As an event it was everything he had hoped for but Paul Lawrie admits that the public response to the staging of a European Tour tournament in Aberdeen could force a re-think on where it is played in future.

The former Open champion was delighted with the reactions of his fellow players and his co-host Mike Loggie at the Saltire Energy Paul Lawrie Matchplay, while he also praised organisers and green staff for their contributions.

“It’s been absolutely magnificent,” was his assessment.

“I don’t think you could have asked for any more. Mike Loggie at Saltire Energy is thrilled with how it’s gone. He’s been here every day and he’s really enjoyed it, which is obviously the most important thing when your main guy is happy with how it’s going.

“The feedback from the players has been brilliant. They have loved the course.”

However while he was anxious to make it clear that he was not criticising the local golf community, Lawrie acknowledged that the size of the galleries – around 11,000 attended in the course of the week - had not been at the expected level and revealed that there is no guarantee that Murcar or his native city would host the event in future.

“There’s a three year contract in place with the European Tour and Mike,” he said.

“It will not necessarily be here. There’s nothing been decided yet where it’s going to be at all. Obviously we are going to have a sit down with 4Sport after the week and let it kind of settle, let the dust go down and then we’ll decide where we go from there.

“It would have been nice to see a few more (spectators). I wouldn’t have said we are disappointed but we thought there would be more. The discussion with Mike was very clear, he was very keen on keeping the price down to let people enjoy it.

“Why there aren’t more I don’t know. We obviously need to look at that and see why people have not come.”

In saying so he dismissed any possibility of price having been a factor with entry for competition days having been set at 15 as compared with £80 for the Open Championship and half the price of a day ticket at the Scottish Open.

“I personally don’t think it’s expensive to come along and watch European golfers for a whole day’s golf, so it can’t be the price, but I certainly don’t want to go down the road of complaining because that’s the wrong way of going about it,” said the man whose investment in golf in his home city has been extraordinary over the past decade.

“We are happy to see the ones that have come. They have enjoyed it. The feedback has been great from the spectators and it would have been nice to see a few more.”

Whether the tournament keeps the same slot in the calendar also remains to be seen.

“Again, there’s talk on-going with the schedule and where it’s going to be,” said Lawrie.

“I don’t think that’s a hundred per cent set in stone as of yet.”

There could also be a change in the way the field is assembled with Lawrie having indicated ahead of the event that he could have drawn more big names had there been more invitations available.

Only two were permitted this year and with Lawrie’s own ranking having plummeted in the past two years, he obviously had to take one of them while the other was given to John Daly, his fellow Open champion who was beaten in his opening match.

Naturally the European Tour has to protect the interests of its players, particularly when the field for this event is much smaller than for 72 hole strokeplay competitions. However it is conceivable that the likes of David Duval, another Open champion who performed well at St Andrews a fortnight ago and has professed his love of the links, might also have jumped at the chance to play as might others more immediately recognisable to the public than some of those who compete week-in, week-out.

“The way it’s worked out it would have been nice to have had a couple more,” he said.

“A few players kind of missed out that we would have liked to have seen in the field, but we understand that with a short field the tour are reluctant to give out too many invitations.

“Going forward, though, they will understand that we need at least one or two more. Four would be a right number... I think it would be a perfect number allowing us to change the field by bringing in one or two players.”

He stressed, however, that his overall sense is of satisfaction with that aspect, too.

“I think the field was really strong,” said Lawrie.

“We certainly had Scotland’s top ranked golfer in Marc Warren, John Daly is a two time major winner and we had five or six winners from this year, so for a first year start with a million Euro prize fund the field has been phenomenal.

“It’s kind of gone a little bit over what I was expecting... and Mike said that too. He has obviously never sponsored a main event before. He was maybe expecting it to be a little smaller, but all things have been absolutely magnificent from my point of view and his.”