How about this for a tenuous anniversary. A quarter of a century ago, David Law was negotiating his way through his first coochy-cooing year on this birling clump of space rock known as planet earth when his mentor, Paul Lawrie, graduated from the European Tour’s qualifying school in 1991. Twenty five years on, it’s Law’s turn to try to make the grade in this cycle of golfing life.
He’s made a decent start to his quest. On Monday, the young Aberdonian remained as sturdy as a chunk of granite as he won the stage two qualifier at Lumine near Barcelona to coast through to the six-round golf-athon which starts on Saturday at PGA Catalunya in Girona. While the £1600 first prize was “better than nothing” – it at least covers the £1350 cost of actually entering the q-school process – you can’t put a price on the feel-good factor his win generated as he heads into one of the most gruelling, mind-mangling events on the golfing calendar.
“The qualifying school is certainly one of most bizarre events I’ve ever played in,” said the 25-year-old. He’s clearly never experienced the Association of Golf Writers’ annual texas scramble. “Everyone looks subdued and it’s a sombre mood,” added Law, who was still talking about the q-school although he could quite easily have been referencing that golfy gathering of scribblers. “There are so many people and all here for different reasons. Some have dropped off the main tour, some have just turned pro, others are trying to move up from the Challenge Tour. It’s quite a mix.”
Law, who missed out on a tour card by just two shots in last year’s final, is hopeful that he can be in the mix when the fraught scramble for 25 European Tour cards gets underway. Buoyed by a timely success in the stage two shoot-out, the former Scottish boys and men’s amateur champion is quietly confident that his game is coming together at exactly the right time. “Stage two was relatively stress free,” said Law. “But, as ever, there’s not much room for error. Going into the third round I was one shot off the lead but only three shots clear of the cut off for qualifying. You’re never that far away from having a bad day. You need to be focussed. I quite enjoyed it in the respect that it has really set me up for this week. You just have to keep gaining shots all the time.”
The 2016 campaign has not been a vintage one on the second-tier circuit for Law. It started with a couple of encouraging top-10s but the height of summer, and a series of missed cuts, so the Scot plumb the kind of lows you used to get with a bathysphere.
“Some folk think being a pro golfer is all fun and games but I lost a lot of confidence in the middle of the year,” he reflected. “You’re away from home, you’re spending loads of money and you’re making nothing. I was pretty low. I didn’t lose faith but I let it all get on top of me more than I should have.
“I was trying to hit the ball too hard and my swing was getting too long and loose. I’ve tightened that up again and I’ve found something these last couple of months again. There were things I didn’t need to do to my game and I’ve learned things that I’ll remember for the rest of my career. In the last few events, I’ve been in control. I was 15th in Italy but it should’ve been better. I was 11th in Dubai but, again, it should’ve been better. Things are moving in the right direction again.”
Law’s indifferent season led to him finishing down in 72nd place on the Challenge Tour rankings. That meant he didn’t hold on to his full playing rights for next year. The qualifying school final, though, offers a chance to turn it all around.
“I’ve had a poor season and this is a chance to end it on a high,” he said. “There will be players who finished 17th or 18th on the Challenge Tour rankings who just missed out on promotion to the main tour and I could go out at q-school, having finished 72nd, and get a card. I’m not sure that’s right but that’s the way it is. You have to seize the chance. Golf can be a selfish business. You come here, you get the job done and you get out again. I’ve had three years on the Challenge Tour but you can’t make a career out of being there. This would be a good time to go out and get a full card.”
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