TUESDAY JULY 10
PAUL LAWRIE – PREVIEW INTERVIEW
Q. Can you tell the guys what is happening with this Junior Development programme?
A. We’ve set up a programme for juniors at a young age to try and help them along the way. I’m going to go along to as many of teaching classes as I can – I’m not going to get to them all obviously but hopefully quite a few. We are just announcing today that Aberdeen Asset, Nike and Callaway have come on board to help us out financially which will be fantastic.
Q. Is it a case of trying to put something back into the game which has been so good to you?
A. Yes, I think that’s true. Obviously I’ve done well out the game and so it would be fantastic if somebody came out of this programme to win the Open, or even be a professional. One of my best friends back home, Stewart Spence, gave me money when I was young to help me on my way so it would be nice if I could do the same to someone else. Hopefully we will have more than one will be a good player.
Q. How important is it that this initiative is based around Aberdeen?
A. Well obviously I’m still living there and we will always live there and so it is important for me personally to be involved around Aberdeen. If I have spare time at all, I want to give it to juniors and people who live in Aberdeen if I can.
Q. Did you go to your sponsors personally?
A. Yes, we went to them first and gave them first bite at it and luckily for us they all saw it was a fantastic thing to be involved in and they’ve all come on board.
Q. Did you not think of doing something similar for the football team in Aberdeen?
A. I wish I could. I wish I could afford to buy them, the Dandy Dons. They’ve got a new stadium, that’s all right.
Q. Moving on, thoughts for this week?
A. Nice and rainy as usual down here but looking forward to it. I think my game is coming round to the way I want it. I think mentally over the last couple of weeks I have been better, I have been working with Jos, - he’s the top money earner over the last couple of months and will be in the Ryder Cup without thinking about it!!. I thought a little change would do me good so I spoke to him at the US Open and decided to work with him for the next four weeks so this week and next week will be the month up. It is mainly down to that and when you are a little bit better mentally you bad shots don’t bother you so much and you get on with it. After winning the Open I tried to be too perfect and hit every shot 100% which you can’t do, so now I feel mentally stronger and feel I can handle the bad shots better.
Q. What does he give to you?
A. My work with him is very private. He chats to you, and you talk things over like you do with any psychologist, you get all your moans out. The caddie and the psychologist are the two people who are great because you just moan like hell at them. We’ve been working on my confidence which hasn’t been great when you go through bad spells the first thing to go is your confidence and so we’re trying to build that up again. I listen to tapes in the morning and night, just to reaffirm that you are a good player so it is simple things but we all need to hear these things now and again.
Q. Does he say the same to everyone or is it personalised?
A. You’re going to have to ask Jos that, I have no idea, my tape doesn’t say you are Paul Lawrie and you are a good player so I don’t know.
Q. Are you seeing him every day?
A. I don’t see him for long, just 15 to 20 minutes before you go out and gives you a few things on the putting green and chats to you on the range. You then come back off and chat for a few minutes about a few things that have happened and on you go. I like the way he does it because it’s quite short, you don’t have to stand there for an hour and get bored to death, he just comes in for ten minutes, says his piece and then goes which I think is the way to do it.
I haven’t really had a bad spell since the Open, where I’ve missed loads of cuts or played terribly, I just haven’t quite had the whole game in place. But last week I played really well, I didn’t putt the way I can but there is always something missing in everyone’s game. I played with big Darren over the first couple of days and he hardly holed a putt but went on to win the tournament. I certainly was easier on myself when I hit a bad shot, I didn’t get down or carry on to the next shot which is something we all do a little bit. I didn’t worry about where the bad shots were going, I just went and found it and hit it.
Q. Have you had a look at the course yet?
A. I haven’t – I just arrived about half and hour ago. So I’ll go out tomorrow morning and have a look – I’m sure it will be lovely.
Q. What would winning this title mean to you?
A. It would mean an awful lot obviously. It would mean a lot to any Scottish player to win. I would have thought the Open is the biggest tournament but next to that, for a Scottish person, is the Scottish Open, so it would be nice to do the double. Having won the Open I can’t think of another tournament I would rather win than this one, it would mean a hell of a lot. I will treat it as I do any other tournament though, in my mind when I step on the first tee. Same as the Open at Lytham, I will treat that as just any other tournament.
Q. It must have been disappointing at St Andrews when you defended that your fitness was not right?
A. Well there were a lot of things not right that week, it was a tough week. Obviously the little boy hit me on the hand which didn’t affect me really pain-wise but I did feel perhaps that I wasn’t 100%. I putted as bad as I could ever putt – I think I had 40 putts on the first day and 38 on the second, you can’t putt that way and win tournaments, you can’t putt that way and make the cut. But I enjoyed it, it was different. Being defending champion in a Major is really, really hard, but I learned a lot from it. Let’s hope I get the chance again, I’m sure I will.
