Golf: PGA Tour winner Laird misses out on Ryder Cup points

Published on Tuesday 20 October 2009 09:40

MARTIN LAIRD, the first Scot to win a PGA Tour event in America since Sandy Lyle at the 1988 Masters, is also now his country's highest-ranked player in the world.

But a leap from 237th to 108th on the rankings has not taken the 26-year-old from Glasgow any nearer to qualifying for the Ryder Cup.

Laird would have gone into sixth place on Europe's world points list if he was a European Tour member – but he isn't. So Colin Montgomerie's stated wish that he would "love to be able to captain a Scot in Wales next year" remains a long-shot.

Not that Laird will be concerning himself with that for a second at the moment after hitting the jackpot in Las Vegas.

He was still trying to get into the PGA Tour's top 125 to keep his card for next season when he arrived for the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospital for Children Open. But now he is up from 134th to 62nd and has an exemption through to the end of 2011 after capturing the 756,000 (463,000) first prize at the third hole of a play-off against Chad Campbell and George McNeill.

Laird, in only his second full season on the circuit, was one ahead with two to play, but then failed to get up and down from over the green at the short 17th.

He had to make an 11-foot par putt to tie with the two Americans on 19 under par, saw Campbell eliminated with a bogey at the second extra hole and, with two putts for it from 10 feet, birdied the next after McNeill had bogeyed.

"When I got into the play-off I was surprised – I kind of chilled out a little," he said before receiving the trophy from Timberlake.

Laird's only two tournaments in Europe so far have been this year's Scottish Open and The Open. He came tenth at Loch Lomond, but missed the cut at Turnberry.