Martin Laird 'fooled' by Sawgrass rough after making move in The Players

Scot finishes with double-bogey 6 in round that was mix of ‘feast and famine’

Martin Laird has been pleased with his performance so far in The Players Championship on the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.Picture: Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images.

Martin Laird produced another solid Sawgrass score but admitted it had finished with a sore 6 after being “fooled” into thinking he could be aggressive from penal rough for the 50th anniversary of The Players Championship when safety first would have been a better option.

Making his 14th appearance in the PGA Tour’s flagship event, the 41-year-old signed for a two-under-par 70 in the third round, giving him a three-under total after making the cut on the mark following opening efforts of 70 and 73 at the Ponte Vedra Beach venue.

However, Laird was a tad disappointed that the closing hole on the notoriously-difficult Pete Dye-designed course had undone some of his earlier good work, having jumped to joint-26th after 17 holes only to then be just outside the top 50 as he signed his card.

“Yeah, obviously the last hole is a rough way to finish,” admitted the Scot, who tied for second in 2012 then backed that up by sharing fifth spot 12 months later. “I got fooled there on 18. My ball was actually lying pretty good in the right rough and I thought I could hit a 6-iron over the corner of the trees and get it up near the front of the green.

“But the rough was way thicker than I thought and it turned the club over. A bit of a misjudgment there and a little bit disappointed right now, but there was a lot of good golf in there.”

Level par for the day after 11 holes, the four-time PGA Tour winner then birdied the 12th, 13th, 15th and 17th, with a good opportunity to make another one at the par-5 16th being squandered by a three-putt.

“It was a bit of a feast and famine today,” admitted Laird, assessing his day’s work. “I had three or four terrible holes and a bunch of really good ones. It was kind of sloppiness mixed in with some really good golf.

“I felt like I battled away to get to four under as I really didn’t feel I was playing great, just hanging in there and making some nice putts. I’ll try to take some positives out of it. With two three-putts and a double up the last and still shoot two under means the rest of it was pretty good.”

He picked out a 7-iron to a tight pin at the 15th as his best blow of the round, admitting it had been exciting to get on a run on the back nine at this particular venue, where Sandy Lyle created history in 1987 as the first non-American to land the title.

“That’s the beauty of this golf course,” he said. “It’s a razor’s edge between making birdies and bogeys around here and that’s why it’s such a great golf course. Because if you take on a shot and pull it off, you might have a tap-in birdie. But, if you are four or five yards off, you are making bogey. You’ve got to pick your spots and, unfortunately up the last, I picked the wrong spot.

“All I can do is try and tidy it up a little bit for tomorrow. I know I am playing well and I am putting well. I don’t see why I can’t go out tomorrow and post a low one and try and make a nice move up the leaderboard.”