The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Social media trolls will not drive Lawrie off course
Veteran Scot bristles at attacks and call to ‘step up’ for Scottish golf
Paul Lawrie has been mysteriously getting it in the neck from Twitter trolls, but he’s not about to abandon social media yet.
The former Open champion has a new attachment with Gleneagles, an appointment with the specialist who saved Jose Maria Olazabal’s career, and is at one of his favourite events of the year.
“What could be better?” said the veteran Scot being back at the 17th staging of the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship where he was the inaugural champion back in 2001, holing out for a one-shot victory from the Valley of Sin.
“Just driving through St Andrews is awesome. Three great courses and great memories for me – what other sport would you have one of your best supporters and friends picking the ball out of the hole when you’ve won, like Martin (Gilbert) did for me.
“Having Rory (McIlroy) here this week is great. You saw the thousands of people who turned out for him last week at the British Masters, even in the lashing rain. He’s one of the few we have who can do that.”
Yet, despite that win, the Open title and all Lawrie has done for junior golf in this country, he still gets attacked on social media, the latest example being someone who said he should “step up” and bring the British Masters to Scotland, apparently ignorant he ran his own tournament until this year and staged it twice in Scotland.
“When I challenged him on it he backed down, but I get a lot of people saying I can’t believe how many idiots I have to deal with,” he said.
“It is just frustrating, often I can’t say what I want to. Kids follow me on Twitter so I have to be careful. I seem to have a lot of these strange people following me.
“I stopped tweeting a couple of times, but this time I decided to keep going. There are a lot of people I like on Twitter, and I like answering the questions people send me.
“There are even a couple of Rangers supporters who I have banter with back and forth about the football. But when people message me to say it is time for me to step up, it just gets under my skin.”
Plenty seem to think Lawrie still has marketing worth, with Gleneagles forming an attachment with him as their touring professional this week, with most of the deal working for Paul’s longrunning and successful foundation.
“I’m looking forward to working with them – where better is there in Scotland?” he said. “It is going to be similar to previous deals I’ve had where the foundation will benefit.
“We will get some rooms and green fees which the foundation can auction or raffle. I won’t make any money off it.”
Lawrie couldn’t play last week at Close House because of his long-standing foot problem, but he has an appointment in November to see Dr HansWilhelm Mueller-Wohlfhart, the Munich specialist who solved Olazabal’s debilitating arthritis and rescued the Spaniard’s career.
The hope is to play this week and next in the Rolex Series event in Italy, where he is only a reserve. If he doesn’t get in, he plans to make one of his occasional returns to the Scottish PGA Championship which is being held at Gleneagles.