A year which began with him paying £10 to enter a tournament in which he shivered and carried his own clubs ends this week with Paul Lawrie in Arizona for an event where last place is worth £75,000.
Lawrie is competing from tomorrow to Sunday - with a break on Friday to see in the new millennium - against Tiger Woods, Sergio Garcia and nine more of golf's biggest names.
The Williams World Challenge organised by Woods' own benevolent foundation offers a million dollars to the winner. But just to be part of it underlines how much Lawrie's life has changed in 12 months.
In January he was playing in the Scottish North-east Golfers' Alliance at Buckpool near his Aberdeen home.
"You pay £10 to the secretary of the alliance and off you go in the freezing cold with your woolly hat and waterproofs on and carrying your own clubs," recalls the man who now rejoices in the name of British Open champion.
"I had a 10 on the 10th hole but then birdied five of the last seven and finished joint first."
He shot 66 for the 17 holes of the event (the other was out of play) and earned the princely sum of £90. Winning the British Open was worth £350,000.
"The way I'm starting 2000 is a bit different, to say the least," said Lawrie, who from Phoenix moves on to Hawaii for two weeks, then Australia, then back to America.
Lawrie could not have contemplated such a thing until that one dream-like day at Carnoustie in July when thanks to the best round of his life and then the best shot of his life - with the unbelievable collapse of Jean Van de Velde in between - he leapt from promising player to major champion. Just like that, as Tommy Cooper would have said.
The claret jug has pride of place in the "golf room" at Lawrie's luxurious new home in Aberdeen. "People who come round want to hold it, of course, and I'm always looking at the list of names on it. It's a fantastic feeling to see mine there as well."
He will not be seeing as much of it in the coming months after deciding to join the US Tour, but Scotland remains home. "Global travel is so much easier nowadays, and when you play just in Europe it still takes time to get home," he says.
"After the World Championship at Valderrama in Spain in November, for instance, I didn't arrive back until Monday afternoon.
"With overnight flights from America I'll often be able to make it back for Monday morning."
He has had a crash course in finding that out. Since the Open triumph Lawrie has been to America four times, most recently to Hawaii last month for the four-man Grand Slam of Golf, where after twisting an ankle he did finish last and on that occasion still picked up $90,000.
The hardest part for Lawrie, 31 on New Year's Day, is the time away from his children - four-year-old Craig and baby Michael, just coming up to his first birthday. But as a career move he feels the opportunity to play in the States is too good to miss.
"I don't have an awful lot of expectations for early in the season. Hopefully I'll play nicely and compete, but it's in the long-term where I hope to see results."
