Tournament host Paul Lawrie is aiming to carry his recent upturn in fortunes into the inaugural edition of the Saltire Energy Paul Lawrie Match Play, held this week at Murcar Links Golf Club near the former Open Champion’s Aberdeen home.
The 46 year old followed up vastly improved performances in the BMW International Open and on home soil in the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open with another encouraging display in The Open Championship at St Andrews, where he entered the weekend in third place but ultimately slipped down the leaderboard to finish in a tie for 40th.
While Lawrie was left to rue some costly errors which wrecked his hopes of finishing closer to the eventual Open Champion, American Zach Johnson, the Scot believes he is close to finding his best form and is hoping that this week’s €1 million event will serve as further inspiration.
He said: “The last few weeks have been very encouraging, and I’m still keeping myself active and performing well in tournaments. I’m hoping some of my best golf might still be ahead of me, and show that I can still compete out here on the Tour.
“My form is one of many reasons why I’m very excited about the week. It’s fantastic to be bringing another European Tour event to my home town of Aberdeen, after the Scottish Open was held at Royal Aberdeen last year.
“Match play is a format we don’t get to play too often on Tour, so it’s very exciting for the players and also for the fans. I can’t wait to get going.”
Lawrie has played an active role in the staging and promotion of the tournament, which will see 64 players – including his fellow former Open Champion John Daly – going head to head in a straight knockout format.
Lawrie’s fellow Scots Marc Warren and Richie Ramsay – another Aberdeen native – will also line up at the magnificent Murcar Links.
Ramsay, who warmed up for the week with a joint tenth place finish in the Omega European Masters, has previous match play pedigree, having in 2006 become the first Scot since 1898 and the first Brit since 1911 to win the US Amateur Championship, defeating American John Kelly 4&2 in the 36-hole final.
Ramsay also holds the course record at Murcar Links, and the 32 year old is therefore bullish about his prospects of securing a fourth European Tour title, and first on home soil.
He said: “Knowing I have the course record at Murcar can only give me confidence ahead of the tournament, and my match play record isn’t bad so I’m hopeful of going fairly deep in the week.
“The course really suits me because you’ve got to be straight off the tee, which is one of my main strengths. I played it about a month ago and the rough is really up so if you hit any wayward shots, you’re really going to be struggling to make par out there.
“There’s a lot of strategy involved in playing well there, and knowing the wind direction hopefully gives me a bit of an advantage. So that local knowledge, combined with some decent form recently, hopefully bodes well for the week.”
Other notable names in the line-up include former Ryder Cup stars Edoardo Molinari and Nicolas Colsaerts, as well as numerous recent European Tour winners, such as James Morrison, Chris Wood and Kiradech Aphibarnrat.
The format will see the 64 players battle it out in straight knockout over four days, with two rounds on both Saturday and Sunday to determine who will lift the trophy.
The draw for the first round will be made live on Sky Sports News at 3.30pm on Tuesday afternoon.
