David Law reveals why he’s having a ‘great time’ in lockdown

Aberdonian is loving being at home for a change and watching his young daughter grow up

David Law has been working on his technique during the break after finishing 92nd in last year’s Race to Dubai. Picture: Andrew Redington/Getty Images

Every cloud has a silver lining. Just ask David Law. Golf’s lockdown, while admittedly putting him out of a job temporarily, has allowed the Aberdonian to see his young daughter, Penelope, growing up in front of his eyes as opposed to thousands of miles from home.

Since being shut down due to the coronavirus crisis, the European Tour has seen scheduled events in Kenya, India, Malaysia, China, Spain, Portugal, Denmark and Ireland all bite the dust over the past nine weeks. While Law didn’t plan to tee up in all of them, he’d still have been away from home for a fair chunk.

Instead, the 29-year-old has spent every single day since returning from his last event, the Qatar Masters, in the Granite City with his wife, Natasha, and one-year-old Penelope and, though the circumstances may have been unprecedented, it’s a time in his life that is proving very precious indeed.

David Law with his wife Natasha and their one-year-old daughter Penelope

“As strange as it may sound, we’ve had a great time,” Law, last year’s Vic Open winner, told Scotland on Sunday. “It’s nice to get time at home that is guilt-free. You are not having to worry about doing lots of practice, though I have done plenty over the last few weeks, or thinking about any competitions.

“Penelope is at an age where she is just growing up so fast and developing so fast. It’s nice to spend proper time with her. That’s the thing I’ve enjoyed the most – and also the fact she’s started sleeping during the night. Oh man, that has made a big difference!”

Penelope was born 18 months after the couple suffered the heartbreak of their son, Freddie, being stillborn in July 2017. Law admitted they’d endured an “emotional rollercoaster” after that horrible experience before Penelope’s arrival in the world lit up their lives.

“Our days during lockdown have been revolving around her routine, really, which is good for us,” said the two-time Scottish Amateur champion. “I’ve got a lot of mates who are getting driven mad because they are not working, they are not playing golf, they are not doing this or doing that.

“But we are still up between 5.30 and 7.30 each day and we still need to get Penelope her breakfast and lunch and make sure she gets her nap. It’s not made us think, this is incredibly boring. The toughest thing, of course, has been not being able to see our family and friends, but hopefully it won’t be too long before that changes.”

The unexpected break, which will go on until the end of July, when the circuit restarts with the Betfred British Masters at Close House, near Newcastle, has given Law an opportunity to reflect on a whirlwind 24 months, sparked by his success on home soil in the SSE Scottish Hydro Challenge at Macdonald Spey Valley in Aviemore.

“Since then, we’ve had Penelope, we’ve moved house, I’ve got a main tour card and we got married,” said Law, almost taking his own breath away as he reeled all that off. “When things are good and going well, time seems to fly and that has certainly been the case for us over the past two years. The last nine weeks has obviously slowed things up, but it’s not been overly negative for us. In fact, we’ve had a pretty positive time.”

After graduating from the Challenge Tour at the end of the 2018 season, Law landed his breakthrough win on the European Tour in just his fourth event in Australia. He was disappointed, though, that he ended up 92nd in last year’s Race to Dubai and reckons this season’s interruption probably came at a good time for him.

“I was playing pretty rubbish, to be honest,” he admitted. “I had bits and pieces I needed to work on and I’ve kind of knuckled down with my coach, Alan McCloskey, over the last few weeks, doing stuff over the phone and through videos. I’m 
lucky that I have a set up at home where I can hit balls and I can chip and putt.

“I’ve actually got plenty done at a time when I probably needed to improve my technique. It’s given me some time to get some changes bedded in and it is starting to feel as if it is natural and I’m hopefully going to benefit from it.”

As courses reopened in Scotland on Friday, Law was straight back out at Hazlehead, where he played as an amateur. He has another game planned there today in between rounds yesterday and tomorrow at Royal Aberdeen, where he is also a member.

“I live right beside Hazlehead. I’ve been walking round it every day and it’s looking great,” he said. I’ll be getting plenty of golf in and I am looking forward to it. First and foremost about this time is that we all come out of it in as good a place health-wise as we possibly can. It’s been a nice time at home, especially when the last 18 months have been non-stop, really. But I’m missing the competition side of things, not so much the travel and being away from home. That is giving me a bit of hunger to get back out there playing.”

Revealed on Thursday, the European Tour’s revamped 2020 schedule will start with a six-event ‘UK Swing’ that will see the British Masters followed by tournaments at Forest of Arden, Hanbury Manor, a double-header at Celtic Manor and finally The Belfry.

That will then be followed by two more tournaments in the UK in October – the Aberdeen Standard Investments Scottish Open at The Renaissance Club and the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth – before the season concludes with another two Rolex Series events, the Nedbank Challenge in South Africa and the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai, later in the year.

“Keith Pelley is obviously doing as good a job for us as he can and also for the tour,” said Law. “The European Tour was in a strong position that every week we seemed to be playing for big money and every week we seemed to be playing in great events.

“I think we need to be prepared that playing tournament golf is not going to be the same as it was before we went into this and the fact we now have some tournaments to 
look forward to, no matter what the prize fund is and no matter if it’s behind closed doors, is a positive thing.

“I think it is important for us to be patient. I think there will be exposure for golf. I think it will give people more of an appetite for it when it returns on the TV and I am certainly looking forward to getting back playing.”

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our advertisers - and consequently the revenue we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you taking out a digital subscription.

Subscribe to scotsman.com and enjoy unlimited access to Scottish news and information online and on our app. With a digital subscription, you can read more than 5 articles, see fewer ads, enjoy faster load times, and get access to exclusive newsletters and content. Visit https://www.scotsman.com/subscriptions now to sign up.

Our journalism costs money and we rely on advertising, print and digital revenues to help to support them. By supporting us, we are able to support you in providing trusted, fact-checked content for this website.

Joy Yates

Editorial Director