Paul Lawrie talks about his Ryder Cup experience
After playing his role in the biggest comeback by the European team, in the history of the Ryder Cup in Sunday’s singles, Paul Lawrie now hopes to keep the momentum going into the remaining tournaments on the European Tour this year.
Lawrie defeated the FedEx Champion Brandt Snedeker 5&3, at the Medinah Country Club, and clinched an important point for his team, en route to retaining the Ryder Cup in Europe.
He said, “To be six under through 15 holes, I can’t even begin to describe how satisfying that was. The feeling was that if you don’t play well, you’re getting beat and we’re losing The Ryder Cup, so that certainly focused the mind and got the blood pumping”.
He continued, “To go out there and shoot six under and win 5&3, it doesn’t get any better than that, I wouldn’t have thought”.
At the age of 43, he was the eldest player in Captain José María Olazábal’s team that outshined the US team by 14 ½ to 13 ½ points.
At the end of the Ryder Cup, he expressed his wish of becoming the European Ryder Cup team captain in future.
According to him, he watched Olazábal showing enthusiasm during the tournament and his timely speeches helped the team members to boost up their morale.
Lawrie said, “He was absolutely brilliant the whole week. He was very hands off when you were playing, and didn’t get involved in things unless you kind of asked him”.
He also stated that Olazábal kept on sharing his experiences in the Ryder Cup throughout the week and sometimes even he made the players’ eyes wet with some emotional stories of the past.
Moreover, he told that the Ryder Cup meant a great deal to the captain. Therefore, Lawrie and his teammates tried their best to make him a winning captain in the end.
Prior to coming to St. Andrews to participate in the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, he flew to Gleneagles in order to deliver The Ryder Cup.
This week, he now aims to repeat the heroics of 2001, when his course-record breaking performance at St Andrews led him to a victory in the European Tour event.
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