Mike Aitken: Laird pulls in $400,000 in a monthas he pursues the American dream

Published on Monday 18 August 2008 22:07

HAVING secured a spot among the game's elite in the play-offs for the FedEx Cup, which starts this week, thanks to a sterling performance at the Wyndham where he claimed a share of fourth on Sunday, Martin Laird believes a return to form this summer will help him make a mark in America.

In his rookie season, the first Scot in 20 years to play full-time on the PGA Tour aims to continue a notable streak at the $7 million Barclays championship. Over the past month Laird, 25, has won $388,941 in three events, twice finished in the top four, and jumped to 128th – good enough to join the top 144 in the FedEx standings who compete in New Jersey on Thursday.

After struggling to find his feet in the company of the game's best players – he qualified for the PGA Tour thanks to consistent golf on the Nationwide Tour – Laird is now beginning to fulfil the promise which persuaded his manager, Rocky Hambric, who looks after Lorena Ochoa and Justin Leonard, to add the Scot to his roster.

In his first six months on tour, the Scot never finished higher than 55th and missed eight cuts. Since July, however, he's 42 under par for his last five tournaments. Able to hit the ball long and high off the tee, he's ranked 17th in total driving, Laird's combination of power and touch, he's also 24th in putting average, saw him sign for three scores below 65 at the Wyndham.

After opening with 63 and barely making the cut after running up 74 on Friday, the Scot bounced back with rounds of 64 and 63 to move into the play-offs. "That was my No 1 goal," Laird confessed. "All I know is you want to get in there. If you're playing good, you have a chance to go on. I've been playing great the last month. Keep on and keep going."

Laird recalled how an excellent performance at his previous tournament in Nevada added momentum to his game. He switched to a new putter over the closing 36 holes in Reno and has gone on to shoot in the 60s in five of the six rounds he's played since. "I was putting (really] good coming into the Wyndham," he added. "I had motivation. I gave myself a goal of 12 under for the weekend and shot 13 under." With a base in Scottsdale, Arizona, Laird is a Glaswegian who lived in Kirkintilloch and Bearsden and was junior champion at Hilton Park before his family moved to Fife. Winner of the Scottish Youths Open Amateur Stroke Play championship at Letham Grange in 2003, Laird left Scotland as a teenager for Colorado on a golf scholarship. He enjoyed the lifestyle and, rather than return to Europe, decided to follow his American dream of becoming a professional on the PGA Tour.

His success at the Wyndham was all the more notable for the Scot's display of integrity and willingness to call a two shot penalty on himself at the end of the second round. He moved his ball marker on the final green to let someone else putt before forgetting to return the mark to the original spot. The oversight, which no one else noticed, cost him third place and more than $140,000 in prize money.

"It was just a mental error," Laird recalled. "I completely spaced out on my mark which was my fault, no one else's. I've never done it before and I'll probably never do it again. It was just one of those things.

It didn't upset me too much. I didn't think I'd moved it back but I wasn't 100 per cent sure. That's why I made them check on TV."

Although he's now earned over $490,000 in his rookie year, Laird still has plenty to do in the months ahead to keep his card. The likelihood is the Scot will need to earn another $300,000 or so to match the figure set by Matthias Gronberg last season when the Swede kept his playing privileges by finishing in the last qualifying berth.

CARL Pettersson feels more American than Swedish, but would still love to be considered for Nick Faldo's team in the Ryder Cup next month. The 30-year-old and Peter Hanson are up to 49th and 64th in the world respectively after the Swedish double this weekend. Pettersson won on the PGA Tour at the Wyndham, while Hanson captured the SAS Masters in Stockholm.

Pettersson, based in North Carolina, carded a 68 to finish on a tournament-record 21-under-par 259. "This feels like home for me," he said after claiming his third PGA Tour victory.

The third Swede to win on the American Tour this year, Pettersson remains a long shot to make the European Ryder Cup team automatically but his performance brings him into contention for one of Faldo's wild-card picks.

Pettersson left Sweden for England at the age of ten, and moved to Greensboro at 15 when his Volvo executive father was transferred to the city. He admits to feeling more American than European but would love to play for Europe at next month's Ryder Cup in Kentucky. "I know I'm Swedish, but I really feel American," he said. "But my heritage is European and I would love to play on Nick's team.