As it turned out, it was Lawrie who was the main man and Laird became the forgotten one. The 29-year-old was always facing a tough task to barge his way into the reckoning, having missed the opening four months of the European qualifying campaign, and his assault ultimately petered out.
Laird, a two-time winner on the PGA Tour, only took European Tour membership in January of this year and is set to lose those privileges as he has not played the required 13 events.
His Ryder Cup ambitions still burn brightly, and Lawrie's exploits in Medinah have heightened enthusiasm, but Laird's hopes of making a push for a spot in Europe's team for 2014 at Gleneagles could be hampered again by his membership status.
Unless he is given special dispensation from George O'Grady, the European Tour's chief executive, he will have to wait 12 months before reapplying for affiliate membership and that would mean he would already be playing catch up in the Ryder Cup qualifying race when it begins again in September 2013. It's a gamble for Laird but he seems content. "Paul has played fantastically since the end of last year and deservedly claimed his spot," said Laird, who sits on a level-par aggregate of 144 at the halfway stage of the Dunhill Links after a one-under 71 at Kingsbarns yesterday. "If what happened on Sunday doesn't make you want to practise a little harder and really try to make that team then you're probably playing the wrong sport. As much as it's sweet going to America and winning, playing a Ryder Cup in front of a home crowd really wouldn't get any better, so Gleneagles is definitely one I'll be gunning for."
Laird is on course to qualify for the season-ending Dubai World Championship in November but it looks as if he will pass on that and return to the US after playing in a co-sanctioned event in Malaysia later this month.
"After that, I'm done for the year. I then need to weigh up everything and whether I'll join the European Tour in time for the start of the Ryder Cup qualifying process next year will definitely be a consideration.
"I'm always going to focus more on the PGA Tour. I'm a PGA Tour player, I live in America and my wife's American so it's always going to be weighted in favour of American events more than the European Tour."
MOST small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Scotland are failing to keep up with the digital technology which is crucial to their ability to compete in today's global market-place, a survey has revealed.
The authors of the survey fear this could have a major negative impact on Scotland's future growth and competitiveness.
Early findings of the ongoing State of Digital (Scotland) Survey, backed by the Scottish Council for Development and Industry and Strathclyde Business School, will be presented to the Digital Glasgow seminar on Monday. The two-day seminar, which about 500 people are due to attend, is part of Glasgow for Business Week. More than 1500 people are expected to attend events at Glasgow for Business Week, which is aimed at SMEs and start-ups.
The survey, delivered by digital experts Jim Hamill and Alan Stevenson of Energise 2.0, suggests that while firms have made good progress in their use of digital technology, the pace of change is so rapid that Scotland is falling behind accepted international best practice.
One key finding of the survey so far is that there is a lack of digital strategies among SMEs to tackle internationalisation.
Those behind the survey note SME globalisation is a major public policy objective in Scotland. Only 10% of respondents had made extensive use of digital technology and had a clear digital strategy to support their internationalisation.
Mr Hamill said: "Used effectively, digital technology and social media can help to overcome many of the traditional barriers to SME exporting and lead to a more rapid internationalisation of the sector. However, survey results suggest few Scottish companies are exploiting the full potential of digital and social for going global."
The survey suggests Scottish firms are making good progress in using social media, although Mr Hamill cites a need to accelerate this. Of respondents so far, 90% reported active involvement in social media. But 51% had no clear social media strategy or key performance indicators.
Mr Hamill cited a need for progress in cloud computing.
Only 25% of respondents had a clear strategy for this. Of the rest, 5.8% had "never heard of cloud computing", 20.9% had heard of it but were "taking no action", with 14% "finding out more" about it, 17.4% "experimenting", and 16.3% "using cloud computing but with no clear strategy or objectives".
Mr Hamill said: "With the world economy standing on the verge of a digital technology revolution built around cloud computing, there is a need for urgent action in this area.
"According to various estimates, the cloud is worth $74 billion. In the UK alone, it is expected that spending on the public and private cloud could create 226,000 jobs by 2015."
