Forget all that black gold sloshing about under the North Sea.
It seems the white dimpled ba' is the current currency that's helping affluent Aberdeen strike it rich.
Having made its debut on the European Tour by staging July's Scottish Open at Royal Aberdeen, the Granite City is to become a permanent fixture on the main circuit - well, for the next three years at least - after official confirmation came yesterday of the addition to the 2015 schedule of the Saltire Energy Paul Lawrie Matchplay at Murcar Links.
The four day knock-out championship, which will feature a field of 64 and a prize fund of €1m, will be staged from July 30 to August 2 and will be plonked in the merry midst of a manic month of top-level competition on Scottish soil that also features the Scottish Open, the Open, the Ladies Scottish Open and the Women's British Open. The golf writers are already girding their loins.
Lawrie's support for the game in his homeland knows no bounds. From his flourishing Foundation at grassroots level, to the Paul Lawrie Invitational and the Northern Open on the domestic Tartan Tour, as well as events on the Ladies Tartan Tour, through to a full blown event on the European scene, the former Open champion's influence, dedication and willingness to give something back to the game continues to grow. It's the kind of philanthrophy that would make Andrew Carnegie look like a tight-fisted miser.
"Originally we wanted this to start as a Challenge Tour event but then we thought 'let's do it'," said Lawrie. "Aberdeen is a great place to put on stuff like this. I've got quite a few people who when I go to them with an idea they tend to back me and Saltire were very keen to come on board.
"I look back and can't believe how long it took to get the tour to come to Aberdeen. We've now got three years to try to get ourselves on the schedule to stay long term. I would look at the Arnold Palmer Invitational [on the PGA Tour] and think 'how cool it would be to have an event on the tour with your name on it'. It's not an ego thing, though. I actually didn't want my name on it.
"You just start thinking about putting as much back as possible into the game. We have plans for the ticket prices to be reasonable because I want people to come and enjoy the event, to see all these top golfers come and play in my home city. I want people to go away thinking 'man, I must go back next year'."
With a glaring shortage of matchplay events on the European circuit - the future of the World Matchplay is hanging in the balance again after losing its title sponsor Volvo - Lawrie believes this new addition can fill a sizeable gap and help the development of Europe's future Ryder Cup players. "The more you can prepare the younger players in matchplay events the better chance they will have of playing in a Ryder Cup," added Lawrie, who played in the editions of 1999 and 2012.
Of course, no sooner had Lawrie whisked the cover off his new event in Aberdeen, golfers half the world away were already being asked for their thoughts. Stephen Gallacher, currently playing the Turkish Open, welcomed the new event and praised Lawrie's contribution to the game in their shared homeland.
"It's brilliant and Paul has to be commended for giving back to the Tour," said Gallacher, who was speaking after play had been washed out due to thunderstorms with nobody able to complete their second round. Paul's always been that way inclined and Scottish golf should be rightfully proud of his continuing contribution to growing the game back home. Two weeks after the Open sounds a good spot. Let's hope he gets a good field."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article