Lawrie getting comfortable

Golf/BMW Championship: When Peter Lawrie got to the range yesterday morning the dawn chorus was chirping away and the greenkeeping crew was in the process of cutting the grass.

It was an unearthly 5.40am. Not that it bothered the Dubliner too much, as the 31-year-old former rookie of the year - who actually had to ask the green staff where he could safely hit his practice shots - immediately felt good about his game.

"You know, sometimes you're hitting the ball so well on the range that you worry if you'll bring the swing with you on to the course," said Lawrie. He needn't have worried. Yesterday was one of those days when the ball for the most part went where it was supposed to go, as typified by what happened on the eighth. Lawrie had played quite beautifully for seven holes and yet found himself just one-under for his round.

After hitting a three-iron off the tee on the 400 yards par four eighth, Lawrie and his caddie Dermot Byrne strolled down the fairway to where the ball lay, exactly 124 yards to the pin. "It's a perfect sand wedge for you, hit it straight at it," said the caddie. Lawrie did what he was told, hit it straight at the flag, and watched as the ball plunged into the hole for an eagle two.

It seemed that he was set for a roller-coaster ride when bogeying two of the next three holes, the ninth and the 11th. "I was stupid on 11, trying to get too cute with the flag," he recalled.

In fact, his wedge approach plugged in the face of a bunker but his response was to grab a hat-trick of birdies from the 13th and finish with a closing birdie on the 18th for a five-under-par 67.

"This is a course that suits me," he added, "because of the way that the ball is running. You place it, there's no need to whack it 400 yards."

This is where Lawrie wants to be, in the thick of the action. Although he won the Henry Cotton award in 2003, he did it without winning a tournament.

"I think I was wet behind the ears then, and I think now I'm a little more seasoned. I've learned a lot the last two years out here. My game is far more consistent now than it was then. I'm starting to get control of the flight of my ball. I'm hitting it longer. I'm just a lot more solid all round."

Lawrie's form this season has been a mix of the good and the bad, two top-five finishes (in the Spanish Open and the Singapore Masters) combining with five missed cuts.

On only two times in his career has Lawrie shared or held the first-round lead: at last year's Portuguese Open and this year's Asian Open. On neither occasion did he manage to close out the deal. "Sometimes I get ahead of myself," he conceded, "but I am now comfortable playing with the big guys. I've learned to be comfortable."