Paul Lawrie Invitational continues to grow

The ever-popular Paul Lawrie Invitational has been added to The PGA in Scotland Order of Merit schedule for 2014.

The tournament, which will carry a £40,000 prize fund, will be staged at Deeside Golf Club for the fourth year in a row on September 16-18, with a pre-tournament pro-am to be held on September 15.

It will remain as a 54-hole competition, with a cut made after the first 36 holes, but the field size will increase from 66 to 72 players. The qualifying round will be held at Royal Musselburgh Golf Club on August 4.

The event was originally conceived to give aspiring Scottish Professionals the opportunity to develop through playing alongside more experienced players and this will remain the case.

In addition to normal PGA in Scotland exemption criteria, a number of places will be given to those players who performed well in the 2013 Young Professionals Order of Merit and have yet to complete their training programme.

There will also remain the opportunity for promising players to be granted a spot in the field via invitation from the sponsor, with a dozen places being on offer through this method.

Lawrie said: “My invitational was always designed to bring together some of the younger, up-and-coming talents in Scotland and give them the opportunity to test themselves against the best and most experienced PGA pros and one or two guys playing at the highest levels of the game.

"The idea was to grow the event year on year and we’ve done that. The fact it’s now an Order of Merit event on the Tartan Tour strengthens the schedule by adding a 54-hole Tournament.”

Brian Mair, secretary of The PGA in Scotland added: “On behalf of all the PGA Professionals in Scotland, I’d like to thank Paul for his continued support.

“Not only does he continue to compete at the highest level, but his ever-increasing backing for grass-roots golf and for the domestic circuit makes him a tremendous ambassador for both golf and the whole north-east of Scotland. I hope we can continue to build on this relationship for many years to come.”