CITY OF DREAMS
Lawrie fulfils ambitions by launching new event
PAUL LAWRIE yesterday admitted his dreams have come true after announcing he will host a European Tour match play tournament in his native Aberdeen for the next three years.
The Saltire Energy Paul Lawrie Match Play, which will boast a 64- strong field and a prize fund of approximately £800,000, will be held from July 30 to August 2 next year at Murcar Links Golf Club — on the outskirts of the Granite City — as part of the Race to Dubai.
And former Open champion Lawrie, who said organising a Tour event in his name had been a l ong- held ambition, insisted that it would also maintain a legacy from this year’s Ryder Cup at Gleneagles.
The 45-year-old, who works tirelessly to promote the game through his Foundation, has already supported several other tournaments, including his Invitational at Deeside, the Northern Open, the Ladies Tartan Tour and the Scottish Boys Open.
‘It’s important that Scotland has a legacy post-Ryder Cup and that all the effort to bring i t here was worthwhile,’ he said.
‘Aberdeen is a great place to put on stuff like this and I’ve got quite a few people who, when I go to them with an idea, they tend to back me.
‘They know that if we’re doing it then it’s going to be run properly. All our Foundation events are well supported, because we do them well.
‘I used to look at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and thought how cool it would be to have an event on the Tour with your name on it.
‘It’s not an ego thing. It’s just part of giving back. I was helped a lot when I was young and still am to this day, so giving back is important.
‘This is something I’ve always wanted to do, in the city I was brought up in, and to have an event here made sense.
‘It had been at the back of my mind to do this for a long time. Who wouldn’t want a tournament in their own town?
‘But the decision to go and make it happen came at the media day for t he Scottish Open ( at Royal Aberdeen) when it was asked if the Tour had any plans to come back.
‘I thought: “Man, I wonder if I could lay on a tournament?” So I had a few meetings and one of the first was with Mike Loggie at Saltire Energy and he was keen to come on board.
‘Mike said: “Let’s get it together” and the whole thing has grown and grown. The idea originally was to grow the Invitational into a Challenge Tour event but we are going to keep that as a Tartan Tour event and this will go on the main schedule.
‘I look back and can’t believe how long it took to get the Tour to come to Aberdeen. It had never been here before until this year.
‘The tournament at Royal Aberdeen was a fantastic success and if we can lay on an event that is going to start smaller than the Scottish Open and build it into something, then we’ve got three years to try to get ourselves on the schedule long-term.
‘There is a glaring lack of match play on the circuit and I love it, man versus man, and this is right up there for me personally, in terms of what I have done in my career.’
IAN POULTER continued his return to form at the Turkish Airlines Open yesterday before bad weather cut short the second round. The Englishman was 13 under par and holding a three- shot l ead over Brendon de Jonge when he had to abandon his round at the 14th.