PAUL LAWRIE 500th APPEARANCE MARKED BY EUROPEAN TOUR

NEWS RELEASE ISSUED BY THE EUROPEAN TOUR
Paul Lawrie will add another honour to his glittering CV at this week’s Volvo World Match Play Championship when he makes his 500^th European Tour appearance, joining an illustrious group of players to achieve the landmark feat.
The 1999 Open Champion was presented with a special engraved ice bucket by Keith Waters, the European Tour’s Chief Operating Officer and Director of International Policy, at host venue Finca Cortesin, in Spain, ahead of becoming the 22^nd European Tour player to become a member of the exclusive 500 club.
He is only the second Major Champion to reach the milestone after 1991 Masters Tournament winner Ian Woosnam and the fourth Scot to reach 500 appearances, joining former Ryder Cup Captain Sam Torrance, who holds the European Tour record with 706 appearances, Gordon Brand Jnr (597) and Colin Montgomerie (570).
Lawrie made his European Tour debut 20 years ago in the 1992 Johnnie Walker Asian Classic, winning his first of seven titles four years later in the Open Catalonia, and after a recent renaissance, he admits he is enjoying his golf more than ever as he continues to enjoy competing at the very top level.
“I turned pro at 17 as a five handicapper in 1986 and then got to play with these boys each week - anything that happened after that was a bonus,” he said. “I think that's helped me, longevity‑wise. I still see it as, ‘I can't believe I'm out here winning and competing’.
“I still enjoy playing. I think I play more for fun now than I used to do with my sons coming up and being good golfers. I think playing with them is a help. About three or four years ago, I thought I might just scale this down a bit and play a little bit less. Then the boys got pretty keen into golf and I started playing a bit more at home and I've kicked on a bit again.
He added: “I can see me getting to 600 appearances now. To get to 700, where Sam is at, is a huge number. Playing for 40 years is just an incredible record. I think we'll leave Sam at the top for a while. I don't think I'm in danger of overtaking him but I’d like to get to 600.”
Lawrie, who passed the €10million career earnings mark earlier this season, became part of golfing folklore with his career-high victory at Carnoustie in The 1999 Open Championship when he famously came from a European Tour-record equalling ten shots back to claim the Claret Jug, defeating Frenchman Jean Van de Velde in a four hole play-off.
“In the play-off it was amazing how this feeling came over me and everything was clear and I just knew what I was doing and I was focused and I wasn't harassed,” he said.
 “There were people everywhere and there was a circus inside the ropes and I just remember being really, really calm. It's amazing how you can get in that position.”
That performance helped him earn a place in the European Team for The 1999 Ryder Cup when he had the honour of hitting the opening tee shot, playing alongside Montgomerie. He went on to win an impressive three-and-a-half points out of a possible five, including defeating Jeff Maggert in his singles match, to equal the record points total gained by a rookie alongside Paul Way (1983) and Sergio Garcia (also 1999).
After receiving an MBE in 2000 and following his Open Championship victory by winning the Alfred Dunhill Links title in 2001 and the Celtic Manor Resort Wales Open in 2002, leaner times followed, with Lawrie left contemplating his appetite for the game as he struggled for form.
However, with a renewed vigour for the game, he emerged from a nine year spell without a European Tour victory when he won the Open de Andalucía last season and he returns to Spain this week having already added another title in 2012, following success for a second time in the Commercialbank Qatar Masters presented by Dolphin Energy in February.
That victory means he is seriously targeting a return to The Ryder Cup fold at the age of 43, an incentive that is spurring on the man from Aberdeen, who launched the hugely successful Paul Lawrie Foundation in 2001 to encourage and support the next generation of players.
“If I get in The Ryder Cup, it would be the biggest achievement of my career, so that's the motivation,” he said. “I really want to play on that team. It would be huge for me.
“I'm 43, but I feel like there is a wee bit left in the tank yet.”

Trigger Unhappy

FROM THE GLOBAL GOLF POST

 

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA | In a star-crossed and wind-blown Players Championship that had more engaging plot twists than an episode of Downton Abbey, the enduring image will be that of Kevin Na trying to pull the trigger.

This, despite a stirring Sunday performance from emerging American stalwart Matt Kuchar.

Mores the pity.

If you had a nickel for every amateur psychiatrist who showed up on Twitter with an opinion on Na's malady, you could have paid down the national debt and had enough left over to write the $1.71 million winner's check to Kuchar.

Kevin Na waggling. Kevin Na twitching, fidgeting and double-clutching. Kevin Na shadow boxing with his golf ball. Kevin Na backing off. Kevin Na barking at himself in frustration. Kevin Na trying to fight his way through swing changes, apologizing over and over.

Kevin Na prompting Charles Barkley to declare, "Welcome to my world."

And 54-hole leader Kevin Na helplessly and, yes, unfairly distracting playing competitor Zach Johnson on Saturday.

"There's a lot going on in my head," Na said with a smile Saturday night.

The author John Updike once wrote, "The golf swing is like a suitcase into which we are trying to pack too many items."

Actually, Na's swing is pretty sound. It's the excess pre-shot baggage that gets him in trouble. You wanted to feel sorry for him. But you needed to feel more sorry for the other guy in his pairing. Imagine the distraction.

The fact that this Players Championship ended on Mother's Day was appropriate because - thanks to controversy that swirled around Na's pre-shot flinches -this was, for long stretches, a tournament only a mother could love.

And that was too bad. There was so much more happening of note. Prior to the start of Sunday's final round, here are just a few things that had gotten lost in all of Na's neurotic shuffling:

▸ The quality of the golf being played by Na for three days, especially with a putter in his hand.

▸ The joy of watching the joy with which Kuchar - one back of Na after three rounds - played terrific golf under pressure. His swing is as flat as his demeanor is effervescent. And who else, by the way, prepares for playing in Sunday's final group by playing tennis in the morning with his wife, his father and his father-in-law?

▸ The overall presence of a 23-year-old starburst named Rickie Fowler, who fashioned a seven-birdie 66 Saturday to become the overnight lurker, two behind the spasmodic Na. Fowler's flat-brim hats and technicolor dream clothes are catching on, and not just among kids. "I feel honored," he said, "when there are 40- and 50-year-olds cruising around in the hat and wearing orange."

▸ The struggles of Tiger Woods, who shot 74 Thursday, rallied with a 68 to make the cut Friday and faded on the weekend. Process? Progress? ... Caution: Objects in Jack Nicklaus' rearview mirror are not as close as they once appeared.

"Guys, I've done this before," Woods said of his latest swing overhaul. "I've been through this."

Well, actually, no, Woods hasn't. He has never attempted to deconstruct and reconstruct his golf swing at the age of 36, scarred by a long history of injuries and surgeries and a nasty and public divorce.

▸ Rory Mcllroy missing the cut by a bundle. Why is it that the No. 1 player in the world plays the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass like it was Kryptonite National? In three tries at The Players, Mcllroy has yet to make the cut.

All of this was prologue for the madhouse at the first tee Sunday when the starter introduced Na. Thankfully, Kev-insanity quickly disappeared when he needed only two waggles before striking his first drive.

The twitches returned, mostly with his putter, and when Na bogeyed four of the last six holes on his front nine he dropped, like a moon rock, from contention.

By then the damage to the competitive drama of The Players had been done. His neuroses had hijacked the Saturday broadcasts and dispatches and spilled over into Sunday morning when the head shrinking continued unabated.

Einstein defined insanity as, "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." Uncle Albert isn't around anymore to define Na's problems. If he were, here might be the paraphraseology:

Kev-lnsanity: Doing the same thing over and over again and having no idea who is going to win the pre-shot war in your brain between the golf gods and the golf demons.

"I'm trying to get comfortable with my waggles," Na said, trying to explain the unexplainable. "It's usually a little waggle, a half-waggle, little waggle, half-waggle and boom, supposed to pull the trigger. But if it doesn't work, I've got to go in pairs. So, it'll go four, and if it doesn't work, it'll go six, and after that ... ."

After that, what?

"I don't know," Na said. "I mean, honestly, if I knew I guess I wouldn't be having this problem."

And we would have been able to pay more attention to the guy who actually won this thing.

At the bitter end a group of fans began heckling Na. "To be honest," he said. "I deserved it."

 

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MyGolfRanking.co.uk Adopted by Fife Golf Association

NEWS RELEASE

A unique, new ranking service called MyGolfRanking has been adopted by Fife Golfing Association and over 30 of its affiliated clubs for the 2012 golf season.

MyGolfRanking is free for golf clubs and their members to join and provides players at participating golf clubs with a ranking based on their performance in Counting Events nominated by their club.
MyGolfRanking is the concept of David Moir who was instrumental in devising the RandA/USGA World Amateur Golf Ranking for men and women. 
Players earn Ranking Points based on their net handicap scores in club competitions and the strength of each field, using the same basic concepts of the World Amateur and professional golf rankings.
Founder David Moir says “I believe MyGolfRanking will create sustained interest for Club Members throughout the year and also stimulate greater participation amongst members which in turn will produce numerous social and financial benefits for golf clubs. I am delighted that the first Scottish Area to adopt this is Fife Golf Association, right in the heart of the Home of Golf.”
Each club has its own MyGolfRanking league table and there is also an overall Fife MyGolfRanking to identify the best club golfer in Fife.
All results are updated weekly on www.MyGolfRanking.co.uk and the Fife MyGolfRanking will be published in the local press.
In addition to Fife, there are several other trials underway in other regions and Moir has advanced plans to roll out MyGolfRanking to the other 15 Scottish Men’s Areas and Ladies’ County Associations in 2013.