There's a throwaway line attributed to Gary Player from back in the days when a player's caddie would have to venture out onto the range with a bucket in hand and his heart in his mouth to retrieve balls.

The stereotypical remark, reputedly dispatched at a tournament in Ireland, went along the lines of, "You Irish must be really good, we never see you on the range." Of course, it wasn't entirely true; and Player, more than anyone, loved to play to the galleries.

Whatever the truth, times have certainly changed, and at a time when no one spends as long on the range as Padraig Harrington, many other Irish players have shown that hard graft pays off . . . and no one exemplifies that theory as much as Peter Lawrie.

Much of Lawrie's professional life - all six years of it - has been spent on the lesser tours, in Asia, Florida and more recently on the Challenge Tour. This year, though, he has hit the big time; and it seems that one week is followed by another bigger one.

"Last week in Hamburg was the biggest tournament I ever played in, and now I'm here, and it is an even bigger event," remarked the Dubliner, who has an added incentive to do well here.

The incentive has to do with how Lawrie has reset his goals from when he started out on tour a few short months ago. Then, his primary objective was simply to retain his card for next season. Just over a third of the way into the campaign, he has already achieved that aim. And, at 21st in the Order of Merit, and within striking distance of those immediately ahead of him, Lawrie knows that a decent finish this week will most likely ensure his place in the field for the British Open at Royal St George's in July.

"It's unlike me to be thinking of something like that, but it provides an indication of how I am now thinking. I won't be thinking about it on the first tee, because I always set out to play one shot at a time and see what happens. But it gives me something else to aim for, and it would be a huge bonus for me," insisted Lawrie.

Open spots are given to the top eight players in the top 20 of the moneylist after this week who are not already exempt.

Certainly, Lawrie's game is improving with each week, almost as if the bigger the stage, the better he responds. A year ago, he won the flagship event on the Challenge Tour and now here he is at Wentworth for the flagship event of the full European Tour. The two, though, are like chalk and cheese, as Lawrie observed.

"There's no comparison, really. The Challenge Tour is a great tour, but it is where you earn the right to play the European Tour. The Grand Final is nothing compared to here. The courses are totally different.

"One is in France, one is in England. One is the Challenge Tour, one is the flagship tournament on the European Tour and televised live. Starting on a scale of one to 10, one is on one, and the other is on 10. One is like playing in a monthly medal at home, and the other is like playing in the Captain's Prize. That's the difference."

Lawrie, though, has seamlessly moved from the Challenge Tour to the European Tour. His confidence has grown too. Of his last round in Hamburg, he confessed; "I played lovely . . . I knew where the ball was going and put it where I wanted to. I could have had a score like Thomas Bjorn's," he remarked, with not even a suggestion of arrogance.

"I've worked hard on my swing, and my game has come around."

This is Lawrie's first time to play at Wentworth, but he has a useful man on his bag, a Scottish caddie called James Ingram, known to one and all as "Toe", a legacy of his football days.

Lawrie arrived here on Tuesday with the intention of playing a full practice round, but a gale was blowing so hard he decided to limit himself to a walk around the West course.

"I hit a tee-shot down the first and then decided it would be more beneficial simply to walk the course, to have a good look around the greens. It's funny, but I feel as if I know the course well because I've seen it on television so much.

"And I'm fortunate that my caddie has so much experience here. He's been telling me that when I am to hit a shot that I have to trust it because the wind swirls so much. Even if it appears downwind you could be playing into the wind."

This is the biggest week - so far - of Lawrie's career, and he hopes to make it one to remember, for all the right reasons.