Exiled Laird makes himself at home

Published on Thursday 9 July 2009 22:51

ON THE only previous occasion Martin Laird teed up at Loch Lomond, when he was a teenage stripling of 14, the golfer was taking part in a Faldo Junior series event. "I remember it was wet and I shot in the 80s," recalled the Scot.

Having made his name in America as the first Scot to play regularly on the PGA Tour for 20 years, Laird returned to the bonnie banks as a competitor for the first time in 12 years yesterday. He took advantage of beautiful weather on his professional debut in Europe to sign for 65, one stroke off the first-round lead held by the Australian left-hander, Richard Green.

Laird, 26, is a tall, slim young man with a compact swing and a talent for hitting the ball high and long off the tee. If he wasn't quite as straight as he would have wished with the driver – he pulled a couple of shots on the seventh and ninth holes, for example – the Arizona-based professional always recovered with distinction. He made five birdies and, just as impressively, didn't blemish his card with a bogey. This was thanks, largely, to holing a couple of admirable chip shots for par.

Watched by his mother, father, grandfather, grandmother and girlfriend, as well as a local gallery which grew in numbers as his name ascended the first- round leaderboard, Laird insisted he wasn't motivated by any desire to show his ain folk that he can play.

"I wouldn't say I came over here with the mind-set that I'm going to show everyone how good I am," he countered. "That's not really what I came over here for. I knew I could play well and I wanted to come over and hopefully play as well as I could and see where I finished.

"I've said over the last few weeks, my game is getting closer, and I've had rounds where I feel like I played really well and got nothing out of them. That was pretty much the case last week in Washington. I didn't play here as well as in some of the rounds (in America] last week. But nothing is better than these rounds where you feel like you're not playing as good as you can and you still post a good score.

"Obviously, it was a dream start for me. I talked beforehand about how I needed to be good around the greens this week to have a chance. My short game was as good as it's been all year and I had a couple of chip-ins. It was nice to chip in on my second hole, (the par-3 11th] and overall I chipped and putted well. I felt I got a lot out of a round where I didn't hit very many good iron shots. When I missed greens, I missed them in the right spots to get them up-and-down. The other chip-in was on the 16th. That wasn't from very far.

"I had a perfect angle in and struck a pretty good second shot which missed the green on the left. I think the pin was only about four feet (away] and it went in the front edge, which was nice to see."

Nothing became his round quite like the finish, holing birdie putts from 30 feet for 2 on the eighth (his 17th) and ten feet for 3 on the ninth.

The home crowd's applause for a performance of some distinction was understandably appreciative.

"I got a few 'Come on Martin' chants and stuff like that," he recalled. "There's people you notice, like my grandma and grandpa, my uncle who had never seen me play. It was good playing in front of them and to play well. I didn't come all this way (for them] to watch me struggle."

Laird's more recent trips to Loch Lomond had been as a spectator. It was a chance for an improving amateur to watch the elite in action. "The tournament has always had a great field and I knew I would see a bunch of the guys I knew from TV and idolised at a kid," he remembered.

The last time he played in Europe as an amateur was six years ago, representing Scotland in the Home Internationals at Ballybunion. Having attended university at Colorado State, where he gained a degree in marketing, and made America home for the past nine years, Laird picks out his performance at the Wyndham Championship last year as his best performance to date on the PGA Tour.

It came during a stretch of notable form when he won $400,000 in a month and qualified to play in the FedEx Cup. Then as now, he held the first- round lead, but suffered a set-back in the second when he called a two-shot penalty on himself and carded 74. He barely secured a spot on the weekend.

"I went from leading the field to dead last to finishing fourth," he said. "I beat everybody else by five or six shots over three rounds, shot a 74, and still managed to finish fourth. That's the one that I took the most confidence from."

The only Scot in the field for the US Open at Bethpage as well as a qualifier for the Open at Turnberry next week, all the signs from America suggest Laird is a fine prospect.

Yesterday's homecoming 65 confirmed those suspicions.