Tag: Paul Lawrie

This major champion believes his COVID-born tour could become a major feeder league

The winner of this flourishing tour’s order of merit next year will gain promotion to the Challenge Tour.

He may officially be classed as a senior in golfing terms but Paul Lawrie is not one to kick back and doze off.

With the kind of tireless energy that those Duracell bunnies used to display in adverts for long-lasting batteries, the 53-year-old keeps on going with all manner of endeavors and enterprises. And it’s not just golf that enjoys his presence. This week, in his native Aberdeen, Scotland, the 1999 Open champion will be on the tennis court sidelines as a guest coach to the Murray brothers, Andy and Jamie, in the Battle of the Brits.

“As it’s in Aberdeen they’ve obviously thought, ‘right, what idiot can we get from the city to help out?” said Lawrie with a self-deprecating chuckle.

This tennis lark will be a bit of fun away from Lawrie’s serious business of developing golf in his homeland. On that front, the Scot continues to serve up, well, a few aces. The other day, it was announced that the winner of his flourishing Tartan Pro Tour order of merit next year will gain promotion to the Challenge Tour, the second-tier of European professional golf.

For a mini-circuit that was only formed in 2020, amid the ravages of the COVID pandemic, it’s a significant progression in its development.

The demise of the PGA EuroPro Tour this season after 20 years offered an opportunity to fill a void and Lawrie and his team have seized the chance.
When the Tartan Pro Tour launched a couple of years ago, to provide playing opportunities when lower-level circuits had been decimated due to COVID, it had six events. In 2023, it will boast 13, 54-hole tournaments at some tremendous venues across Scotland.

Scotland’s Paul Lawrie kisses the British Open trophy after his victory in the playoff during the 128th Open Championship at Carnoustie in Scotland, in this July 18, 1999 file photo.

“This was always the dream,” said Lawrie. “When we started, we wanted a pathway for players from our tour onto the Challenge Tour. We were actively trying to get a Challenge Tour spot before the EuroPro Tour closed down but there weren’t any additional spots and, to be honest, we thought we might never get one. But suddenly we woke up one day to the news that the EuroPro was being discontinued. Now, I’m certainly not wallowing in that tour’s demise. It was a huge pity but this is business and there was an opportunity for us. They (the Challenge Tour) will review it every year. It’s up to us to grow ours as much as we can to then try to get more Challenge Tour spots. That’s our new goal.”

With more connections than the railway network – well, when they’re not on bloomin’ strike – Lawrie has attracted some sturdy partners to bolster his project.

“When you have good companies and backers behind you, then you’ll go places,” he added of this valuable assistance. “We have Farmfoods and the R&A, for instance. There are things you can do with that kind of support and you can do it pretty quickly.”

As a come-all-ye playing platform for various walks of golfing life, Lawrie’s tour attracted plenty of female entrants over the last couple of seasons. While no discussions have taken place about a possible tie-in with the Ladies European Tour, Lawrie would be keen to open a dialogue.

“We are willing to work with anyone and would certainly have that conversation,” he said. “If there’s an opportunity to progress the career of any golfer then I’m open to discussion.”

Combining competitive action on the over-50s circuit with his myriad ventures back home, Lawrie, who won again on the Legends Tour this summer, takes great pride in his own circuit which is offering a way up the professional ladder.

“It’s probably been the most satisfying thing I’ve done,” he said. “When we first looked at it, all we wanted to do was provide something to play in during COVID. We sort of fell into it a bit. Starting with six events was manageable. Had we gone in with more it would have been a huge undertaking but we have grown as the tour has grown. I spend more time on this than anything.

“If I’m not playing golf, then I’m in my office trying to get people involved with our tour and constantly working to keep it moving forward. To see it get to the level it has in such a short period of time is hugely rewarding.”

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Tiger Woods awarded honorary membership into Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews

His mood – and health – have been so good that he’s played 58 holes in practice rounds.

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland – Tiger Woods has had the week of the 150th Open Championship circled on his calendar for more than a year.

He was ecstatic to have worked and healed enough following a single-car accident in February 2021 that nearly took his life to be at the Home of Golf this week to try and add a fourth Claret Jug to his collection.

His mood – and health – have been so good since setting foot in this old grey seaside village that he’s played 58 holes in practice rounds. That’s twice as many as he played ahead of both the Masters and the PGA Championship.

And on Wednesday, Tiger’s week got even better when it was announced that Woods was one of three golfers to accept invitations to become Honorary Members of the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews.

“It is not only the Home of Golf, but a place in this world that I hold near my heart,” the 15-time major winner and three-time Open Championship victor said in a statement. “I am humbled to accept this invitation alongside these outstanding players today, as well as those who came before us.”

Also receiving honorary membership were four-time major winner and 2014 Champion Golfer of the Year Rory McIlroy and 1999 Open Championship winner Paul Lawrie.

“It’s a privilege to represent a club that has done so much for golf over so many years,” McIlroy said. “I’m proud to play my part in promoting golf around the world.”

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These five players made a major championship their only PGA Tour win

Only five players have won a major championship for their lone PGA Tour win.

Will Zalatoris is one of the many young talents on the PGA Tour. He’s one of the best iron players in the game, has some power off the tee, and understands when to be aggressive and when to lay off.

But, he’s still searching for his first PGA Tour win.

He’s played well in major championships so far in his brief career, including a runner-up finish to Hideki Matsuyama at the 2020 Masters and after a first-round 66, he’s in the hunt at the 2022 PGA Championship.

So, that got us thinking, who are the golfers whose only win came in a major championship?

The answer to the question? Five. Just five players have won a major championship as their lone PGA Tour victory.

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Is Paul Lawrie due a turn as Europe’s Ryder Cup captain? He ticks all the boxes

A major champion and two-time Ryder Cup player, Lawrie ticks all sorts of boxes.

In the modern era, the role of a Ryder Cup skipper has been elevated to such a venerated status, the position should come with its own marble plinth. Such exalted status brings its pressures, of course.

Win that little gold chalice and you’ll be worshipped like Zeus. Lose and you’ll attract withering condemnation.

After Europe’s walloping at Whistling Straits last year, everybody was expecting Lee Westwood to be given the captain’s armband for the 2023 tussle in Rome. But then Westwood withdrew himself from consideration and Europe’s chain of assumed succession, which seems to have captains in place for the next 100 years, was somewhat disrupted. Luke Donald has emerged as the favorite to take up the reins and certainly has plenty of backing among the current crop of players.

In an interview out in Dubai, former Ryder Cup man Andrew Coltart belatedly flung Paul Lawrie’s hat into the ring. It was a thoroughly merited call and one that, perhaps, should’ve been hollered more loudly down the years.

With a plethora of potential candidates stacking up in recent seasons, it seemed that Lawrie was too far down the pecking order to be considered. Why that should be the case, though, remains something of a mystery when you think about it.

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Here is a major champion, a multiple tour winner, a two-time Ryder Cup player and a staunch supporter of the European circuit who ticks all sorts of boxes. He was a vice-captain too in Darren Clarke’s 2016 set-up. While Thomas Bjorn and Padraig Harrington, who were also part of that backroom team at Hazeltine, went on to become captains in 2018 and 2021 respectively, Lawrie’s credentials have been overlooked.

Rather like Sandy Lyle before him, Lawrie’s hopes of performing a task he’d “love to do” have, realistically, passed him by. That Lyle did not earn the captaincy remains somewhat lamentable given that he was part of a famous five of European golfers who were all born within a year of each other and amassed 16 majors among them during a barnstorming spell of prosperity.

Nick Faldo, Seve Ballesteros, Bernhard Langer and Ian Woosnam all had stints as Ryder Cup skipper with varying degrees of success.

Faldo, for instance, employed his own ego as a vice-captain and was about as popular as the emergence of a new variant of the coronavirus. While his reign ended in dismal defeat, the other three all got to the savour the victorious popping of celebratory champagne corks.

Poor old Sandy, meanwhile, never did get his crack at the captaincy. “There is a slight unfairness about it,” he once said of a snub that cut him deeply. “I was due, definitely.”

Lawrie’s not the type to make a big song and dance about it but the 53-year-old would be justified in feeling as aggrieved as his celebrated countryman.

When it comes to the Ryder Cup, sometimes the captain’s cap doesn’t fit.

Nick Rodger is a contributor for the Scotland Herald and Glasgow Times, part of Newsquest, which is a subsidiary of Gannett/USA Today.

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Former Open winner Paul Lawrie calls it quits after 620 European Tour starts

Longtime European Tour player Paul Lawrie is hanging it up on the European Tour.

Longtime European Tour player Paul Lawrie is hanging it up on the European Tour. The 51-year-old Scotsman missed the cut at this week’s Scottish Open and after his 620th career start, will call it quits.

Lawrie was the winner of the 1999 Open Championship, memorable in part because he outlasted Jean van de Velde in a playoff after van de Velde’s stunning collapse on the final hole at Carnoustie. Lawrie also won seven more times and made two Ryder Cup teams.

He remains active through is Paul Lawrie Foundation, which focuses on growing the game.

“My back is not very good, I’ve got a herniated disc and I struggle to practice enough,” Lawrie told the BBC. “I’m not able to hit the amount of balls I need. I’m not particularly talented so I lose my game quite quickly.

“I’m also very busy off the course and I enjoy that more than the golf these days.”

Lawrie said he did intend to occasionally tee it up in on the European Tour’s senior circuit. As a past Open champion, he also will be eligible to play that event until he turns 60 and his exemption runs out.

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Paul Lawrie launches new Scottish pro tour for men and women that begins at Carnoustie

Scotland’s Paul Lawrie is helping to fill the tournament void left in wake of the COVID-19 pandemic with the Scottish-based Tartan Pro Tour.

Another development tour in the United Kingdom is set to launch in the coming weeks. This time it’s Scotland’s Paul Lawrie behind the series, which is helping to fill the tournament void that’s left in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Scottish-based Tartan Pro Tour has an impressive list of venues to start, including Carnoustie, Royal Dornoch and St. Andrews (Jubilee and New Courses).

The events, organized by Lawrie’s Five Star Sports Management & Events company, will be open to both male and female professionals and played over 36 holes across two days with a maximum field size of 72.

“This period has been the strangest any of us have ever faced in our lifetimes and as professional sportspeople we are champing at the bit to get back competing,” said Lawrie in a release. “The Tartan Pro Tour has come about partly because Covid has obliterated our normal schedules.

“All of the pros I’ve had contact with throughout these past 12 weeks have no certainty that they’ll get a chance to play again this season at all. I’ve been so impressed by the efforts of the European Tour to get the UK Swing of events to the stage it’s at but for so many pros the remainder of the year looks unclear. For the players on the smaller circuits there’s little or nothing to set their sights on, sadly. And whilst there seem to be several smaller tours popping-up around the M25 Corridor, it’s a long way for pros from North of the Border to go without accommodation options and all the other considerations around air travel, etc.”

The entirety of the entry fees will go into the prize funds, which will be supplemented by corporate sponsors. The tour’s official partners are Farmfoods, Gym Rental Company, Blue Group, Cloudcube, Paul Lawrie Golf Centre and The R&A.

The leader of the Order of Merit at season’s end will receive invitations to the Challenge Tour. The tour kicks off Aug. 5-6 at Carnoustie, site of Lawrie’s 1999 British Open victory.

TARTAN PRO TOUR SCHEDULE 2020

Aug. 5-6 The Carnoustie Challenge (Carnoustie Championship Course)

Aug. 8-9 Paul Lawrie Golf Centre Scottish Par 3 Championship presented by Farmfoods (PLGC Devenick Course)

Sept. 7-8 Royal Dornoch Masters presented by Gym Rental Company (Championship Course)

Sept. 10-11 The Pollok Open presented by Blue Group (Pollok Golf Club)

Sept. 15-16 St Andrews Classic presented by Cloudcube (Jubilee & New Courses)

Sept. 23-24 Rowallan Castle Championship

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