Lawrie boosts Euro Tour hopes

DUBLIN’S Peter Lawrie strengthened his prospects of winning a card on the regular European Tour for the first time when he fought gamely for a share of 10th in the Formby Hall Challenge on the Challenge Tour over the weekend.

He looked to be out of it after a 76 on the first day but battled back with scores of 69, 70 and 66 to win 2,802 points and improve one place to 11th in the order of merit with 46,582.

Damien McGrane, the professional at Wexford GC, shot a closing 65 at Formby to finish twelve under and in a tie for 2nd place.

Accordingly, he moves up to 22nd in the order of merit with 40, 914 and is nicely poised to crash the top 15 who gain cards on the main circuit next year with just three tournaments still to be played.

Meanwhile, all the big guns including Padraig Harrington, Darren Clarke and Graeme McDowell are heading for Cologne this week for the Linde German Masters starting on Thursday.

Considerable interest will centre on the fortunes of McDowell and McGinley who are locked in a neck and neck battle for the second place on the Irish team in the World Cup at Puerta Vallarta, Mexico, on December 12-15.

Scandinavian Masters champion McDowell is currently 43rd in the money list just ahead of McGinley, 47th.

The first place has already gone to Padraig Harrington through his world ranking and with Darren Clarke unavailable, his partner will be decided by the next best Irishman on the European order of merit (see panel below).

Irish placings in world rankings: 8th, Harrington; 17th, Clarke; 67th, McGinley; 176th, McDowell.

The junior version of the Ryder Cup comes to The K-Club on September 25th and 26th a year after it were originally intended to do so.

As with the Ryder Cup itself, the matches were postponed twelve months ago but have been rescheduled for the same venue with the same teams.

Unfortunately, that means there won't be any Irish players involved, which will come as a particular disappointment to 16-year-old Limerick boy Cian McNamara who has been doing great things of late. The inaugural junior matches in 1995 featured a 15-year-old Sergio Garcia leading a successful European squad and since then the teams have included budding stars like David Gossett, Suzann Pettersen, Beth Bauer and Ty Tryon.

Unlike the Ryder Cup itself, the junior version is a mixed competition. Each team consists of 12 players four boys and four girls under 16 and two girls and two boys under 18.

Irish placings on European Order of Merit: 3rd: P. Harrington 1,316,899; 20th: D. Clarke 719, 965; 43rd: G. McDowell 384,651; 47th: P. McGinley 365,148; 133rd: D. Smyth 117,305; 160th: E. Darcy 67,064; 185th: G. Murphy 35,925.