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Derek Lawrenson: Our unheralded English hero who once saved Poulter's life

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Can you name the Englishman who finished second behind Rory McIlroy at last year’s US PGA Championship at Kiawah Island?

Try that one out on your mates and relish the puzzled looks as their cries of Lee Westwood, Justin Rose, Luke Donald and Ian Poulter are duly rejected in turn.

In fact, the man who ran McIlroy closest, albeit a distant eight shots adrift, was David Lynn, playing not only in his first American major but his first US event full stop.

Dress code: David Lynn has certainly embraced Ian Poulter's trouser collection above all else

      More from Derek Lawrenson...   DEREK LAWRENSON: Plucky Pepperell is well worth his salt after stellar show at Wentworth 27/05/13   World of Golf: Proof that the Rory rumour mill can drive any journalist mad... 20/05/13   Derek Lawrenson: Taming Sawgrass was a major sign Tiger is ready to add to his dynasty 13/05/13   DEREK LAWRENSON: Rock provides firm base for developing future English talent 06/05/13   DEREK LAWRENSON: Guan is a marvel at just 14... but shouldn't he be in school? 29/04/13   Derek Lawrenson: Just when the Ryder Cup heroes seemed to have gone missing... McDowell scrambles back to his best form 23/04/13   DEREK LAWRENSON: Scott told us he'd birdie the last... and he did! First Australian winner of Masters gives us a genuine Augusta fairytale 15/04/13   DEREK LAWRENSON: Will another outsider put Augusta's star names in the shade? 08/04/13   DEREK LAWRENSON: Major rethink sees Poulter joining rusty Rory in Texas 01/04/13   VIEW FULL ARCHIVE

Now, at the age of 39, and with an offer of accommodation from Poulter — well, he did once save his life — the long-time Stoke resident and member of the European Tour chorus line is availing himself of the opportunities that dazzling debut offered and trying a new life in America.

After his first major in the US last August comes his first World Golf Championship event this week, and a tough-looking first-round match tomorrow against US Open champion Webb Simpson in the Accenture Match Play.

‘At first, I was dead-set against changing my routine after so many years because I love playing on the European Tour and I’m a home bird at heart, but it is just too good an opportunity,’ said Lynn. ‘I’m looking at it as a chance to take in America as well as play the tour.’

It is a startling change in circumstance brought about solely by a performance at Kiawah that was breathtaking in every sense. Lynn had only played in one Open Championship in 2003 and yet there he was, running up a higher finish in a major than someone as feted as Donald had ever managed.

Not only had Lynn earned himself debut appearances at the Masters and the US Open, but he had also gained a US Tour card.

‘The whole experience was  surreal,’ he said. ‘For three weeks beforehand, I had been digging up the garden. I hadn’t played in the Austrian Open for fear of dropping out of the world’s top 100, which would have cost me my place at the PGA.

‘How do I explain it? If you asked any player, they all think they have performances like that in them. That’s why they spend such long hours on the range.

‘I was lucky that mine came in a major, and what has given me a lot of belief is the way I handled myself over the final nine.

‘I remember standing on the 10th tee and thinking, “This will be interesting to see how my body reacts”. Well, the answer was I could have birdied the final five holes.

‘OK, I was never going to win, but there was still a lot at stake trying to win the secondary tournament, if you like.

‘It was funny afterwards, having a couple of drinks in the clubhouse with Rory’s dad. My caddie came up and said: “How much have we won?” I had no idea, I was enjoying the moment so much. Then I found out. I thought, “Brill — that’ll do”.’

Winner: Lynn has one European Tour victory to his name, back in 2004 at the KLM Open in Holland

Best of friends: Ian Poulter and Lynn were playing together on the Challenger Tour many years ago

Lynn’s actual reward was a cheque for £600,000, which was brilliant indeed, given his previous biggest during a 15-year career featuring a solitary victory at the 2004 Dutch Open was for a third of that amount.

Joker: Lynn posing with a hand-painted 1891 Queen Victoria shilling that he uses as a ball-marker

It helped alleviate some anxiety he had been feeling over a mammoth recent spend that had taken him well out of his comfort zone.

‘A new passion for me is to buy properties at auctions,’ he said. ‘The week before the PGA, I was at an auction and felt like I was down the stretch trying to win a tournament. I was nodding away, wondering what I was doing, hoping my friend who knows about these things had got his numbers right.

‘That week, I’d also bought a new house with my girlfriend in Hull and, all told, I’d spent over £1million.

‘It’s not the only time I have spent a lot of money at an auction and then gone and enjoyed a good week at a golf event. The sports psychologists would probably have a good explanation for it but on the whole, it is not something I would recommend.’

Lynn has 17 commercial or residential properties to his name already and a career mapped out when he packs up playing golf. For now, though, America beckons, and a bed at Poulter’s place when he is on the East Coast.

And the day he saved our Ryder Cup hero’s life?

‘We were rooming on the Challenge Tour years ago, and he tripped,’ explained Lynn.

‘I thought he was messing about when he looked in agony, but suddenly his eyes started rolling in his head and he was frothing around the mouth. I stopped him swallowing his tongue.’

Unheralded Lynn may be, but clearly this has not been a life short on adventure. Let’s wish him well in this next one.

  Hail Thomas full of grace and glories

‘Righting something that has long been wrong,’ was how European Tour executive director George O’Grady described the belated award of honorary tour membership to the Welsh great Dave Thomas at a lunch in London last week.

With 16 victories and having designed some 150 courses around the world, including a three-time Ryder Cup venue in The Belfry, the 78-year-old has certainly left his mark.

Legend: Dave Thomas at his beloved golf club, three-time Ryder Cup host The Belfry

In 1958, he lost a 36-hole play-off for The Open at Lytham to Aussie genius Peter Thomson. What does he remember of that occasion?

Only every shot and every youthful twitch; each lusty cheer from the crowd, and anguished groan.

I listened to his riveting account holding my head in my hands, hoping that somehow he kept his lead and history had got it wrong.

 

Enjoy this matchplay magic

One of the great days of the golfing year is how Sir Nick Faldo describes the first round of the Accenture Match Play Championship.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK‘Some people might say to the President: “Oh, just move it.”  But that’s not him. He counts every shot. He loves the game  and the way that it is supposed to be played.’

Coach Butch Harmon, after giving a lesson to US President Barack Obama. Harmon seems to think that we should applaud because the President is not a cheat. Excuse me if I sit on my hands and think: that’s the very least we should expect, and certainly not grounds for a compliment.

Now the draw for tomorrow’s opening skirmishes has been confirmed, there is every likelihood of this edition living up to its billing. Think third round of the FA Cup, or rather the third round back in the days when every team was interested.

Pass the Guinness and contemplate Rory McIlroy against Shane Lowry, for example. Or the meeting of the men who put the pride back into Ireland north and south with their glorious major victories between 2007 and 2010 — Padraig Harrington (right) against Graeme McDowell. The last thing McIlroy needs after missing the halfway cut in his first event of the year following his well-publicised change of equipment is a first-round exit in Tucson.

But Lowry, who won the 2009 Irish Open as a 22-year-old amateur — the first pro tournament he ever played, no less — is a magician around the greens, and that makes him a very dangerous opponent in this form of the game.

How about England v Scotland in the form of two men who come from opposite ends of the modern game — shy, retiring Ian Poulter and extravagant, outgoing Stephen Gallacher?

Or maybe it is the other way round.

Back on course: Rory McIlroy begins his campaign against Ireland's Shane Lowry

Ryder Cup hero versus the man who had five eagles on his way to an astonishing victory at the recent Dubai Desert Classic. A fascinating match-up, if ever there was one.

But then, that’s the glory of this format.

There’s Tiger Woods versus the man who was always his mini-me, Charles Howell. And the Englishman Chris Wood plays the Masters champion, Bubba Watson.

Ryder Cup team-mates Justin Rose and Nicolas Colsaerts know that if they win their matches, they will play one another on Thursday. So could Martin Kaymer and Lee Westwood. So could Luke Donald and Paul Lawrie.

No wonder so many of us believe this to be, by some distance, the best tournament this side of Augusta.

In-form: Luke Donald, unlike McIlroy, was playing last week in California, finishing tied for 16th

  More... Hitting it off: Barack Obama plays round of golf with former world No 1 Tiger Woods Derek Lawrenson: World's form player Snedeker inspired by Donald's blueprint for success Three wild cards tempt McGinley - Ryder Cup captain hints at a change for Gleneagles showdown Derek Lawrenson: Golf needs to send out a message over drugs in Singh saga







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