Golf ’s back – and Paul wants it to be quicker
Golf is slowly getting back to something like normality as gradual steps to ease lockdown are introduced.
Scotland’s clubs re-opened their doors on Friday, and the professional game will start in earnest across the pond a week on Thursday when top players tee it up for the Colonial.
The European Tour has also announced that it will return on July 22, with the Betfred British Masters at Newcastle’s Close House, as part of a six-week British Swing to get the Tour back underway.
The Scottish Open at North Berwick’s Renaissance Club has also been confirmed for October 8-11.
Former Open champion Paul Lawrie has been impressed at developments.
Lawrie said: “It’s great to see the Tour has managed to put together the series of events in the UK. I can imagine just how much work they’ve had to do to achieve that.
“I hope the events can go ahead as planned. But there’s a lot more that needs to happen yet before that’s the case.”
The life-changing events of recent months have offered a period of reflection. And the former Ryder Cup man has no doubt over a change he’d like to see when the game is back in full flow.
The 51-year-old Aberdonian has called on the R&A’s top brass to introduce “ready golf”.
He reckons it’s high time stricter measures were introduced in an effort to put a rocket up the game’s time-wasters, including playing out of turn – at all levels – if necessary.
Lawrie confesses that nothing bugs him more than slow play. Herapped: “I can’t stand it .I don’t think I should be made to suffer playing with someone who’s really slow.
“So I think there should be ‘ready golf’. By that I mean if I’m ready to go, and the other player is faffing about, I should be able to hit my shot.
“I think that would change their pace of play, too.
“If I’m ready to go and he’s taking three or four minutes to hit a shot – which these days on Tour a lot of them do – that’s affecting me.
“I can actually hit my shot, walk to the green and mark my ball before some of them have even hit their shot.
“So, as far as I’m concerned, ‘ready golf’ would be brilliant.”
Maybe if Jean van de Velde had not
been so hasty at Carnoustie in 1999, he would not have opened the door to Lawrie’s greatest achievement of winning The Open Championship.
It, of course, remains the highlight of a storied career that has seen him play more than 600 European Tour events, be on a winning Ryder Cup team, run a successful golf foundation and gain royal recognition with an OBE and an MBE.
Despite all his success, however, there’s one shot that, almost 18 years on, still rankles with him.
Lawrie had the Italian Open title in his grasp standing on the 18th tee at Rome’s Olgiata Golf Club in November, 2002 – only to lose his grip on the trophy.
He recalled: “I was one ahead of my playing partner, Ian Poulter, when I hit my tee shot on the 72nd hole.
“Driving was a part of the game I was horrible at back then. But I’d driven it really well all week and kept my ball in play.
“I wasn’t nervous standing on the tee, and I didn’t feel I’d put a bad swing on it. But the ball flew straight right, out of bounds by four feet up the right side.
“I ended up making double-bogey to Poulter’s birdie and he won by two shots.
“As you might imagine, he was jumping about like a mad thing.
“Fair enough. We’ve all got shots we don’t like and I understand that we’re all human and sometimes hit it off line.
“But if I could have just one shot again, I would love to have the chance to replay that one.
“I don’t mind admitting that it still bugs and angers me to this day.”