Peter Lawrie could find some comfort in talking with Irish footballing great David O’Leary as he stares at the likelihood of losing his European Tour card for the first time in his career.
Lawrie competed in the Pro-Am ahead of teeing up today in the Portual Masters being defended by fellow Irishman Shane Lowry on the Oceanico Victoria course at Villamoura.
It is the first time since joining the Tour full-time in 2003 Lawrie has been in such a position and at 111th on the money list he has this week’s event and next week’s Perth International in Australia to break back inside the top-110.
In the 10 years Lawrie has been on Tour he captured the 2008 Spanish Open and has recorded four second place results, three thirds and 23 others top-10s to have amassed over Euro 5.3m in prize money.
However this year the father of four has struggled arriving on the sun-splashed Algarve with just one top-10 and that was at the Irish Open while hurting Lawrie deeply is having missed the cut in his last five events.
“It’s been horrendous and it’s all my own doing,” he said.
“I’ve spent the last eight weeks looking over my shoulder, if you know what I mean.
“All I’ve needed to do is make a cut and have one decent week and what I’ve been doing is just missing by one shot and that was the cast at the KLM Open and the Italian Open.
“They are two golf courses right up my street and I kicked myself in the you know whats to play better but it just hasn’t happened.
“It’s all my own fault and there is no one else I can blame, so it’s up to myself to get out of it.”
“I’ve been looking for that key for a while and just haven’t found it.
“I was talking to David (O’Leary) it today in the Pro-Am and he said there was a year when he was at Arsenal when they looked like getting relegated, and he said it was the most pressure he’s ever felt and, honestly, this is the most pressure I’ve ever felt, ever.”
Completing in the Pro-Am was O’Leary’s second game of golf this week after playing Monday in a fund-raiser at Royal County Down.
And while delighted to tee-up alongside Lawrie he offered the struggling Dubliner some comforting advice from the time when Arsenal, for whom he played a club record of 772 appearances, were struggling in the 1975/76 season.
“It was a case of people doubting us for the first time even and I’d never known pressure like that in my life,” said O’Leary.
“I enjoyed the pressure of trying to win things but for once out of 20 years it was the other and I’d never known pressure like it ever.
“As Peter said, instead of looking forward, as we used do, we were looking at everything around you or underneath you and thinking in that way.
“I wouldn’t like to go through it again and thank goodness never did. It was shocking pressure.
“Instead of facing teams you knew you could go out and beat, you were thinking ‘I hope we don’t get beat here today’. It was an entirely different mindset. We went into a very defensive mode.”
The Gunners managed to finish 17th that particular season while Lawrie would snap your arm off if offered 17th place in Portugal.
No such concern for Lowry, who despite letting slip victory in his last event, remains upbeat in the defence of his title.
“I should have won the Dunhill as I gave myself a great chance but then I’m playing quite good, so I’m coming here in good form, love to play, so really looking forward to this week,” he said.
And unlike the 2010 Irish Open at Killarney, Lowry arrived at Faro Airport and Villamoura to find the area littered with posters, banners, programs and even tickets adorned with a photograph of the Irishman.
