Paul Lawrie to become sports agent if foot surgery fails

'My name is Lawrie, Paul Lawrie'. No, the Aberdonian isn't fancying himself as rival to Idris Elba to take over from Daniel Craig as the next James Bond. It does seem appropriate, though, given that his latest venture in the golfing world is as an agent.

Paul Lawrie, right, has already signed up young Scot Sam Locke, the Silver Medal winner in the Open Championship at Carnoustie. Picture: Kenny Smith/SNS

The extent of that role will hinge on a foot operation he will undergo soon. He might also need back surgery to give him a chance of having a crack at the Senior circuit once he turns 50 on 1 Janaury.

However, under the Five Star Sports Agency banner, Lawrie has already signed up Sam Locke, the Silver Medal winner in last month’s Open Championship at Carnoustie, and he’s looking to add more clients ­– and not just golfers.

Once his youngest son, Michael, graduates from Stirling University in a couple of years, the aim is to get some football players on the books, too, and Lawrie has watched his beloved Aberdeen plenty of times over the years to feel confident about venturing into another sport.

“We signed young Sam and David Law is about to sign,” he revealed of the new company that has been keeping him busy since shutting down his 2018 campaign due to that persistent foot problem and recurring back trouble. “I’ve also been looking after my son Craig’s sponsorship and my own for a while. So I’ve been kind of thinking that if I don’t get back to the level I want to be at, that’s what I am going to be doing, an agent.

“Michael’s at Stirling Uni studying business management so when he graduates that’s something he wants to do. But he wants to do the football side more while I’d do the golf. If my foot recovers, we’ll hire somebody to run the company with my input on the side as opposed to full-time. But I am actually enjoying it. It’s amazing how much goes in to it. I have always been a player who just focused on playing and didn’t do the other stuff. But I have been though it, good and bad, management and playing. I kind of know what is required, what is good and bad for these players.

“The plan at the moment is for me to look after Sam, David, Craig and myself and see how we go. If we get better at it, then if big players feel we can look after them, then we’d look at that. But, at the minute, I’m going to walk before I run. I like doing that. I don’t like digging straight in and, all of a sudden, you don’t do a good job and it becomes poor.”

The new company will also be involved in events, the first of which will be a Paul Lawrie Invitational at Gleneagles next summer. “It will be a massive pro-cel-am event with a big gala dinner at night in the hotel,” he said. “We will promote and sell and raise a lot of money for charity. It is going to be a huge event.”

Unlike the first time he did some commentary work at the 2010 Ryder Cup in Wales, Lawrie enjoyed various bits of media work during his enforced absence from The Open, missing out , of course, at the venue where he claimed the Claret Jug in 1999. “I enjoyed the on-course stuff, explaining the shots, the most and that might be for me,” he said of options that might lie ahead.

However, the two-time Ryder Cup player hasn’t yet called time on his playing career and hopes to have finally got to the bottom of his foot trouble.

“I have a ruptured tendon which needs surgery,” he said. “I’m waiting for my surgeon, Professor Gordon McKay at Ross Hall, to get back to me. He is not sure if he is going to do it this week or next week but he says it will be a recovery period of 13 weeks or so.

“We’re not sure yet about the back, whether we need surgery or not, or just manipulate it a wee bit. I was down seeing somebody else about my back and he was saying it’s more my pelvis that’s causing the problems as opposed to my back.

“I’m not a big fan of operations and all that kinda carry on. But needs must and hopefully by January we will be fit to go. That’s the plan.”