Different Pauls have same aim

Paul Lawrie and Paul McGinley, each with something to prove, jointly lead the Dunhill Links Championship after three rounds, one each on St Andrews, Kingsbarns and Carnoustie.

In execrable weather throughout, both are a creditable 14-under-par 202, and are one ahead of Ernie Els, two in front of David Howell and three ahead of Brian Davis and Paul Casey.

They, with the rest of the field, will attempt to play a final 18 holes at St Andrews today. But if a complete round by the entire field is impossible because of the weather, then they will revert to the position at the end of yesterday's round and have a play-off between Lawrie and McGinley.

That would be over holes 1, 2, 17 and 18, and it would be a familiar situation for both men. McGinley won the Wales Open in August in a three-way play-off after the weather restricted the tournament to only 36 holes, while Lawrie won the 1999 British Open Championship also in a play-off.

It would be a significant victory for either. McGinley has long been regarded as a golfer who does not quite fulfil his talent, while Lawrie, who was 159th in the world rankings when he took his major title, has done little and won nothing since.

Padraig Harrington is four shots back on 10 under, and, with his partner, Dermot Desmond, lies joint ninth in the team competition,

The final group on the tee at St Andrews this morning will appear like thousands of fourball matches around the country will have looked over the weekend, a couple of pretty smart operators playing with a couple of fair-to-middling hackers.

The difference will be, though, that the smart operators will be playing for a first prize of £560,000 sterling rather than the usual fiver, while the principal desire of the hackers will be to not get in the way.

Such is the final day format of this tournament that we have the spectacle of Lawrie, the former British Open champion, and McGinley, both attempting to win by far the largest cheque of their respective careers, while simultaneously trying to look after Martin Gilbert and Kyle MacLachlan.

Gilbert is Lawrie's sponsor; MacLachlan is in the television series Sex in the City, but neither they nor any of the amateurs playing today have any business being in the field. They are simply cluttering up what should be a serious golfing occasion, one with consequences for the professionals that could be far-reaching.

By winning, McGinley would take his earnings this year to over £1 million for the first time, while Lawrie would move back into the top 100 in the world rankings. They need to have their minds fully on the job, and while the amateurs will obviously respect that, they cannot help but be in the way.

There is an easy and obvious solution. Make the pro-am a three-day affair, as it almost invariably is around the world. The amateurs have had enough after 54 holes anyway, and would be relieved rather than anything else that they do not get the chance to do something daft and affect their professional's score.

The spectators certainly do not want them around. The leading amateurs in the pro-am section are Jeremy Lambourne, a property developer, and Chris Peacock, from nearby RAF Leuchars. Both are 27-under par, improving by 20 and 18 strokes on their respective professionals, Lucas Parsons and Brett Rumford, and while this is undoubtedly good playing, it does not make for good watching.

Watching some of the other amateurs with intriguing handicaps is positively embarrassing. Clay Walker, the country and western singer, arrived in St Andrews with a certificate stating he was an 11-handicap golfer. The pro-am/celebrity set knew better than that and cut him to seven, and yet he is still 25-under, a massive 32 shots better than his pro, Steve Elkington.

Moreover he is not the worst. Korn Chatikavanij, a Thai businessman, is 21 under par while his pro, Marc Farry, is 13 over, meaning an incredible improvement by the Thai of 34 shots.

This tournament, partly because of the perennial problem of bandits in pro-ams, has had some criticism, and certainly there would seem to be matters to be addressed. Johann Rupert, the chief executive officer of Richemont, parent company of Dunhill, said yesterday that they accepted that the handicapping for this year's event had been "arbitrary" and that in future it will be refined.

But by looking a little harder at some of the other problems this tournament could become one of the best on the calendar, a welcome change of pace, not to mention a huge contribution to the professional coffers.