Paul Lawrie keen to play in ‘one more Ryder Cup’
The Aberdonian currently sits 117th in the Race to Dubai, the first time he has been outside the top 100 since 2004, when he finished 140th.
But even at the age of nearly 46, Lawrie is convinced that he is capable of recapturing the form that garnered two tour victories in 2012 and sealed his return to the Ryder Cup team following an absence of 13 years.
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Hide AdLawrie, who thrashed Brandt Snedeker 5&3 as Europe pulled off their remarkable fightback at Medinah, insists that he has one more Ryder Cup left in him.
“Right now I am as far away as I have ever been from that level,” he admitted. “But I have been there before and done it and I feel as though I have got another Ryder Cup in me. When I look at Bernhard Langer and Miguel Angel Jimenez, they are an inspiration to everybody the way they are still performing at their age.”
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It is a measure of his determination to reignite his career that Lawrie has had a custom-built practice bay constructed at his golf centre, complete with a putting green and state-of-the-art technology. Lawrie also plans to hang a photograph of his late coach Adam Hunter hugging him moments after he had been crowned Open champion at Carnoustie in 1999.
“That was the moment and the person that made me the golfer I am,” he explained “When I look at the photograph it makes me want to keep going. I remember visiting Adam in hospital and he had tubes coming out of him and he had an unbelievable go at me for doing the Ryder Cup commentary at Celtic Manor.
“I was out of shape and not practising hard enough, which you could tell by my results, and you need someone like that now and again to tell you to stop moaning and get the work done, and that picture will be enough hopefully for that to continue.
“Everyone has moments when they get down on themselves and I am no different. I am quite a positive person, but every so often you think, ‘man, I’ve had enough of this’. It doesn’t last long. But it is pretty hard to be positive when you are coming off the back of just 16 events and finishing one hundred and something in the order of merit.”
Lawrie was also motivated by his first experience as a spectator at a Ryder Cup match when he visited Gleneagles on the Saturday, hating every second of it. He added: “I had no right to think I should be playing, but when you have played in the previous one and you then turn up to watch them from a stand it’s nae great. But the good thing was I thought, ‘man, I want to get into one more team’.”
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