Scotland’s Martin Laird reaped the rewards of an attacking approach with an opening 70 in the 103rd US PGA Championship at Kiawah Island.
The longest course in major history had dominated the build-up to the season’s second major, with the Pete Dye-designed Ocean Course on South Carolina’s Atlantic coast capable of playing to a maximum of 7,876 yards.
And although it was playing to ‘only’ 7,660 yards on Thursday, the length and windy conditions proved a tough test for the world’s best players.
Level par for the day following a bogey on the 12th, Laird surged to the top of the leaderboard with four straight birdies, only to drop shots on the last two holes.
“I played really nice,” said Laird, who won his fourth PGA Tour title in Las Vegas last year. “I think I made seven birdies. Any time you make seven birdies around here, you’re playing good.
“I kind of went out with the mindset this week, even though it’s hard, don’t give the course too much respect. You still have to take on shots when you have the chance.
“I felt like I did a good job of that. I felt like I didn’t bail out. When I had a spot where I could go at the flag, I was making sure I kept doing it and hit a lot of really nice shots and managed to make some birdies.
“You’re going to hit bogeys on this golf course. It’s just too hard not to go in and make a handful of bogeys. It’s nice when you can throw in a bunch of birdies too.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel