YOU can tell you are getting on in years when your back goes out more than you do. Aches and pains are par for the course in golf and, as he climbs the brae towards 50, Paul Lawrie knows all about niggles and twinges.
“We’ve seen it with so many guys, your body starts breaking down,” said Lawrie whose niggling, painful and long-standing foot injury has forced him to withdraw from this week’s BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth.
This tends to be a demanding period of the season with equally as demanding courses requiring a considerable level of physical pep. The European Tour’s flagship event may have been sacrificed but being fit for the double header of the Scottish Open and The Open is the priority for Lawrie
“It’s full on,” he said of a robust diary of events. “So I just have to try to manage my schedule as best I can and pick and choose the events that I want to play and then rest in between. I hit very few balls now when I’m home. I used to love hitting 1000 balls a day but as soon as I hit a couple of hundred now my left foot is in agony. But I’m 49, I’ve played 610 events and hit 1000 balls a day five days a week for 30 years. There’s a chance you’re going to be struggling.”
The return to Carnoustie for July’s Open, the venue of his momentous Claret Jug conquest in 1999, will give Lawrie a bit more spring in his step, even if that step will probably cause him to wince. Talking of creaks and groans, Tiger Woods endured plenty of those in recent years as his dicey dorsal continued to crumble like the Acropolis. The successful surgery that has allowed him to return to top-level competitive action this season, while leading to him generating quite astonishing club head speed, has been nothing short of miraculous. Lawrie, like many other cooing observers, has been fascinated by the Woods revival. From down and out to alive and kicking, it has been quite a turnaround.
“It’s amazing,” said Lawrie. “He’s got even more speed than he had before and he’s hitting it miles. I can see him winning again, there’s no question.”
Lawrie was fortunate to get up close and personal with Woods during those glory laden years. The last time The Open was played at Carnoustie in 2007, the Aberdonian was grouped with Woods for the first two days. The Tiger was going for three Open wins in a row but he couldn’t tame Carnoustie and eventually finished in a share of 12th. For Lawrie, it was an eye-opening experience.
“The biggest thing I remember from it was how poorly Tiger played in those first two days and yet he still finished 12th,” he reflected. “That’s when you learn that ‘my God, hitting it has got nothing to do with how you actually perform and score’. He hit it sideways for two days and still got himself in contention. In the second round, he hit a low horrible pull hook off the first into the water. I mean, for a good player that’s a terrible shot. For me it was nice that they gave me Tiger eight years after I had won at Carnoustie. I remember Peter Dawson [the then R&A chief executive] coming over and saying ‘we’re giving you Tiger to play with’ and I thought ‘wow, way to go’.
“Then you get on the first tee and there’s people everywhere, even inside the ropes. It was just mayhem but you’ve got to deal with that, it’s just part of what Tiger brings to the game. He’s absolutely cool to play with. I’ve played with him a few times and I’ve never had a problem with him or felt, ‘man, he’s using things here in his favour’.
“He’s changed a lot but haven’t we all? I mean I’ve changed a lot from when I was an angry young man. Tiger thought he was done a few months ago. He couldn’t see himself playing again, never mind getting in contention.”
Despite those aches and pains, Lawrie is not done just yet either.
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