Six of the best as Lawrie claims place in Open
Having made the cut in the French Open on Friday, Lawrie struggled through the weekend and wasn't very confident as he teed it up over the par 72 New course yesterday morning.
However, the 2003 European Tour Rookie of the Year could do little wrong as he strode to a superb 65 and followed that up in the afternoon with a 67 over the celebrated Old Course to make sure of being at the Home of Golf in a few weeks time.
Unfortunately, it wasn't a good day for Kilkenny's Gary Murphy who struggled to a 73 over the New Course in the morning and was subsequently disqualified along with a number of other players, including last year's Nissan Irish Open champion Brett Rumford.
Lawrie now joins fellow professionals Padraig Harrington, Darren Clarke, Paul McGinley and Graeme McDowell and Donegal's Brian McElhinney, who qualifies as British Amateur champion, in the Open proper.
For the second year running Jose Maria Olazabal failed to make it through the qualifying tournament.
And now the only way he has of being part of the St Andrews action in two weeks' time is to be the leading non-exempt player at Loch Lomond next week.
The double Masters champion had rounds of 70 and 69 at Sunningdale for a one under par total of 139.
"Positive thinking is what I need and positive thinking is what I have, but delivery I don't," said the 39-year-old Spaniard.
"Obviously it hurts when you don't play the Open, especially at St Andrews."
He made his debut there as British amateur champion in 1984 - the year Seve Ballesteros won.
Olazabal's desire to make it back for his fifth Open there cost him an extra £5,000.
When the final round of the French Open was delayed by a thunderstorm he missed the flight he was booked on and so hired a private jet to cross the Channel.
Two others, Phil Golding and Peter O'Malley, did not make it to the tee on time yesterday because of delayed flights and Olazabal believes that having a qualifier in England the day after the French Open maybe needs looking at.
"It's very hard to get a feel of the courses (the Old and New are both used) and I struggled on the greens all day," he added.
"It's tough, but it's the same for everybody - everybody in Paris, let's put it that way. I guess there must be a better way. For the US Open the qualifier is near to the tournament.
"But at the end of the day if you play good enough you are in."
Europe's Ryder Cup captain Ian Woosnam survived with a single stroke to spare on six under par after rounds of 66 and 68.
The 47-year-old Welshman thought he had blown his chance of being among 14 qualifiers from the 120-strong field when he missed a four-foot putt and bogeyed the last in the gathering gloom at 9.30pm.
But he was then told that even if he had missed the tap-in as well he would have been fine.
