Lawrie plans tour event at new course

Former Open champion Paul Lawrie hopes his proposed golf course can become a venue for a future European Tour event after his multi-million pound development was granted outline planning permission on Thursday.

Lawrie is looking to design a course on the site of the former Blairs Seminary in Aberdeenshire in the UK and the £115m (€145m) development, which will also see the building of new houses and a hotel, was given full backing by the Aberdeenshire council.

The proposal will now go to the Scottish government who will make a final decision on the project.

“We are all delighted,” said Lawrie, who is currently playing at the BMW Asian Open in Shanghai.

“It has been a hard slog to get it through but we are pleased and extremely grateful to be given the chance to get a golf course put up there.

“We can now get plans down on paper and have a good look at what is going to go where, which we haven’t done yet. It is not done yet but once we get over the final hurdle we will be there.

“It is going to be a fantastic golf course and I feel we can hold tournaments there.

“I don’t think we have a golf course up here where we can hold a European Tour event on. Let’s hope we can produce something like that.”