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EYEWITNESS 3
THE WINNER
Paul Lawrie
"I was on the range hitting balls when he teed off on 18. And my caddie was watching it on a little TV monitor they had there in a little hut. We watched him tee off and it was dry. He didn't hit it in the water. So we started to head back into the clubhouse thinking it was all over. But then the BBC reporter Dougie Donnelly called us over to watch it in the BBC compound. And I saw Jean hit it into the burn from the rough. And so then I left quickly to go practice some putting. I remember my coach, Adam Hunter, saying, 'Jean's not even going to be involved in a playoff.' And then he made a hell of an up-and-down out of the bunker to make it in.
"I would never wish ill on any professional. But it is an individual game that we play. And what Jean did doesn't make me feel sorry for him. I don't mean that to sound cruel; that's just the way it is. I am looking out for me. When I'm golfing, the only person who matters to me is me. And if he mucks up, that's bad for him, but if it is helping me, then so be it. I certainly wasn't wishing him to hit it in the water, but he's got to look after his ball, and I've got to look after mine. He's not going to worry about me, so why should I be bothered about him?
"I feel there was too much made of Jean and what happened to him. That he threw it away and so on. But at the end of the day, he needed a six to win the Open, and didn't do it. Closing the deal and getting your ball around to post a number is a huge part of what we do. There's no doubt about that. Otherwise, everyone would be winning majors. Plenty of guys down the years have got to a certain point and thought they had it in the bag and have given it away."
