Laird's career-defining victory will live long in his memory

Golf Correspondent

Wednesday 21 March 2012

Martin Laird enjoyed a stroll down memory lane at Bay Hill yesterday.

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Nick Rodger

Tomorrow, the Scot will be aiming to retrace the steps that took him to the biggest win of his career in the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

The 29-year-old is back at the Florida venue to defend the title that thrust him into the global spotlight as he became the first European golfer to capture one of the most cherished prizes on the PGA circuit.

It was certainly a hard-earned triumph. Two shots clear heading into the closing round, Laird stumbled to the turn in three over and when he plunged his approach into the water and racked up a double bogey on the 11th, his hopes of a second US Tour crown looked to have suffered a crippling blow. With his rivals also faltering, however, the former Scottish Youths' champion rallied with birdies at 15 and 16 before demonstrating nerves of steel on the 18th with a two-putt for par from 90 feet to confirm a one-shot victory.Yesterday, Laird had a chance to reflect on that roller-coaster as he ambled through a practice round ahead of the $6m contest."I don't really have too many bad memories of last year," said the Glasgow exile. "I played the back nine today. My caddie was there and my coach and on almost every hole we were talking about putts I made, especially coming down those last few holes. It's fun to be out there and remembering those shots although I don't think we actually talked about anything on 11. I think we quickly played that hole and moved on. "I still remember every shot as if I hit it yesterday. I could tell you what club I hit on probably every shot those last few holes. It's something I'll remember for a long time."Having exploded out of the traps with a second-place finish in the season-opening Hyundai Tournament of Champions back in January, Laird has not kicked on as he would've liked. He did reach the quarter-finals of the WGC Accenture Matchplay at the start of the month but his strokeplay results have not reached the lofty standards that he has set himself."My year so far has been up-and-down," added the world No.36, who is hoping to bounce back from a missed cut in last weekend's Transitions Championship. "I had a couple of really good weeks starting out the year and then played really well in the matchplay. In between, though, it's been average. The missed cut last week maybe helped me a bit. I had a couple of days away from golf then put in a lot of hard work and I feel my game is coming back nicely again."

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Laird's career-defining victory will live long in his memory

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