Martin Laird, the Scottish rookie on the US PGA Tour, enters the FedEx Cup last-chance saloon of the Wyndham Championship in North Carolina tomorrow with his tail up.
Martin Laird, the Scottish rookie on the US PGA Tour, enters the FedEx Cup last-chance saloon of the Wyndham Championship in North Carolina tomorrow with his tail up.
The tournament at Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro is the last counting event for the lucrative four-tournament series, and the 25-year-old, who learned his golf at Kirkintilloch and Hilton Park, reckons he needs a top-15 finish to make it into the 144-strong field for the first event.
"I'm ready for it," said the former Scottish youths champion, a marketing graduate from Colorado State University, who earned his place on the world's foremost circuit through his performances last season on the secondary Nationwide Tour.
He has reason to be confident. The Scottsdale-based player enjoyed his best finish this season, joint fourth, just over a week ago in the Legends Reno-Tahoe Open in Nevada, finishing with a six-under-par 66 that included five birdies in a row from the second. As the tournament was played against the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational in Akron, it was a result that went largely unnoticed.
It was still worth $118,000, almost doubling his season's earnings and lifting him 20 places to No.164 on the PGA Tour money list, within striking distance of those play-offs and a chance to show what he can do with the spotlight on him.
"I have been playing well for the last month and it finally clicked at Reno," he said. "I drove the ball really well all week and then in the final round the putts started going it. It was nice to see that. The field will be stronger this week, but that is not something I'm worried about.
"I was rooming last month in Toronto at the Canadian Open with Chez Reavie, who won. He is one of my friends from the Nationwide Tour last year and he told me: If I can win, you can win'.
"It's great to see one of your friends, who you play with all the time, going out and winning wire to wire. You know your game is at a very similar level and so you know it is possible. I had a bad start at Reno and I feel that if I can get four rounds together, I can really challenge."
It has been a difficult rookie season for Laird, the first Scot to play the PGA Tour full-time since Sandy Lyle two decades ago. His game is regarded as ideal for the PGA Tour with a long and high ball-flight, but after a bright start, his ball-striking deteriorated along with his confidence. It didn't help that his tour card did not allow him the good run of tournaments he needed to build confidence.
"It was always one event then the next week or two off and it was hard to get any momentum going. I couldn't play my way out of it," said Laird, who had earmarked a run of four tournaments starting at the John Deere Classic last month as his chance to turn his form around.
"My coach Steve Dahlby came out to the John Deere and we got my swing flaws sorted out. Ever since then, I've been on the rise. He said to think that this is the start of the season right here - 12 events to make the $800,000 or whatever I need to make the top 125 and keep my card. Let's go. That's how I am thinking about it."
He was 29th that week, dropped to 70th the following week, but still played all four rounds, 22nd in the Canadian Open and then that fourth place, a run that has also made him feel more comfortable on the top tour.
"It's not that I ever felt uncomfortable, but I do feel now that I really belong here," he said. "I played with Retief Goosen in the final round of the Canadian Open. He's one of the biggest players in the world, but it didn't affect me at all. It was fun and he was a nice guy. He didn't make me feel like I was a rookie. Maybe if that had been the start of the year, I would have been a little nervous."
Laird didn't mention that he outscored Goosen, a two-time US Open champion, by 70 to 73.
"If I have a good week at the Wyndham and make the top 144, then you just don't know," he said. "Even if I get in as the last guy, if you have a good tournament you move on to the next one."
If he fails to make the play-offs, he has another seven tournaments, including one that will be held opposite the Ryder Cup next month, but in the meantime Laird has a bigger fish to fry at Greensboro.
