Lawrie aims to keep Tour card after late call-up

Paul Lawrie is more determined than ever to regain full playing privileges for the European Tour after cutting it fine to keep his perfect attendance record in the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship.

The 49-year-old was the last man into this week’s event, having been fourth reserve when he arrived in the UAE at the weekend before coming off the standby list on Tuesday when Australian Brett Rumford withdrew with a wrist injury.

That means Lawrie has retained his place among a small group of golfers to have played in one of the biggest events on the European Tour since its inception in 2006, the others to have teed up every year since then being Marc warren, henriks ten son, Gregory Havret and Graeme Storm.

While surprised it came down to the wire, the reason that Lawrie almost missed out on this occasion is that he is currently having to rely on his category as one of the top 40 career money earners on the circuit.

That would normally have got him into both this and next week’s Omega Dubai Desert Classic quite comfortably, but he is currently 13th reserve for the latter and will almost certainly miss out on playing in that for only the second time since 1992.

“I couldn’t believe when the entries closed for this week’s event that I was fourth or fifth reserve,” the eight-time European Tour winner told The Scotsman on the practice putting green at Abu Dhabi Golf Club.

“To be honest, I didn’t even look and it was a bit of a surprise as we’d already booked flights and hotels for the next two weeks.

“So it was a little bit of a shock that it came to the last minute, but I’m glad that I’m now in the field this week. I think I’ve got three more years in my current category still being exempt out here but, if you are not going into events like this from that, then you have got to try to keep your card. My goal is to play well enough this season to do that. I still feel as though I can compete if I stay healthy.”