PAUL Lawrie turns 50 today with his eyes on re-launching his career on the senior golf tours after undergoing successful surgery on the foot injury that has dogged him in recent years.

The former Open champion from Aberdeen has already contributed eight European Tour titles to his pension pot.

But while Lawrie is relishing the prospect of boosting his retirement funds on the lucrative Champions Tour, there is a warning from fellow Scot Colin Montgomerie that the senior circuit in America is highly competitive.

Indeed, Monty, 55, a three-time senior major champion and leading money-winner on the European Tour on eight occasions, suspects that the transition will come as a bit of a shock to his former Ryder Cup team-mate.

"Chippy won't be going on the Champions Tour just to make up the numbers," he said. "He'll be as competitive as anybody, but, as everybody else does, he'll find it bloody tough.

"He'll be under no illusions, of course. He will know that himself, but he'll be surprised all the same, believe me.

"If you don't score 65 or 66 on the first day, you are playing huge catch up. People think the courses are all 6600 yards long and there's no rough, but they're set-up to PGA Tour standard.

"The greens are every bit as quick and the pin positions are in places you'd think weren't possible.

"As I'm in the winner's hall of fame category I tend to play in the last three or four groups, so when I'm starting out I can already be four or five shots behind and thinking that my putt on the first had better go in or else I'm in trouble.

"And it's getting harder every year. As you're getting older you are seeing the next influx ready to come through.

"There's the likes of Darren Clarke, Jim Furyk, Phil Mickelson, Davis Love, Retief Goosen, Ernie Els and Angel Cabrera – and when you add that lot to the mix it's a hell of a tour.

"It's great because it's super competitive and it's also becoming more international, with Darren having joined and Miguel Jimenez doing as well as he is and Bernhard Langer, of course.

"As a major winner, Paul will get 12 months grace, but now that he's had his operation on his foot, he'll be playing on the European Tour thinking about America the following year.

"And now that Sandy [Lyle] doesn't play that much on the Champions Tour it will be nice to have some Scottish support out there."

Monty's season was also disrupted by a foot injury, but he insists that he's fighting fit once more and raring to go again.

"I had a poor year by my standards, finishing in the low 20s in the Schwab Cup after three seasons of being number two and I want to get it back to that standard again," he said.

"I've had my foot sorted out and I've got new equipment coming. I also feel as if I want to go again. In fact, I'm as keen as mustard."

But no matter what Monty may achieve in the season ahead, he admits that nothing can compare with Tiger Woods' remarkable comeback in 2018.

He added: "The highlight of the year for me was Tiger's win at the Tour Championship in Atlanta, his first victory for five years.

"To see the outpouring of emotion from everybody, including Tiger himself, was amazing.

"The scenes that greeted his success were unbelievable. We had never seen that before, not even at a major, and I think it was because they all thought they'd never see him win again.

"When I saw him pulling out of all those events, I used to think: 'Come on, Tiger, cut your losses and do something else.' But he was determined to do this and he did.

"Now, who says that, come The Masters, he won't be in contention? That would be great for the game.

"During Tiger's demise, his place was taken by the likes of Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth, Justin Rose, Jason Day and Dustin Johnson.

"But there is still only one Tiger Woods. He is the only player who can inspire what we saw in Atlanta.

"People turn on their TV and the one score they look for is Tiger's, and it's superb for the game that he's back again.

"So, imagine if he gets into that position at Augusta. Nobody thought he could win a tournament again. Now he's got to be thinking: 'Well nobody thought I could win a major, either!'"

Meanwhile, Monty is convinced that the Americans will have yet another rethink about their approach to the Ryder Cup when they host the biennial event at Whistling Straits next year following their most recent fall in France.

He added: "You could see that a lot of them were emotionally spent at Le Golf National after putting their hearts and souls into the Fedex Cup.

"So I think you'll find they have a break after the Tour Championship before going to Whistling Straits rather than risk a repeat of what was a disaster for them."