It's a pretty symbolic club in Paul Lawrie's bag. Back in 1999, the Aberdonian wielded this particular golfing weapon to profitable effect on the fourth play-off hole of that memorable Open Championship at Carnoustie.
He was 221 yards from the pin and clattered his approach to within four feet of the cup. The ensuing birdie putt disappeared down the hole and the Claret Jug was thrust into his hands.
The setting may have been different 13 years on from that historic night in the dreichness of Angus, but the satisfaction of the shot remained the same. Lawrie was on a rousing late charge on the final day of the BMW PGA Championship in late May at a sun-soaked Wentworth.
The momentum that had been building during his golfing renaissance over the course of the campaign would reach another decisive moment as the 43-year-old grasped his trusty four-iron again.
Lawrie – nicknamed Chippy –takes up the story: "It was the 18th fairway and on the 72nd hole, to a back left pin, I've hit a high draw in to about 10 feet," recalled the Scot. "You know when you pull off shots like that then you're a better player. That shot was a huge moment for me in terms of realising where my game was, and I kicked on from there."
That four-iron strike would eventually lead to a birdie in a closing 66 and a share of second in the European Tour's flagship event.
"Somebody call the fire brigade, Chippy is on fire," wrote his caddie, Davy Kenny, in a triumphant post-tournament internet blog. Of course, Lawrie's competitive fires had been burning brightly long before he sizzled at Wentworth.
His win at the Andalucian Masters early last year, his first tour triumph in almost a decade, provided the kindling for his career resurgence before the flames were fanned by a string of results including a runner-up finish in the Dubai World Championship at the end 2011 and victory in the Qatar Masters earlier this season. When he plundered his second title of the campaign at last month's Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles, Lawrie had rubber-stamped his place in Europe's Ryder Cup team.
"You must remember it was only two years ago that I was nearly 300 in the world rankings," said Lawrie, who is now up to a career high of 27th in the global pecking order. "From there the Ryder Cup was just a pipe dream."
That dream will become a reality next week in Chicago as Lawrie returns to the fraught arena of the transatlantic tussle for the first time since a debut at rowdy Brookline in his Open-winning year.
Things have changed a bit since then. For starters, Lawrie needed to accumulate around £700,000 to qualify for the team 13 years ago compared to almost £2 million this time. The change in the game in general will be highlighted when Lawrie steps on to the European charter flight from Heathrow tomorrow.
There will be plenty of leg room. With the migration of Europe's top players to the US continuing, only Lawrie, Nicolas Colsaerts and Francesco Molinari will be on board out of a 12-man team.
The journey across the Atlantic was often viewed as an important opportunity for bolstering camaraderie and team bonding, but Lawrie is not concerned by the prospect of a virtually empty plane: "It's going to be quite weird, but I don't think we as a team will lose anything by that," he suggested.
"The last time I played in the Ryder Cup, there were a couple of players I didn't get on with and I'd had a bit of a falling out a couple of weeks before it with one of them.
"But that went out the door the week of the event. We were best of pals. The craic takes over, absolutely. Everyone is in it together and there's a feeling that you'll do anything for any person on that team. There will always be guys that don't get on - but that week it all gets put aside and you pull together."
The three musketeers on the flight will have plenty of time to mull over tactics. While no-one can predict with any great authority what Jose Maria Olazabal, the European skipper, will do regarding his various pairings, Lawrie has his own ideas.
"There's been little bits of chat," said Lawrie, who struck the very first tee-shot of the 1999 joust and went on the plunder 3.5 points from a possible five during Europe's narrow 14.5-13.5 defeat in Massachusetts.
"I think they see Colsaerts and myself playing fourballs and perhaps Molinari and myself in the foursomes. I don't know how often Jose wants me to play. I'm thinking maybe three out of five? Whether I get more than that I don't know.
"I've not got a problem if he only sees me playing once before the singles: that's fine if he thinks it's for the good of the team. I think the best situation is for everyone to play on the first day, but it depends on how the morning goes.
"Ideally, everyone would get a game on the first day and then play the singles. No-one can ask more than that. There are team players and then there's the likes of Rory McIlroy and Lee Westwood who will probably play all five. I'll do what Jose wants me to do."
Whatever his role, Lawrie will certainly not let his skipper down.
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