The first person Paul Lawrie might want to thank if he wins the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters on Saturday is his fellow Scot Marc Warren, whose putting tips have paid dividends this week.
Lawrie comfortably missed the cut in Abu Dhabi last week after taking 34 putts in round one and 30 on day two, continuing the frustration he has endured with the flat stick in recent years - in 2015 he was 185th out of 214 in the putts per round category.
77+5 driver /putter horrific
— Paul Lawrie (@PaulLawriegolf) January 21, 2016
Tellingly, the 1999 Open Champion’s two top ten finishes last season – in back-to-back appearances at Made in Denmark and the KLM Open – came just after he put a new putter in the bag, at the time saying it was helping him roll it better than he had in years.
However, the improvement was short-lived, prompting an SOS call to friend Warren, the owner of a beautifully smooth putting stroke that ranked ninth in the same statistics category last year.
The result? Lawrie leads by two shots heading into the final round in Qatar.
This putt from Paul Lawrie gives the Scot a two-shot lead with 18 holes to play in Qatar.
Posted by European Tour on Friday, 29 January 2016
He explained: “I was on the practice putting green in Abu Dhabi on Sunday, having missed the cut. I asked Marc to have a wee look at me and he said my stroke was too long and slow; it needs to be a little shorter and quicker.
All day on Sunday I worked on it, then I came here and hit thousands of putts on the practice days. It’s only taken a couple of days and it already feels comfortable - Paul Lawrie
Paul Lawrie tees off at 11.20am with hopes of becoming the first three-time winner of the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters. Seven times the Scot has lead with 18 holes to play on The European Tour. He went on to win six of those events.
