THE G4D OPEN

May 8, 2023

Brendan Lawlor

Mixed Zone

Q. Can you introduce yourself, your name, where you're from, your golf club.

BRENDAN LAWLOR: My name is Brendan Lawlor. I'm from County Couth and a member of Carton House Golf Club.

Q. Can you briefly tell us about your journey getting to the G4D and life and your golf journey, how have you ended up here as a top-ranked golfer with disability?

BRENDAN LAWLOR: I started golf with disability in 2017 and it's been a pretty amazing journey since then. Came fourth my first event in Portugal and went on to win my first three in Spain and Belgium. It was a pretty good rise.

Then the first big, big event was in the Renaissance Club on The European Tour, and I was lucky enough to win that and that's when everything started going really, really good. Sponsorship started coming in and management teams were looking to sign you up, and it's been a dream ever since. Every day I'm so proud to represent disability golf and it's an honour.

Q. Can you tell us about your personal story and your background and how you came into golf through that?

BRENDAN LAWLOR: I was born with a condition called Ellis-Van Creveld with shorter limbs and shorter stature. I started playing a game called pitch and putt when I was about four years old which was par 54 and I joined golf when I was 16 so I felt I wasn't big enough or strong enough to play.

When I for the first time felt in love with it, just got addicted to trying to get better and better each day and just the shots kept coming in. As the years went on, you're getting a wee bit stronger and started to enjoy it more and made friends through the game and enjoyed the process.

Q. Going much further back, you had some serious operations when you were a baby.

BRENDAN LAWLOR: Yes, I was born with a hole in my heart. I had to get a VSD repair at six weeks old. It's usually an operation you can't get until you're nine or ten months. Got done and was pretty critical for the first two months of that. I was in a coma for a few months and it was pretty intense and got through it and everything was a breeze after that. I had my knee operations, teeth operations but then the last few years have been great. I haven't been in the hospital that much.

So yeah, I love it. Mom and dad treat me like a normal person. My mom and dad treated me like a normal guy because I was and I feel like life was a breeze. Really enjoyed it.

Q. You've been playing a lot in the G4D events on the DP World Tour. What does the G4D Open mean?

BRENDAN LAWLOR: It's huge, first one ever, is probably the biggest thing to. Put your name on that trophy, to make history to be the first one to do it, that would be the biggest thing for me and to see everyone here again -- at the G4D you get the top eight but to see everyone again, it's been a while since we've had everyone at the one course. Shouting at the guys, we just saw them yesterday. That's the beautiful thing about it, we gained some lovely relationships along the way. You're sharing it with everyone, not just eight people. It's incredible.

Q. What do you think of Woburn and how do you think the course is going to play this week?

BRENDAN LAWLOR: It looks pretty tight. I think you need to hit fairways. Greens are pretty grainy so it's going to be hard to catch the speed. It could get a wee bit quicker the next few days if they decide to cut them. Just it's a marathon, this week, we're used to two round and this is three. If you play steady for one and two and just keep yourself in, it anything can happen the final day.

Q. You're a professional golfer, an aspiration of many people this week, and you've spoken quite passionately about where you want to see the game go. How much pressure does that put on you to perform this week?

BRENDAN LAWLOR: I don't put pressure on myself really. I'm just here to enjoy myself. I have put pressure on myself in the past and I feel this year I haven't been getting the results because of that but I've been trending really nicely. Had a really good week in Barcelona at Pablo Larrazábal's event, just missing the cut in the professional event. Then the week in I can't pan was really good mentally because I wasn't shooting well but I stayed within myself to go out the next day and shoot a good score, and then with a field that I can compete against. It's given me good confidence. My game is in a good place and mentally in a really good place, so I feel like I could go well this week.

Q. Last week, you made public about some online trolling. There was obviously a lot of support for you. Can you tell me a wee bit about that, and why you felt you had to say something?

BRENDAN LAWLOR: Yeah, was getting quite a bit online and sat down with my mom and dad to talk about it. It's something that never annoyed me, still doesn't to this day, but I felt like with that going on it was a good way to use my platform to do good. People like myself, Kipp, Juan Postigo are going to be on social media now. DP World Tour are going to be showing them and you guys are going to be showing them.

To get out to a small minority of people that these guys are known and to stop the sort of negative comments, because some of these guys could be suffering mentally and might not be able to take them. I'm lucky I can. I don't give a s--- about them because you're going to get it. It's life. It's still going to happen but hopefully someone speaking out on it, like Niall Horan, Shane Lowry more leaders of golf that can help that message as well but hopefully help some of these guys cope when it happens.

Q. Online -- because they don't see the faces --

BRENDAN LAWLOR: Social media is a beautiful thing but it's also a demon statement at the same time. You need to know when to bounce in and when to bounce out of it. When I felt we did well with that post was there wasn't any rash decisions. I could have trolled back or said stuff straight away. I had good comebacks. That was the hardest thing about it. But we sat down and done it professionally and got it out to a wider audience and done it really well. I thought it was fantastic and the mentally really got a cross.

Q. Did you get messages from the people you were just mentioning?

BRENDAN LAWLOR: Yeah, Shane Lowry sent me a beautiful message. Thomas Björn isn't me a beautiful message. The best message was from my fellow competitors, like Juan, Kipp, Amy, everyone in disability. Because they had felt this in their life. It's going to happen. For them to be on my side is a lovely thing.

Q. You are about to get underway on Wednesday. How are you approaching it?

BRENDAN LAWLOR: I'm feeling cold. It's not warm. I'm just going to enjoy it. A lot of the guys on the G4D, we're used to this surrounding. We are used to playing on really good courses. We are used to the cameras and we are used to the hype. A lot of the guys won't be used to the pressure. Hopefully everyone is going to rise but I'm going to treat this like a normal G4D week and focus on my game to try to shoot as low as I can and just enjoying it, and speak to the people I haven't spoke to in a long time as well.