Busy schedule prompted Paul Lawrie to miss US Open

Published on 20/06/2012 01:57

PAUL Lawrie has taken the wraps off a gruelling upcoming schedule that partly influenced his decision not to travel to San Francisco last week for the US Open. The former Open champion is playing seven events in the next eight weeks, starting with five in a row, and certainly won’t be putting his feet up during his one week off.

Straight after the Open Championship at Royal Lytham, Lawrie, along his wife Marian and a couple of their friends, will embark on a five-day charity walk on the 79-mile Caledonian Way from Fort William to Inverness. “This next eight weeks is just full-on,” revealed the Aberdonian at an event to celebrate sporting manufacturer Wilson having a base in Irvine for the past 50 years.

The two days beforehand, he’d been at Loch Lomond for a fund-raiser for his Foundation and, between that and teeing off in tomorrow’s opening round of the BMW International Open in Cologne, he’s been involved in a number of other charity and sponsor’s events.

“It’s not unusual for my schedule to be busy, but when I was explaining why I wasn’t going to the US Open I didn’t want an excuse by mentioning the schedule,” he added. “It would have been a week too far to go over there.”

From the German event, Lawrie moves on to the Irish Open, the French Open, the Scottish Open then the Open. After his walk in memory of his late coach, Adam Hunter, he’s off to America for the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational then the USPGA Championship.

He would probably have dropped the French Open if hadn’t been for the persuasive powers of Jean van de Velde. “It would have been a perfect week off for me, but Jean wasn’t taking no for an answer,” he said of the man he beat to claim the Claret Jug at Carnoustie in 1999.

Despite missing out on the season’s second major, Lawrie held on to third spot on the European points list for the Ryder Cup later this year.

“[European captain] Jose Maria [Olazabal] summed up my prospects really well in saying I was ‘almost there’ – that’s bang on,” said the Scot.

Lawrie’s resurgence has coincided with him having Wilson Staff clubs back in his bag. “I’ve had a couple of nice spells with Wilson,” he said. “I am proud to have delivered one of the [record] 61 major championship wins by Wilson players.”