He might never have met Albert Einstein, but it is fair to say that European Tour professional Paul Lawrie, nevertheless, is following one of the great man’s most famous quotations to the letter.
The noted physicist once memorably said: “It is every man’s obligation to put back into the world at least the equivalent of what he takes out of it.” In Lawrie’s case, in terms of encouraging children into golf, the 40 year old Scot has more than met those obligations already….and then some.
In 2001, two years after his greatest triumph – winning The 1999 Open Championship at Carnoustie – Lawrie decided it was time to give something back to the game and The Paul Lawrie Junior Golf Programme was born.
Aided by a selection of partners, Lawrie’s initial aim was to offer children the opportunity to experience the game; improve their skills; ease the transition from participation to the club environment; and play to the best of their ability or interest.
Little did he know that from relatively humble beginnings, the concept would grow to such a size that somewhere in the region of 11,000 children have benefited over the past eight years. Indeed, such is its influence that The R&A in St Andrews has recently helped with a donation of £25,000.
The growth of the scheme has also initiated a change of name as it is now known as The Paul Lawrie Foundation to recognise the development into other sports aside from golf – as the Foundation now funds tennis tournaments and football events as well as having taken the first tentative steps into hockey and rugby too.
Such growth sees the Foundation now employ full-time staff. Murray Carnie is Lawrie’s right hand man in terms of the day to day affairs but the Scot’s golf coaches Adam Hunter and Neil Marr also give their time freely as does former Aberdeen footballer Jockie Lawrence who runs the football affairs. Of course, Lawrie’s wife Marian remains a constant source of support in all matters as she has done since day one.
Primarily, the Foundation’s activities centre around Lawrie’s home city of Aberdeen and the north-east of Scotland but its tentacles are growing. Evidence of that has come this year with the setting up of a Junior Jug competition which will feature eight qualifying events all over Scotland with the winners meeting in the Finals at Dundonald Golf Club in September where the eventual champions will receive replicas of Lawrie’s Open Championship Claret Jug.
Allied to that, the Foundation regularly helps primary school children have the opportunity to try an adapted form of the game called TRI-GOLF, while a series of Flag events in the Aberdeen area on most Sundays throughout the summer months regularly attract hundreds of competitors. Depending on his own schedule, Lawrie himself attends these Flag events and is a regular visitor to primary schools across the region too.
“I was very fortunate when I was young because I was helped by a guy called Stewart Spence who owns The Marcliffe Hotel in Aberdeen and who still continues to support the Foundation,” said Lawrie. “He helped me gain sponsors, gave me money and he gave me a car and I just thought, in my opinion, there are not enough professionals helping young kids and passing on what they have learned.
“I wanted to give back but more importantly I wanted to give back when I was still a current player because it is easy to do it when you have retired and you have all the time in the world. I wanted to make sure that the kids could see me, and see me still playing out there, and be able to ask me questions when I was still competing at a good level.
“I have been doing a lot of school visits over the winter where I go for a couple of hours and take the Claret Jug with me and while I’m there the kids play golf in the gym hall and then we have a bit of a question and answer session with them at the end. I have been to around 13 schools over the past few months and we are trying to fit in a few more over the next few weeks.
“I absolutely love it. It still amazes me that I can go to a school even in the city where I live in and ten year old kids know who I am. That gives me a tremendous kick and hopefully I manage to put my enthusiasm for the whole thing back into the kids’ days too.
“You get some great questions – but that is the fun of it. We had one boy who stood up in the middle of the class, he had his foot turned out to the side and his hands deep in his pockets like he was obviously the ‘Johnnie Cool’ of the class.
“I had the Claret Jug next to me on the table and he said to me; “So, you are telling me you only have one of them?” I said, “Yes,” and he sat down and said, “That’s not very good is it!!” Stuff like that is priceless and you just have to laugh – what else can you do? I had no option to do that one other time too when one of the kids asked me which year it was that I had won Wimbledon!”
As well as planting the seed of the game of golf in the hearts and minds of primary school children, Lawrie is also involved with the players at the other end of the spectrum, working with the Scottish Golf Union’s Elite Squad.
“I have been involved in a couple of training days with the SGU now which are good fun. I do swing stuff with them and the boys get to ask me anything they want too. They also go through mock interviews and I try to help them.
“I was a good player before The Open but all of a sudden I was thrown into the deep end in terms of media stuff and that is what can happen to these boys. They might be fairly decent amateurs but now they are in the Elite Squad they find themselves having to talk to the media. So I thought I would be the perfect guy to try and pass on a little bit of what that is like and how to deal with it.”
Every Scottish golf fan hopes, naturally, that one of the Elite Squad will follow in Lawrie’s footsteps and win The Open Championship and while the Aberdonian conceded that would be great to witness, he also admitted it was not the primary motivation for his Foundation.
“My goal was never to have a world beater come out of this,” he said. “The role of the Foundation is to introduce children to the game, to let them try it and if they don’t like it, I have no problem with that. But you need to have the chance to try it and I don’t think that is happening enough. Golf can be an expensive sport and so the idea was to let them experience it and see where they go from there.
“These young kids look up to players like us and it is great when they go along to meet us and get a kick out of it. When I started, a lot of people raised some question marks and said, ‘Why are you doing it now, you have just won The Open and you’re really busy etc etc,’ but that is the whole point of it for me.
“I need the kids to see that I can do this. When I am out on Tour, I am playing and focussed totally on playing but when I am at home, I have stuff to do for the Foundation. I try and use all my spare time on it – it takes up a lot of time but I enjoy it. That is the most important thing.”
Further proof of Lawrie’s commitment to junior golf came last week. While many professionals, after a week of warm weather practice in Spain, might come home and relax in front of the television, Lawrie got off the flight and drove straight home to Aberdeen to oversee a dinner for over 40 Junior Golf Conveners to outline his Foundation’s plans for 2009.
You do not have to be a genius – like Albert Einstein – to work out that the golfing kids of Aberdeen and the north east of Scotland are very fortunate indeed to have such an exceptional role model on their doorsteps.
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