WE ALL HAVE STORIES TO TELL ON TOUR
PAUL LAWRIE reckons golf’s over-50s circuit is set to come of age – with the help of some big names winding back the clock with legendary tales.
The 1999 Open champion was yesterday named as one of eight ambassadors for the rebranded Legends Tour.
It will replace the Staysure Tour, which was forced to cancel its entire 2020 season as a result of Covid-19, and hopes to get going in 2021.
Ryan Howsam, founder and group chief executive of insurance firm Staysure, has taken a majority equity share in the Legends Tour and is banking on the star power of Lawrie and big-name company to boost the circuit’s popularity.
Former Ryder Cup captains Paul McGinley, Darren Clarke, Tom Lehman, Ian Woosnam, Colin Montgomerie and Mark James join the Scot, as well as Kiwi Michael Campbell, who won the 2005 US Open.
The tour plans 20 to 25 worldwide events, including eight that’ll have 30 amateurs teeing up with two pros.
Players can buy membership of a newly-formed “Legends Club” for £60,000 – which will include an amateur Order of Merit for them to compete for a place in the end-of-season Tour Final – or bid for a place in individual tournaments.
Lawrie, 51, said: “I had about an hour’s conversation with Ryan on the phone and I was hugely impressed by his plans.
“It is pretty exciting. It can only be a good thing. He’s taking a lot on himself so fair play.
“He’s very confident of making it work and our job is to back him and make sure we support what he needs us to do.
“I think it will be a big success. His big thing is there will be one amateur in every game playing on all three days, not just two, and there’ll be an amateur Order of Merit.
“It will be as much about them as it is about us. That’s what it’s all about when you get to this level.
“It’s not that the Challenge Tour or European Tour are not sociable. It’s just that we’ve been out there a bit longer and he seems to buy into the fact we’ve all been out on tour for a long time and have stories to tell. That is what he’s trying to sell it on.”