, he’ll have Stephen Gallacher as his captain following his recent reappointment on the back of a thumping win in Rome last year.

“I’ve still got another three years of junior golf and I’d love to be able to play Junior Ryder Cup and stuff like that,” said Lawson. “Just try and keep going the way I am going and see where it takes me, but the end goal is obviously to get on to the tour.”

Is a spell at college in the US on the cards after seeing how Open Silver Medal winner Calum Scott, for instance, has benefitted from that? “I think so, though I’ve not really thought too much about that at the moment, to be honest,” he admitted. “However, it’s definitely something I’ll consider when I’m a bit older.”

Alan Tait, a former Scottish Boys’ champion and the first player to shoot 64 on the Championship Course at Carnoustie, first came across Lawson when he was a “tiny wee boy” in 2011 and took to social media to say how proud he was to see him be crowned as the European Young Master.

“Alan has been so good to me since I was a young lad,” said Lawson. “Just playing with him and learning from his experience and what he’s told me from playing with Tiger Woods, for example, has encouraged me to keep pushing myself. Alan is great. He’s such a nice, big guy and I really owe a lot to him.

“Paul Gibson, who runs Junior Tour Scotland, has also supported me a lot and I’m an ambassador for Junior Tour Scotland now. Paul has done a great job setting up the tour and it’s great to see so many youngsters like myself playing on that now.”