Golfer blames career nightmare on strange addiction
For a while, European Tour fans had to look out for two Lawries: the Scottish one Paul, who won the 1999 Open Championship with a 10-shot comeback in the final round, and the Irishman Peter, who had become a staple on the circuit.
However, in the last two years, Peter Lawrie has fallen off the map, dropping from 161st in the world two years ago to about 900th in the Official World Golf Ranking to start 2015.
There are a lot of reasons a player can lose their game, but Lawrie's reason is unique: He says he became addicted to drinking Coke.
“I was addicted to it and I tried to stop it,” Lawrie said to Irish-based Newstalk and its “Golf Weekly” podcast.
“I was drinking liters of the stuff. Even in the hottest countries, like Malaysia, I would have Coke on the golf course, because I was addicted to it.”
The 40-year-old cut Coke from his diet as part of a fitness push in 2013 -- an approach Lawrie was killing his career.
“I went from such a high on sugar to a dramatic low,” he continued. “And I never recovered from it. I really didn’t. That was the one thing.
"I know this might shock people, but I lost all confidence in myself. I wouldn’t say I went for a breakdown, but I got exceptionally emotional at the end of that year and some of last year, as well.
"It was just very difficult to deal with all of the situations that were coming at me. Whether that had anything to do with my mental state in any shape or form, I have no idea.”
So, Lawrie admitted defeat and resumed drinking the fizzy drink, albeit in much smaller quantities than he did before cutting it cold turkey.
He's made the cut in his last three starts, including a T-16 last week in Malaysia that was his best finish since the 2013 Irish Open, where he wound up T-10 just three weeks before cutting Coke.
“(Dropping Coke from my diet) just didn’t work," he said.
"I don’t know whether it triggered something in my brain or whatever, but I wasn’t the same Peter Lawrie when I did it.”
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