He’ll not be at Carnoustie as a player. But he’ll be there in person. And as a promoter in his role he jokingly refers to as “a sponsor’s dream”. He’ll also be there as a mentor.
Paul Lawrie can often perform more jobs than a Swiss Army Knife. It’s just a shame the various bodily tools that are required to do a multitude of golfing tasks on the course are not working properly.
The long-standing foot injury which has led to the 49-year-old shutting down his season in the hope that he can re-emerge again for the Senior Tour in 2019 has ultimately led to Lawrie missing this week’s Open over the Angus links where he triumphed almost 20 years ago.
Pulling out of the championship which means the most to him was a right old scunner. Since making his debut in the Open back 1992, the Aberdonian had missed only the 1997 championship and was in the midst of a 20-year unbroken stretch of appearances.
With those niggling injuries blunting his competitive edge, however, there was no way this steely, driven campaigner was going to hirple around the robust links of Carnoustie as merely some kind of ceremonial figure making up the numbers this week.
At least one of Lawrie’s young proteges, Sam Locke, will give him a focal point on the course over the next few days as the teenage amateur makes his debut in the game’s most cherished major.
Having topped a qualifying shoot-out earlier this month to earn his place at Carnoustie, Locke, the reigning Scottish Amateur champion, could not have a better shoulder to lean on heading into the biggest event of his fledgling career.
As ever, Lawrie is more than happy to offer his assistance. The vast, all-consuming Open bubble can often leave new-comers boggle-eyed in an overwhelmed fever and Lawrie is trying to temper the general fervour.
“He’s a great kid and he’s going to be a really good player but then we are trying to play that down a wee bit at the moment as he we don’t want to see him get ahead of himself,” said Lawrie.
“We have to remember he is an amateur and playing in the Open for a first time, so I sat down with him and had a really long chat about what’s coming-up in teeing-up in an Open and how he should manage his practice rounds and what he will need to deal with.
“He is clearly keen to take in the whole atmosphere in what will be the biggest event he’s played in, but he must get his head around it. He plays his golf, he undertakes a little bit of practice. He can’t hang about these tournaments with stars in his eyes, so it’s all about getting that through to him and into his head.
“But he can play golf and we are really excited that he can cope with the pressure and all that goes with teeing-up in the Open.”
This won’t be a normal Monday for Locke. Usually, he’d be beavering away at the Paul Lawrie Golf Centre in Aberdeen and performing a variety of golfing duties whether it’s working in the shop or selling a scone and a cup of tea in the cafe to a member of the public who has just battered a bucket of balls on the driving range.
“Sam has a practice round on Monday when I am going to walk around with him and try and share with him what I know about the course,” said Lawrie.
“Then I will leave him to pretty much get on with it. I’m sure he will love the experience.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here