Lawrie feeling the pinch

Now that the excitement of the Masters has abated, the rank and file members of the European Tour get back to business this week when the Spanish Open visits the outstanding El Saler course in Valencia.

Peter Lawrie will be among the Irish competing and though his career earnings amounted to over €5.3m at the start of the season, he admits that the day to day life of a golf pro is a world away from the glitz and glamour of Augusta.

He revealed the growing difficulties facing players to make a living with fewer tournaments, greater travel and smaller prize funds.

“You asked me if I am financially secure — absolutely not,” the 39-year-old said. “I have four young children, they all have to be put through school and college.

“I was having dinner with Damien [McGrane] in Morocco a few weeks ago and I said to him, ‘do you ever look at your career earnings and see how much we’ve won?’.

“I said, ‘have you got any of it?’, and he said ‘no’. He said, ‘have you got any of it?’, and I said ‘no’.

“We’ve both lost money on investments. I won’t say we’ve put money into stupid things but what we thought were firm investments unfortunately didn’t turn out that way.”

Lawrie stresses the European Tour has been badly hit in these recessionary times.

“We don’t have as many tournaments, we’ve lost big events like the British Masters, the Volvo Masters, the European, English, Portuguese and German Opens, the Tournament Players Championship… there’s only one event in Spain where there used to be six or seven, and we certainly have to travel far more than we used to.

“You go to the Middle East, the Far East, three or four times a year. You have to be on planes all the time and you feel that if you start travelling economy, you’re on a backward stage, plus you have to give yourself a chance to recover after long haul flights. So your expenses are very high and your returns are probably not as high as they used to be.

“It’s really tough for those coming out of Tour School because you have very limited starts and those you have carry minimal prize funds. You are not getting into any of the big events so you’re going to find it very difficult to keep a card never mind make a lot of money. So in that way, times are difficult.”

Asked to describe where he would need to finish in a €2 million event in Asia to show a worthwhile profit, Lawrie reckoned: “Definitely within the top 20, top 25. That would earn you maybe 18 grand to cover your flights, your expenses and to earn a reasonable living out of it. I don’t see any markets emerging that are going to put money into golf and sponsorship. If you look at the young lads coming in, they have logos on them but probably for half the money we used to get.”

So, you wonder, if Peter Lawrie, a commerce graduate from UCD and a very bright and personable individual, has any regrets about choosing this way of life?

“No, none at all”, he declared. “You’d never have the thrills I’ve had out on Tour, not even close to it. I feel I’m coming into my prime. I look at Vijay Singh, he won many times in his forties, Tom Lehman did the same, so I see no reason why I can’t do it.”

Golf in this country is fortunate to have four Major champions prepared to commit themselves annually to the Irish Open, otherwise there is a very strong chance that it would have gone the way of so many others and is still without a title sponsor. “It would be lost without them,” Lawrie agreed. “We have the world number one or two and Major championship winners in the field and it will probably be one of the strongest fields the European Tour can put together without paying appearance money. For me to win would be great, absolutely spectacular. But I would go to Timbuktu and back again, no matter where it would be, the thrill of winning, you can’t beat it, and when I did it in 2008 in Spain it was a wonderful feeling.”