Paul Lawrie, one of Europe’s vice-captains for this September’s Ryder Cup, hopes to draw on the experience and wisdom of Sir Alex Ferguson in the build-up to the biennial battle at Hazeltine.
Lawrie, who made his Ryder Cup debut in his Open Championship-winning year of 1999 before capping a career renaissance by qualifying for the side again in 2012, was yesterday named in European skipper Darren Clarke’s backroom team along with Padraig Harrington and Thomas Bjorn.
Sir Alex, the Govan great who steered Manchester United to a series of formidable feats, was an inspiring figure for Team Europe in the lead up to the 2014 Ryder Cup at Gleneagles during a gathering that Rory McIlroy later admitted left him “in a trance”.
Lawrie is now aiming to glean a few pearls of wisdom from the redoubtable Scot as well as the experience and knowledge of Sam Torrance, the Ryder Cup-winning captain in 2002.
The 47-year-old said: “I’ll definitely be seeking Sir Alex out. He’s actually coming up to Aberdeen for my Foundation dinner on August 10 so I’m hoping to catch him before or after that and ask him a few bits and pieces and have a good sit down. All the players who he spoke to at Gleneagles got so much out of him.
“Obviously I’ll speak to Sam too. He was a vice captain in 1999 when I made my debut and I got a lot out of him then. There are a lot of people I want to sit down with and chat to.”
After helping Europe complete the Miracle of Medinah in 2012, Lawrie was bitterly disappointed not to be involved in some capacity during the Ryder Cup’s return to Scotland for the first time in almost 40 years when the match was held at Gleneagles in 2014.
Having been drafted back into the scene by his good friend Clarke, the Aberdonian is hoping his call-up can help him become a future European captain.
Lawrie added: “It’s happened in the past where the captain has been picked from being a vice-captain. There’s not really been a captain who has gone in without having some kind of backroom role.
“Having played in 2012, I was pretty disappointed not be involved at all at Gleneagles. If I’m ever going to be a captain then I have to be a vice-captain and for Darren to give me that role is brilliant.”
The choice of Lawrie as one of Clarke’s assistants – the European captain will name a further two later in the summer – was hardly a great surprise and the Scot revealed that he had been asked to perform a role in July last year. Lawrie’s response was swift but he confessed it has been difficult trying to sit on his secret.
“Darren asked Marion (Lawrie’s wife) and I together because she has a part to play and about 30 seconds later it was an absolute ‘yes’ from me,” he recalled. “You have a duty really with things like this. If someone asks you to do a job at the Ryder Cup, nobody would ever say ‘no’ to something like that. You are a player and you still feel as though you can make the team but clearly my game has not been up there for some time.
"My sons knew I had been asked and I told a few people I knew would keep it quiet. But it’s difficult to do that. It’s been out there and talked about anyway. It’s hardly been a secret has it? It’s a bit like Jose Mourinho and Manchester United.”
While Bjorn has been a vice-captain three times before and Harrington performed the role at Gleneagles, Lawrie will be “a rookie” in Clarke’s staff.
“He may be in charge of the coffee that week,” quipped Clarke. “Getting promoted already?,” responded Lawrie with a smile.
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