Irish are the strongest Link
Contrary to expectation, it was another lovely day in eastern Scotland but the scoring was nowhere as good as one might have expected and prompted Padraig Harrington to insist that he was still in with a chance of retaining his title in spite of being six shots off the lead.
In fact, Harrington believed he was seven behind when he commented: "I thought I'd be a lot further back. Let me put it this way, every part of my game is at its lowest point right now but I'm not very far away from turning the corner."
For now, though, the holder must take a back seat as his fellow countrymen threaten to turn this into an Irish celebration. Lawrie, a 29 year-old Dubliner who tied for the Spanish Open earlier this year, came here off four successive missed cuts but has demonstrated over the past couple of days that his game is in good shape as he followed up Thursday's 67 at St Andrews with yesterday's nicely compiled 68 at Kingsbarns.
He paid tribute to his golf coach Brendan McDaid and Aidan Moran, the sports psychologist at UCD, for helping to put recent poor performances behind him and now he is perfectly poised to remove all remaining doubts about achieving his last ambition for 2003 copperfastening his place in the season-ending Volvo Masters at Valderrama in November.
"The top 60 get in and I'm 52nd at present and it's a tournament in which I really want to play," he said. "There is also the possibility of 'Rookie of the Year' but I'm not really thinking about that. It would be a lovely bonus but I don't want to get ahead of myself. Now I'm off to Carnoustie where I played on Tuesday with Padraig [Harrington] and thought it was nice, a good golf course. Hopefully the wind will stay down.
"I struck the ball quite nicely today but still missed a few putts. As against that, I holed a few on Thursday so I can't complain. I played a lot at Portmarnock in my student days and I am used to links golf. It makes you think on every shot, you are not simply standing up there and hitting it. Plus the fact that on these courses you tend to try and steer the ball away from the trouble. There are lot of holes on today's course where it's just ocean on the right and Kingsbarn on your left so you try to ensure that you hit it into Kingsbarn.
"I have been struggling behind the eight ball in my last few tournaments. I couldn't get off to any kind of a start. So I went back to see Aidan Moran at UCD and worked on a few things and also went back and saw Brendan McDaid and those two things are paying off. Brendan worked on my alignment and how I was moving ahead of the ball a little. That fault has always been there and it's something I just have to try and play with."
Lawrie's amateur partner is Marie Jordan, wife of Formula 1 boss Eddie, and she has played beautifully over the past couple of days as befits a lady boasting a handicap of 9. They are tied for 8th place on 16 under par.
As Peter put it: "I was a right ratty bugger on Wednesday evening because I was nervous about this tournament but Marie is a lovely lady and she helps to relax me on the golf course. She plays well too, she's a very good player. This format helps to keep your mind off your own game. It is like a switch on, switch off thing, and you have to switch off here and have a chat and try to tell the amateurs what they need to do."
Thursday's 67 certainly set Lawrie up in the best possible fashion and he was again the essence of consistency yesterday, dropping his first and only shot of the tournament so far at Kingsbarns's 398 yards 5th where he was short with his sand wedge approach.
He more than atoned, though, with an unlikely birdie at the next where his sand iron recovery from a bunker pulled up a foot from the hole. Further gains followed at the par five 9th and 12th holes and the 10th and 17th.
I have rarely seen Darren Clarke so at ease with himself, something that can be attributed in large measure to playing in the same match as Padraig Harrington and their amateur partners JP McManus and Dermot Desmond. When I asked what the highlight of yesterday's 68 over the Old Course might have been, he quipped: "Dermot's tee shot at the last." He was referring to an amazing drive by Desmond that covered the flag at the downwind 352 yards 9th, their 18th, and ending twelve feet from the hole.
But Clarke himself, however, had actually driven through the green before putting back stone dead for his sixth birdie of the day. In truth, though, he could and probably should have been two, if not three, shots better off. Using his putter from the front edge of the 14th, he tried to be too cute in nursing the ball over a little hill and instead it rolled back to his feet. Having driven to twenty yards off the 18th green, he again chose the putter and once more under-hit it and saw the ball finish in the Valley of Sin from where he took three more to get down.
"I made a couple of silly mistakes and left a few shots out there but overall I'm pretty pleased with nine under and it has put me in a decent position," said Clarke. "I know Soren Hansen got to 12 under at one point so I'm surprised to be sharing the lead. Basically, I didn't hit the shot hard enough at the 18th. When I'm that close to the flag, I'm thinking 3, not 5. I'm not surprised, though, that the Irish are doing well. We play a lot of links golf at home."
Clarke began the week 493,000 points behind Ernie Els in the battle for the European Tour order of merit and opened up a five shot lead, 67 to 72, at Carnoustie on Thursday. However, the South African bounced back at St Andrews yesterday with a 65, the low round of the week to date. Clarke was unaware of this but not exactly astonished: "The opportunity for that kind of score was there. I've said all along that I'm going to have to play exceptionally well to have any chance of getting to the top."
Clarke is in the middle of a rich vein of form at present, due, perhaps, to a new fitness regimen he is undertaking with the assistance of a couple of fitness advisers, Steve Hampson and John Newton. Given that Darren also employs mind gurus, golf coaches, gardeners, nannies and others, the lads enjoy a few quips at his expense. Like "his wage bill is second only to that of Chelsea" or when he asked his wife, Heather, if she knew where the letter opener was, she replied: "He's on his day off".
