Lawrie predicts low scoring

Ireland’s Peter Lawrie laid down the gauntlet today by predicting his rivals will need to shoot 20 under par or better at Houghton Country Club in order to take the Dunhill Championship title.

Lawrie held the lead for most of yesterday before France’s Raphael Jacquelin shot a late 65 to steal the lead and head the field by one on 13 under.

But Lawrie is not concerned by Jacquelin’s performance and expects to set the pace over the next two days.

He said: “It doesn’t bother me but I’ll go out and try and shoot as many birdies as I possibly can because it is going to take at least 20 under to win here.”

Lawrie believes his confidence has been helped by his rookie of the year title.

“It has given me a boost for the rest of the year,” he added.

“I was lucky to win rookie of the year, normally there are five or six guys who are in the race for it.

“But I seemed to finish second in the Canaries and that put me ahead of everybody else and nobody seemed to come near me.

“I feel I was a little bit lucky to win it and then coming into this year it gives me a little bit of confidence.”

Lawrie was in fine form yesterday as he carded a spectacular 64 as the rains cleared.

After starting off with two pars, he launched a three-birdie assault to set himself up for a 32 at the turn, and then added another on 13 with a monster 25-foot putt.

Two more came on 16 and 18, where his drive went left into the trees and he still managed to scramble out and make birdie on each.

Lawrie revealed he was battling with injury and admitted his mind had not been fully on his game.

He said: “I hurt my left ankle, like an Achilles tendon injury. I have never suffered from it before and I just got a little bit of physio on it yesterday morning but it’s been very sore all day.

“In the morning I felt it when I got out of bed and I certainly wasn’t jumping out of bed at half five, so it definitely wasn’t that.

“I was thinking more about my ankle than my scores. I was just trying to hit it down the fairways and onto the greens and I holed a few putts.”

At the moment, Lawrie has yet to tee off. South African Keith Horne has joined Jacquelin at the top of the leaderboard. Lawrie shares second place with Marcel Siem.