Lawrie brushes off Dutch defeat

Peter Lawrie has over half a million reasons to be happy with his season despite his sudden-death Dutch Open reverse.

The Dubliner, 35, had victory snatched from his grasp in the KLM Open when he faltered at the finish and Simon Dyson jumped in to take the title after a three-way play-off.

With €543,929 on the board this year, he insisted that he had no regrets over the 16th hole bogey that arguably cost him the title.

Set to become a father for the third time as early as next week, Lawrie said: “I am not beating myself up in the slightest. Why would I? There is no point.

“It was a good week and I played lovely. I hit one bad shot off the 16th tee and that was that. I didn’t feel like I backed off anything. I gave it everything on every single shot,”

Lawrie was one clear of clubhouse leader Dyson when he came to the 16th tee.

He felt he could still attack the flag with a short iron from the fairway by hitting a two-iron off the tee.

But his strategy back-fired when he pushed it into trouble and after pulling his attempted escape into jungle territory, he did well to make bogey.

Dyson ended all arguments when he followed his closing 63 with a brilliant play-off winning birdie

And Lawrie was happy with his two-iron strategy, explaining “I am not beating myself up over it that’s for sure. I had ripped a couple of two-irons straight down the middle over 260 yards on the 12th and 13th.

“So I can’t say it was the wrong club because I was ripping it, so why not. I felt I could hit the fairway and still have a short iron into the green.

“Then Dyson made birdie in the play-off and that was it. That’s the way it goes.”

While he has just win on tour, Lawrie is playing well enough to get victory number two this season.

But for the moment he is happy that a cheque for €156,000 moved up to 40th in the Race to Dubai rankings with the top 60 at the end of the season contesting November’s Dubai World Championship.

Before that he will be on daddy duty as his wife Philippa prepares to give birth to the couple’s third child some time next week.

Lawrie explained: “I will probably take some time off when the baby comes and then make a decision on when to come back out.

"I might even go to Gleneagles this week for the Johnnie Walker Championships.

“The season as a whole has been okay. I was third in Spain and now second in Holland. It moves me up the pecking order in the Race to Dubai and every euro you accumulate is a help there.

“A couple more cheques here and there and I should be safe enough to make the top 60 who qualify for that.”

As a brilliant Damien McGrane snatched fourth place in Holland with a final round 64, Darren Clarke put up a strong title defence of his title with a share of fifth giving him his first top-10 since January’s Africa Open.

The Ulsterman has decided to give Gleneagles a miss because he doesn’t like the course.

And that means Irish eyes will be on the likes of McGrane, Paul McGinley and Irish Open champion Shane Lowry, who had his best finish as a pro when he shared 15th on Sunday.

Ulsterman Gareth Maybin will be hoping to consolidate his 54th place standing in the Race to Dubai but Gary Murphy and Jonnie Caldwell are running out of time to save their cards.

Caldwell is 260th in the money list and in dire need to a huge finish somewhere to get into the top 115 who will survive.

Murphy is 156th with over €117,000 in the bank. But that still leaves him €70,000 behind the 115th ranked Lee Slattery.