Well, here we are in the middle of October and already the High Street shops are starting to ram home the Christmas message with all the hard-nosed, profit-seeking gusto of a Dickensian chimney sweep forcing his downtrodden, soot-splattered apprentice into a narrow flue.
Not that you’ll hear Laura Murray complaining about getting yuletide odds and sods bought, wrapped and shoved under the tree well in advance.
“Because of the Ladies European Tour qualifying school, I never used to get home until December 21 and my family would get terrible gifts as I hadn’t had time to get anything,” she said with a chuckle. “This Christmas will be the first in about seven years when I’ll be home early. There’s pressure to get them something nice now.”
Murray’s recent promotion to next year’s Ladies European Tour, via the Access Series, was a just reward for the hard yards the 31-year-old continues to put in and means she can side-step that q-school rigmarole.
Murray did have a stint on the main tour back in 2015 but believes she is better equipped to deal with its rigours this time around.
“That first year was quite an eye opener,” admitted Murray, who got just six starts on the tour four years ago.
“But I would rather have had it tough than just cruise along and be complacent. You need that to make you get up early in the morning and hit that extra bucket of balls.”
The troubles of the Ladies European Tour have been well-documented in recent years, with events dropping like nine-pins and dates in the diary looking as bare as Old Mother Hubbard’s pantry.
READ MORE: Ladies European Tour set for LPGA deal
Always grateful for the vital support of long-term sponsor, Saltire Energy, Murray knows she is one of the lucky ones but that financial re-assurance has by no means altered her strong work ethic.
“In the winter there may not be anything to play in between November and April,” said Murray, who won the penultimate event of the Access Series season to secure fourth place on the rankings and earn a full tour card.
“So I’ve had spells working in Sainsbury’s, I done a bit of life-guard work. Whatever I do I will always work hard at it but it doesn’t beat playing golf for a living.”
A former room-mate of European Solheim Cup star, Anne Van Dam, Murray was left entranced by the transatlantic tussle at Gleneagles last month.
“It was so inspiring and hopefully it has a wider effect,” she said of the event’s potential to grow golf.
“Growing up in Alford, there wasn’t much going on so we would play golf all the time. But we were fortunate that we had a good junior set-up at the club. We had people shoving entry forms for events into her face just to encourage us to play. If it wasn’t for that environment, I don’t think I would have kicked on.”
Only this week, another mixed event, involving leading male and female golfers from the respective European circuits and promoted by Annika Sorenstam and Henrik Stenson, was added to the 2020 schedule. Murray welcomes this latest come all ye approach.
READ MORE: Women and men set for Swedish showdown
“It gives us an enormous platform,” she said. “We had a mixed event on the Access Tour with the men from the Alps Tour this season. We weren’t sure how we would be received but it was really uplifting. There was a mutual respect.”
As Murray strives to make it to the top of the golfing hit parade, the Alford-raised songstress, Emeli Sandie, continues to hit the high notes in the musical world.
“I was best friends with her sister, Lucy, at school, and we used to go to Emeli’s early shows in Aberdeen,” recalled Murray. “Maybe I could be the second most famous person to come out of Alford?”
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