He plays hurling with his local club Croom and has been a member of the Limerick senior inter-county team since 2002.
As an under-age player he captured played in the minor county final in 1998, however, Croom were defeated by Adare.
Lawlor first came to prominence on the inter-county scene as a member of the Limerick under-21 team in the early years of the new century.
In spite of coming close to creating some hurling upsets, defeat seemed to be Limerick's lot.
In 2006 Limerick remained unbeaten throughout the entire National Hurling League campaign and qualified for the final against Kilkenny.
[8] These two sides later met again in the All-Ireland semi-final, however, manager Richie Bennis had done his homework and masterminded a surprise 5–11 to 2–15 victory over the Munster champions.
Unfortunately, Limerick got off to a bad start with goalkeeper Brian Murray letting in two goals by Eddie Brennan and Henry Shefflin in the first ten minutes.