Paul Lawrie commences a New Year with a new trainer and fellow Scot Chris Doak a new wife and a new club sponsorship deal ahead of this week’s Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship in the UAE capital.
Lawrie heads into a 23rd European Tour season not only looking for a ninth Tour success and foremost a third Ryder Cup cap.
However if Lawrie is to become the first Scot to play on home soil since the 1973 Ryder Cup at Muirfield, and when last staged at the Home of Golf, then he needs to drastically improve his sliding 120th World Ranking.
“I noticed I’ve fallen to 120th in the World Rankings, which is just pathetic,” he said.
“I need to get things going again and have been working hard. I’ve hit a lot of balls and also been in the gym a bit working with my new trainer, Phil O’Sullivan who works for a company called the Player Development Academy and they do more football than golf at the minute.
“They do stuff for the footballers in our Foundation and has put a programme for me. There’s two of them in the company with one working for a tool company and one’s a solicitor, and they’ve both got UEFA A badges.
“But then I also I needed to do something to strengthen-up my back as it’s still not 100 per cent right.
“And after last year’s nightmare when I didn’t play well at all, so I was keen to see the back of it. It’s a bit of a relief, to be honest, and I’m keen to get going again.”
If Lawrie needed any extra incentive ahead of teeing-up on the National Course in Abu Dhabi then he found that in proudly managing to get the better of his two golfing sons, Craig and Michael.
“I’ve won the money off the boys for the second year running, and with Michael (Aged 17) second this time,” said Lawrie boasting.
“He was a shot ahead playing the last hole but I managed to get into his head a bit on the last tee.
“I reminded him that he’d ploughed it way right the day before but then his mum was in the buggy and wasn’t impressed with me!
“He ploughed it way right again, made six and I made three to win by two.
“So they have got to learn the hard way because if they think it’s easy out here they’ve got another think coming.”
Doak is sporting a major equipment sponsor for a first time in his career decade long pro career having joined the likes of European No. 1 Henrik Stenson and four-time European Tour winner, Matteo Manassero signing with Callaway.
For a first occasion, Doak is sporting the US golf equipment logo on his distinctive cap rather than traditional baseball-like cap that means he has full access to Callaway’s massive hands-on resources.
“I am excited to be out here as I was at home, supposed to fly out on the Sunday, and after hitting a 9-iron 40 yards at Largs I changed my flights and came straight out here earlier, so I’ve been out here since Thursday,” he said.
“But the big change is that I am I’m with Callaway now with new clubs, sponsorship on the cap, so it’s nice to be part of the Callaway team.”
This week also is part of Doak’s honeymoon with his new wife, Laura in his company.
“Mrs Doak is out here with me as this is the honeymoon, three weeks of golfing,” he smiled.
“She was out for the three weeks last year and really enjoyed it. She loves going to the souks during the day. She enjoys it. It’s good to have here with me.”
