Nobody believed Peter Lawrie when he said that one day he would make it to the main European Tour.

Who could blame them?

The Dubliner had just spent four years struggling. He’d been forced to travel as far away as Asia and South Africa in the hope of picking up a card of some kind, somewhere – anywhere.

Even Lawrie himself had a gnawing doubt at the back of his mind as he had made less than €50,000 in all since 1999 and debts were mounting.

Back in April last year he told SunSport that he would considering quitting the game and looking for a normal job if he hadn’t made it to the main tour after five years as a pro. This was the crunch year.

With two routes to the European Tour – the Tour School or a top 15 finish on the Challenge Tour money list – Lawrie had little choice.

He needed to earn more money this season than he had in his whole career or take a serious look at his future.

Earlier this season he said: “You can’t flog a dead horse. But I’m a lot more confident in my game and more mature.

“I’m standing up on the holes and I know where the ball is going. At the end of this year I will be hopefully on tour. It’s like a gambler. The next big hit could get me back into it.”

A chink of light had appeared at the end of the tunnel and Lawrie rushed towards it.

He stayed focused, picked up five top ten finishes and made his card with a handful of events remaining.

Then he finished off the season in style by shooting a final round 65 to win the Grand Final in Bordeaux earlier this month and pocket a cheque for €34,260 to leap to fourth in the final money list.

It was sweet victory and now Lawrie is determined to do the hard part – to keep his card and establish himself alongside Paul McGinley, Padraig Harrington, Graeme McDowell and Darren Clarke.

“I’m not going to make the same mistakes that others have made in the past,” he said. “I’ll be able to play in virtually every tournament, including the dunhill Links next year so I have no excuses.”

Lawrie is praying that he doesn’t suffer the same slide back to oblivion that has left David Higgins and Gary Murphy struggling to get back to the big party.

First he is going to take on a manager after being dumped by Chubby Chandler’s ISM management company at the start of last year.

“I had a call from ISM, saying that they wouldn’t be taking care of me. It was okay. It’s not that hard to organise flights and hotels and the tour help a lot,” he said..

Now that he has made it to the big league, Lawrie has had offers from a couple of management companies already.

“Once I get my feet back on the ground I’ll get stuck in again,” he said.

“I have to look back and thank all the people that have helped me over the years. I started out with MMI Stockbrokers, then I had help from Noel O’Callaghan Hotels and Liberty Asset Management where my elder brother Ian works.

“The government Trust, Team Ireland Golf, has been hugely important and Philip Lynch from Cuisine de France and Michael O’Leary from Ryanair have put some money into that.

“I’ve got a couple of offers, including one from Barry Hearn’s Matchroom company and the €90,000 I’ve won this year means that I’ve covered most of my losses from the last four years so I’ll be starting 2003 with a clean slate.”

Coach Brendan McDaid has played a major role in turning the 28 year old’s fortunes around.

“Yes, I owe a lot to Brendan McDaid at Rathsallagh, I switched coaches two years ago and my progression has been very good. I only saw him a few times in 2001 and it made an immediate difference.

“This year I have been able to spend a lot more time with him and the results speak for themselves.”

For a man who once had had get three taxis to take him from a tournament in Singapore to another in Malaysia, Lawrie is not afraid to go out of his way to achieve his ambitions.

Amazingly - after five years of hard slog, missed cuts and debts - the hard part starts for Peter Lawrie in 2003.

(Irish Open)
The future of the Irish Open could be decided this week.

High level talks have taken place between European Tour and the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism.

“We expect to have something positive to report by the middle of next week,” said an insider. “But there is no major sponsor on the table as yet.”

Minister John O'Donoghue has said that to lose the Irish Open would be illogical for a country that depends so much on golf tourism.

(Rules)
Who said the rules of golf were simple?

Find out just how tricky they can be at Milltown golf club tomorrow (5 pm Sunday) where the Irish finals of the R and A Rules of Golf Quiz takes place.

Grange, Borris, County Armagh and County Meath will do battle for the title of Ireland’s rules gurus.

The winners will go through to the final at R and A headquarters at St Andrews tomorrow week.

(Cash)

Christy O’Connor Jnr has made rich pickings from the European Senior Tour this season - a cool €152,319 from just eight events.

That’s an average of over € 19,000 a week – only bettered by Order of Merit winner Seiji Ebihara with an average cheque of over €27,000.

But it’s a drop in the ocean compared to US Seniors Tour winner Hale Irwin as he picked up the equivalent of € 3 MILLION for his efforts.

(Boxing)
Boxing gloves are set to become the big selling golf accessory this Christmas.

Florida based company KnockOutGolf have produced a set of head covers that look like huge red boxing gloves.

The makers claim that they will give your game some extra punch.

(Walton)
Former Ryder Cup star Philip Walton will be back at the European Tour Qualifying School finals in Spain next week.

This will be Walton’s fourth visit to the school since he lost his card in 1999.

Wexford-based Damien McGrane and Kilkenny’s Gary Murphy are also entered.

The Irish survivors from this weekend’s second stage will join them in the finals.

The goal is to finish in the top 35 and ties after six rounds.

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© Brian Keogh 2002

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