Peter Lawrie has revealed the reason he believes his career went into freefall over the past couple of seasons: an "addiction" to Coca-Cola.
The 40-year-old joined Off The Ball's Adrian Barry and Nathan Murphy in studio to discuss what has been a turbulent 18 months since his last top-10 finish on the European Tour at the 2013 Irish Open. Three weeks after that event, the Dubliner says he quit consuming copious amounts of the soft drink - or his "addiction".
Lawrie saved his Tour card by a whisker that year with a remarkable top-20 finish in the final event at Perth in Western Australia but, as he admits himself, "to this day I don't know how I pulled it out of the bag". He subsequently "fell off the planet last year".
The 2008 Spanish Open champion was finally caught in 2014 when, having missed 24 out of 31 cuts, made his first visit in 13 years to Q-School, where he lost his European Tour Card by one stroke after "nearly a year of playing rubbish golf".
"I hopefully have turned the corner," he says. "You try and thing where did it all go wrong. Where did it start and what did I do wrong?"
Why did @PeterLawrieGolf suffer such a loss of form over the past couple of years? The answer may surprise you. https://t.co/fCufqPQp1O
— Off The Ball (@offtheball) February 13, 2015
"The question, 'what turned the corner?' And I was going to say, 'I was addicted to coke ... and I've recovered from that' - but it was Coca-Cola at the time. And I was addicted to it and I tried to stop it and I cut it out completely.
"I went from such a high on sugar and stuff like that, to a dramatic low," added Lawrie, who has been relying on sponsors' invitations to enter tournaments since losing his Card.
"That happened three weeks after the Irish Open in 2013 ... and I never recovered from it.
"I know this might shock people ... but I lost all confidence in myself.
Peter Lawrie in action during the 2013 Irish Open at Carton House ©INPHO/Cathal Noonan
"I lost all confidence. I wouldn't say I went for a breakdown but I got exceptionally emotional at the end of that year, and some of last year as well. It was just very difficult to deal with all of the situations that were coming at me.
"Not that I've gone completely back on to coke ... I drink two cans a day or three cans a day. But I was drinking litres of the stuff, litres of the stuff - even in the hottest country, Malaysia and stuff, I'd have a coke on the golf course cos I was addicted to the stuff.
"That's what I see as the start of it - for the last 12 years previous to that, that wasn't me. I don't know whether it triggered something in my brain but I wasn't the same Peter Lawrie."
Hear the full @PeterLawrieGolf interview on Sunday's show. He also talks about the "complete nightmare" of Q-School http://t.co/NfE9ZicnAC
— Off The Ball (@offtheball) February 13, 2015
As to how he broke the "addiction", Lawrie said: "Don't get me wrong, I'm not bashing coke - I still like the drink. I probably dealt with it wrongly - like a fella giving cigarettes up. I tried to cut it out completely ... I probably should have tried to get myself slowly but surely off it.
"I probably should have taken it a little bit easier ... I was missing too much of the sugar and too much of whatever it was giving me medically-wise."
In an extensive interview, Lawrie traced the trajectory of a roller-coaster couple of years, expanded on the "completed nightmare" of Q-School, and wondered at the brilliance of Rory McIlroy.
