Ryder Cup quest kept Lawrie going

PAUL Lawrie came close to pulling out of the final round of the WGC-Cadillac Championship due to illness but played on to the end in Miami in order to pick up valuable Ryder Cup points.

“I hadn’t been feeling too well last week but on Saturday I was up coughing most of the night,” said the Aberdonian, who finished in a tie for 60th after a closing 77 at Doral. “I was going to pull out on Sunday until I found out you have to complete four rounds for the money to count on the order of merit and Ryder Cup points, so I decided to cough and splutter my way round.”

Lawrie, who picked up a cheque for around £26,000 to take his earnings for the season to £460,000, is lying sixth in the Race to Dubai heading into his defence of the Andalucia Open title on the Costa del Sol this week. He’s still sitting in one of the automatic Ryder Cup spots, though is down to fifth on the European points list after Justin Rose leapt up the rankings on the back of his win in Miami.

Lawrie also dropped one spot, to 45th, on the world rankings but is still on course to secure a late invitation to next month’s Masters by staying in the top 50 before the cut-off for the opening major of the season. “Last week, even before [I started to feel unwell] I had really struggled with the speed of my swing, so with the way I was feeling made it harder,” added the former Open champion, who admitted he was looking forward to spending “a couple of days on the couch” back home before going to Spain. Martin Laird, who tied for 24th in Miami, is up two to 33rd in the world rankings, with Stephen Gallacher back up to 100th again despite the fact he’s not played for three weeks.