BOOST FOR PAUL'S HOME-COURSE TOURNAMENT AT BIELDSIDE

PAUL LAWRIE INVITATIONAL AT     

DEESIDE  NOW WORTH £40,000 AND IS 

GIVEN ORDER OF MERIT STATUS

Paul Lawrie, Nicola Melville (Director of Paul Lawrie Golf Centre Ladies Tartan Tour) and Brian Mair (PGA in Scotland secretary). Picture by Cal Carson Golf Agency.
NEWS RELEASE
The PGA in Scotland and the Paul Lawrie Foundation are pleased to announce that the Paul Lawrie Invitational, which has been held successfully at Deeside for the past three years will become an Order of Merit event for PGA Professionals in 2014

The 2014 tournament will again be staged at Deeside Golf Club, Aberdeen, on September 16 to 18, with a pre-tournament Pro-Am to be held on Monday, September 15. 

It will remain as a 54 hole competition, with a cut after the first 36 holes, but the field size will increase from 66 to 72 players. The tournament will carry a prize-fund of £40,000, a £5,000 increase on the monies on offer in 2013.

The change to an Order of Merit event rather than entry being purely by invitation necessitates a qualifying round for those who are not exempt for the tournament, and this will be held at Royal Musselburgh Golf Club on MondayAugust 4.

The Paul Lawrie Invitational was originally conceived to give aspiring Scottish Professionals the opportunity to develop through playing alongside more experienced players and this will remain the case.

In addition to normal PGA in Scotland exemption criteria, a number of places will be given to those players who performed well in the 2013 Young Professionals Order of Merit and have yet to complete their training programme.

There will also remain the opportunity for promising players to be granted a spot in the field via invitation from the sponsor, with a dozen places being on offer through this method.

Paul added “My Invitational was always designed to bring together some of the younger, up-and-coming talents in Scotland and give them the opportunity to test themselves against the best and most experienced PGA Pros and one or two guys playing at the highest levels of the game.  The idea was to grow the event year on year and we’ve done that.  The fact it’s now an Order of Merit event on the Tartan Tour strengthens the schedule by adding a 54-hole Tournament.”

Brian Mair, Secretary of the PGA in Scotland, commented “On behalf of all the PGA Professionals in Scotland, I’d like to thank Paul for his continued support. Not only does he continue to compete at the highest level, but his ever-increasing backing for grass-roots golf and for the domestic circuit makes him a tremendous ambassador for both golf and the whole north-east of Scotland. I hope we can continue to build on this relationship for many years to come.”   

http://pgagbi.bluegolf.com/bluegolf/pgagbi14/chapter/scottish/schedule/scottish/index.htm

http://www.paullawriefoundation.co.uk/

http://www.deesidegolfclub.com/