Martin Laird and Paul Lawrie will now lock their clubs away for a few days

Monday 23 July 2012

If you happened to spot a streak of greased lightning rocketing up the M6 yesterday morning, the most probable explanation is that you had just caught a glimpse of Martin Laird going home to see his mum.

Martin Laird was left to rue his Saturday performance

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Alasdair Reid and Nick Rodger

You see, Laird was in a bit of a hurry in everything he did on the final day at Royal Lytham. He hit his opening tee shot at 7.20am and drained his final putt at just after 9.45am, lapping one of the most testing tracks in championship golf in just under two and a half hours. His chances of winning had evaporated the day before when he hacked out a third-round 82; was he making a late bid for a place in an Olympic distance event?

Sadly, the explanation was rather more prosaic. Laird's Saturday horror show had left him plum last in the odd-number field of 83, so he was first man out in a group of his own. Normally, competitors sometimes ask to be accompanied by a marker – usually the local club pro – but, in best Dietrich-like fashion, the Scot decided that he wanted to be alone, and get the whole thing over and done with.Not that he was messing about on his way to a level-par 70. "I said to my caddie that we weren't going out to set a record pace," said the ex-pat Glaswegian who is now based in Charlotte, North Carolina. "The Open deserves respect. I didn't want to fly around in an hour and a half. I wanted to treat every shot as if I was in a much better position in the tournament. But it shows that golf can be played fast and well at the same time."As it happens, Laird was in little danger of smashing any records. Last year, Colin Montgomerie found himself in an identical position at the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles and whizzed round in one hour and 40 minutes. Not that he looked particularly happy about it at the time. Yesterday, Laird looked more placid than Monty had last year, but he still agreed that it had been a distinctly odd morning. "It's not an enjoyable experience because you never want to be the first single out on Sunday," he said. "But it was nice to get out and clear the mind of what happened on Saturday and play some solid golf."What happened on Saturday was a golfing train-wreck. "It was probably the worst I've ever driven the ball, and on this course you can't do that," the 29-year-old explained. "I hit it nine bunkers and couldn't get out to the fairway from two of them. It was just one of those days off the tee. "In the first two rounds, I hadn't played well, but I was missing it right so I could deal with that. On Saturday, I was missing it both ways, so I had nowhere to aim. I was aiming down the middle and hoping to hit it straight. Any pro will tell you that's not a good way to play."On his three-week trip to Britain, Laird had hoped for good performances at both the Scottish Open and the Open Championship to boost his prospects of making the European Ryder Cup team. Over the next few days he will visit the Scottish Boys team in St Andrews and then head over to the Mull of Kintyre for a friend's wedding before travelling back to America for the WGC Bridgestone Invitational in Ohio and the PGA Championship at Kiawah Island. "There are still three huge events before the team is picked," Laird said. "But it's difficult and I need a win. I don't think even three top-10s would be good enough. I need a win or a couple of close calls. But I'm not writing myself off. It's not done and dusted yet." And with that, he was gone. Quickly. Laird was not the only Scot trying to make a sharp exit, either. Paul Lawrie will put the clubs away and dig out the walking boots this week as he tries to clear his head after an ultimately frustrating Open. The 1999 champion signed off with a two-over-par 72 at Royal Lytham for a four-over 284 and finished down in a share of 34th place.The week had started purposefully after an opening 65, which left him just a shot off the pace, but he slithered down the field over the weekend with a third-round 77 that ended with a four-putt triple-bogey on the 18th.Lawrie will walk the 79 miles of the Great Glen Way over the next few days, in memory of his late coach Adam Hunter, before heading to the US next weekend for the Bridgestone Invitational and the US PGA Championship."The walk will be a good thing, there will be no golf involved at all for the next week and that will get me away from it," said Lawrie, who had just 23 putts in his sparkling first round before it all went wrong on the greens. "The next three rounds, I had 31 putts, then 39 and now 34. That's hopeless."

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Martin Laird and Paul Lawrie will now lock their clubs away for a few days

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