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THE SENIOR OPEN PRESENTED BY ROLEX

July 26, 2019

Paul Lawrie

Lytham St. Annes, Lancashire, United Kingdom

Q. You're renowned to be a good putter and chipper, which means a lot here. How are you finding the greens as far as speed and consistency?
PAUL LAWRIE: Speed, I'm finding them fine. I'm just not holding any. I'm struggled. I've hit the ball quite nicely and so far not quite holed my fair share, but as you know, due to my career -- I've holed more than my fair share, so I'm okay with it and I'd like to roll in a few over the weekend and that would be nice. I think the greens are good to be fair. I've enjoyed them.

Q. Will you tweak your game or anything?
PAUL LAWRIE: I'm going to go work at some putting. I feel as though I hit a lot of shots between 12 and 30 feet, which a lot of people do, and I'm very seldom closer than that. I've left a lot short, so I need to go do a little bit of work on that.

Apart from everything else, I feel it's fine, and if we're in with a chance at the weekend, the old juices are flowing and we'll get going.

Q. Not to come out after that, do you just forget that and come out -- must be pleasing.
PAUL LAWRIE: Well, it's just part of our job, isn't it. You're going to have times where you don't hit it very good and you make bogeys and you make mistakes, but that's part of the -- the delays yesterday wasn't great. Got a bad back; you're sitting in there all day, trying to stretch before I played but only got about six holes out of it -- and to battle all day yesterday do well and get it going and give it away at the end; as a golfer, there's nothing worse.

Today, opposite. Didn't have a great start. I was a couple over and had a really good last eight holes. The pleasing thing is that we're in the red figures. This course is not easy. It does not give up many birdies. I don't see many birdie holes out there. So if I'm seeing that, I'm sure other players are seeing that; and if we are four or five behind, I think we're in a good position.

Q. Marian is here this week. Was that helpful in terms of giving you a good talking-to and getting back out there?
PAUL LAWRIE: She was quite sympathetic, which I was quite surprised at that to be fair. She's brilliant because she's standing right there listening. Every now and again, I get moments like that and I'm not the best and I get very angry, and I'm quite upset at myself. Because I feel as though I'm a battler as a golfer, and when you give it away like that last night by three-putting and hitting a poor chip like that, that's not my game. That's not who I am.

But every now and again, it's going to happen. You send your apology text and you move on, don't you. It was more than -- you got one.

Q. Seven months as a senior, has it exceeded expectations? Below expectations?
PAUL LAWRIE: I knew the standard would be good that because I was told that by Monty and Clarke and a few of the boys, but the standard is very good I think from these guys. You're not just looking at guys that are 50 years old. Most of the people are 55- to 60-odd years of age and still playing. Look at Langer, 2-under again this week, it's just amazing how good a player he still is. That's surprised me slightly. I thought there would be a lot of guys between just turning 50 making money and winning all the tournaments but it's not. It's guys that are a bit older that do the business.

I've enjoyed it. I'd like to play more in America. I don't think I'm getting a fair crack at the whip over there, but I've spoken to the two guys that are here and they are going to try to get me a few invites. I've not played many over there and I'm only 80-odd on the Order of Merit, and I only need two or three invites and I've got a chance of keeping my card, really. Happy with a couple of invites, that would be great. But if not, it's up for me to go to Tour School and get a card that way. Can play good at the weekend here and get a card here. That's the plan. If I can play well enough here, that is Plan A.

Q. After what happened to David Duval last week, there was some stuff written about past champions and exemptions. What's your take on that?
PAUL LAWRIE: My take has always been that 60 is slightly too old I would say. The only one who has bucked the trend on that is Tom Watson, and I mean, I felt -- I think everyone felt sorry for Stewart Cink winning that week, and Tom should have won and he didn't. He's the only one.

I say it probably should come down a little. I think you can still be competitive when you're 50 and it came down from 65 to 60. I think if they settled on 55, that's fair enough. If you've had until 55 in this tournament, I think you've had a fair enough go at it and there's very few players that are competitive over 55.

Langer would be the only one, and Watson, are the only two I can think of who have a realistic chance of winning a tournament like that over that age. But the R&A are not bothered about it because they are not contacting champions to say that the age is coming down. I think it's just Michael McEwan who is bothered about it.

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