Lawrie boosted by Ballantine's 66

Peter Lawrie plans to use a final-day round of 66 at the Ballantine's Championship in Korea as a springboard to launch the defence of his Open de Espana title in Girona next week.

Lawrie travels to Spain without having won an event since his success in Seville last May, but he feels his six-under round to claim a top-10 finish at the Pinx Golf Club on Jeju Island may be precisely the boost he needs.

It was the 35-year-old's first top-10 finish on the European Tour this season, and the first time in the past four events that he managed to make the cut.

And the Dublin golfer, who is attatched to the Castleknock club, cannot help but draw positive parallels between his situation now and how he was playing going into the Spanish event last year.

'I struggled the last couple of weeks,' he admitted.

'I missed the cut last week, and I missed the two cuts in Spain and Portugal. But I'm delighted to be here for the weekend because I went up and down on Friday to make the cut on the mark, so it was a nice way to finish.

'The same happened last year to be honest. I missed the cut in Beijing, I finished tied for ninth in Shanghai and I won the next week. The game is coming around, so hopefully see what happens next week.'

Lawrie might have enjoyed an even better weekend in Korea had rain and strong winds not affected the second and third rounds of the co-sanctioned European and Asian Tour event.

On those two days Lawrie shot rounds of 75 and 76, having opened the tournament with a two-under 70.

But he refused to think of what might have been, saying: 'You can't do that. Never look back, so always look forward. So 66 around that golf course on a day like today is very good.

'It was one of those days. I just got used to the weather yesterday. Yesterday was very tough. Today was a little bit easier, and I holed a few nice putts.

'But I played lovely golf. I hit a lot of fairways and a lot of greens and gave myself a lot of chances.'

Now Lawrie focuses on successfully defending a title for the first time in his career, even though he will not be doing so at the Real Club de Golf in Seville where he won the Spanish Open last year.

'It will (be strange) because you're not back in Seville,' he said.

'It will be a bit strange but I've never been a defending champion before so it is going to be strange no matter what happens. I've been out here a long time, played Challenge Tour for a good few years. After a while, you think if you've been doing the lottery for 40 years, it's about time you're going to win something,' he said of his win last year.

'Thankfully I won last year, so it opens a few doors, you know, especially getting into tournaments and stuff like that. It does boost the confidence.'