He may have been doing his bit to promote a new golfing war chest on the home front yesterday but Paul Lawrie is already embroiled in some European espionage as preparations to go into battle with the USA in the Ryder Cup intensifies.
The 47-year-old was at Gleneagles to help launch a new five-year sponsorship deal for the Scottish PGA Championship with M&H Logistics but away from these domestic duties, the former Open champion is getting down to business as one of Darren Clarke’s vice-captains with a series of frequent spying missions on potential Team Europe players. It’s a different role for Lawrie. Four years ago, as his career renaissance took him back into the Ryder Cup arena after a 13 year absence, he was the one being tracked. Now, he’s the one doing the peering and note taking.
“Thomas Bjorn (another vice-captain) and I have been playing with certain players for quite a few weeks and if they don’t know why then they’re pretty daft,” said Lawrie, who was appointed by Clarke at the end of May.
“As a player you know this happens. When I was in line to get in the team in 2012 I played with Jose Maria Olazabal (Europe’s captain) four or five times at events leading up to it. I played terribly every time I played with him. It doesn’t matter how experienced you are and how good a player you are, if you’re playing with these boys you know you’re out there for a reason.”
Lawrie’s own golf has been severely hampered by a niggling foot injury which has been nagging away at him since 2012 and is getting progressively worse. Steps have been taken to cure it, though.
“As soon as my season is over I’m going to go in and have a small operation on it,” he revealed. “I have a bone spur on my foot which has caused a cyst and the jagged bit of bone is hitting the cyst all the time. The surgeon says that after a couple of months I’ll be right as rain.”
The prospect of surgery later in the year means Lawrie won’t play in the Scottish PGA Championship, an event he has won twice down the years, but the new sponsorship announced yesterday has given the Tartan Tour’s flagship event a sizeable lift as it prepares to celebrate its 100th staging over the King’s Course in October.
Tom Wotherspoon, the managing director of M&H Logistics, purchased a majority stake in Scottish League One side Airdrie last year but was keen to get involved in a different ball game and was coaxed into this golfing partnership by David Longmuir, the former chief executive of the Scottish Football League, who is now involved in a commercial role with the PGA.
The deal will see the championship’s prize fund increase “significantly” from last year’s £45,000 as Shona Malcolm, the Scottish PGA’s secretary strives to make the domestic circuit an “aspirational tour” and promote “more interaction with Scotland’s European Tour players.”
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