By Joel Beall
Martin Laird was Las Vegas incarnate Sunday. He oscillated from the unbelievable to the ugly, building a castle of chips only to blink and see nothing before him. A dinner reservation of steak, lobster and wine seemingly secured hours before threatened to transform into a 3 a.m. trip to the seafood buffet. It was the experience the city never touts but is often its reality.

Oh, and luck. There was plenty of that. As Laird noted afterwards, that he was even there required an assist. Yet the fortune the 37-year-old Scotsman found at TPC Summerlin was not the byproduct of providence but of spirit and gusto and fortitude. And for that the journeyman is leaving Las Vegas with that so often sought but rarely seized fate: A winner.

“I’m going to really enjoy this one,” Laird said. “It’s emotional and I can’t wait to go back and see my kids and my wife and celebrate with them.”

It is not that Laird won the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open but how. By shooting a final-round 68 at TPC Summerlin and defeating fledgeling superstar Matthew Wolff and grinder Austin Cook with a birdie on the second hole of sudden death, yes. That is true, but so is calling the Vegas Strip a fine display of exterior lighting. To appreciate said display requires a closer look.

Laird entered the day sharing the lead with Patrick Cantlay. The 28-year-old Cantlay was the favourite, looking to join Tiger Woods, Tom Watson and Jack Nicklaus as the only players to finish first or second in the same PGA Tour event four consecutive years. Laird, well, he’s enjoyed prosperity in the desert too, winning the Shriners in 2009 and finishing runner-up in 2010. He also started the day ranked 358th in the world, played in a Korn Ferry Tour event in September and recorded his last top 10 in a standard tour event 30 months ago. Hell, Laird had to ask for a sponsor’s exemption just to make it into the field. Couple the Cantlay pairing with Wolff and the red-hot Will Zalatoris barking up the leader board, and Laird was presumed to be nothing more than a decorated observer.

RELATED: 5 takeways from the Shriners

Only Cantlay went south from the start, bogeying four of the first six holes on the uber-gettable Summerlin confines. Laird was steady, playing the first eight in one under par, and his adventures at the 558-yard par-5 ninth appeared to seal his victory. His second shot buried in the lip of a greenside bunker. Well, not so much buried as the ball had excavated a plot of sand and had begun pouring cement for the foundation. Forget saving birdie. By the looks of it, Laird—five months off of knee surgery—could only hope to avoid injury.

Of course, that’s why we watch and they play. Laird promptly turned that fried egg into fried chicken, holing out from the impossible for eagle.

“You know, obviously I wasn’t planning on holing it, but it was lying so badly right under the lip that I said to my friend, sometimes when they’re that bad it almost helped me because was it a tight pin,” Laird said. “It doesn’t matter how hard you hit it. They just kind of pop out and go nowhere.

Matthew Stockman

“So I was hopefully of getting that inside maybe ten feet if it came out pretty good. I hit it hard as I could. Obviously all the sand exploded and I couldn’t see anything, and I managed to open my eyes up as the ball landed and it started tracking. I mean, I enjoyed being down to the level of the bunker and watching that one go in. I’m not going to lie.”

The lead was up to three, and with the back nine playing a stroke easier in the round, Laird appeared to be on cruise control. Except there are no such things as extended runs in Vegas, any heaters promptly doused by a cooler. In this case, those coolers were Wolff, Cook and Laird. Laird’s bogey at the 10th was negated by birdies at the 13th and 15th, but he three-putted for par on the par-5 16th, a hole that Wolff had just eagled ahead. Cook began applying his own pressure with four red figures in a six-hole stretch. Hanging on to a one-shot lead at the par-3 17th, Laird proceeded to hit what can generously be described as a misaligned cut to a spot denoted on ShotTracker as “unknown.”

“There was no wind. The wind completely died. When we played in regulation it was blowing hard and off the left,” Laird said. “You know, I really have only been hitting one shot all week, a cut, and just starting it left if the wind is off the left. Well, that’s not really a hole you want to start it left. I would’ve had to start it in the water. I was trying to just start it just left of the pin, kind of left center of the green and hit a straight one, and just kind of leant on it a little bit and cut up into the air and the wind ate it up.”

From 30 yards right of the green, his ball sitting on a downslope with a tree in front of him and water lurking on the other side of the green, Laird executed an imaginative, gusty bump-n-run to 20 feet, and sunk what was left for an all-time, “Did you see THAT?!” up-and-down. Lead still at one.

At the 18th, Cook’s sidewinding 15-footer for birdie came revolutions short, and Wolff’s birdie attempt from 35-feet burned the cup. From the 18th fairway, all Laird had to do was hit the green and two-putt for the trophy. What he did was not that, missing the green right. He proceeded to chunk his chip. From 30 feet for the win, his putt was heading directly at the hole until it wasn’t, missing to the left by an inch. Lead blown; the bells tolled for sudden death.

Matthew Stockman

The players traded pars on the first playoff hole at the 18th, all of their birdies buzzing by the cup once more. Back to the 17th, weighing in just under 200 yards. None of the three were particularly close with their approaches, and Wolff and Cook didn’t do much better in their birdie attempts.

Laird, after missing close-out putts on the 18th and first hole of sudden death, made good on opportunity No. 3, his birdie putting dropping as his arm punched the sky. For the first time in seven years, he was the last man left standing.

“It’s been a while since my last one, and you have some doubts at times whether you’re going to get another one,” Laird said.

The moment was too raw for Laird to extrapolate what this means and where he goes from here. With his track record and age, it’s easy, arguably pragmatic, to chalk this weekend up as one of the handful of out-of-nowhere performances that are sprinkled throughout the tour calendar. And perhaps that is what ultimately comes to pass. But after years in the sport’s wilderness, perhaps the Shriners will spur a career revival. “Obviously there is a lot the doors open with the win,” Laird remarked.

After all, as the great Hunter S. Thompson once wrote of Vegas, “A little bit of this town goes a long way.”

The post Martin Laird made Las Vegas more exciting than it needed to be in victory appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Daniel Rapaport
A shootout in Las Vegas turned into a three-man race. Martin Laird, Austin Cook and Matthew Wolff took different routes to their 72-hole totals of 23-under par 261s, but each found their way into a playoff for the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open at TPC Summerlin. In the end, Laird canned a 20-footer on the second extra hole for a feel-good victory. Here are five takeaways from an entertaining finish in the desert.

Martin Laird choked, and then he came through when it mattered most
It’s hard to win any golf tournament, let alone one on the PGA Tour. Martin Laird knows this. Coming into this week, the 358th-ranked player in the world, competing on a sponsor’s exemption, hadn’t won anywhere in more than seven years. For the longest time on Sunday, it seemed his drought was destined to end. How else do you explain a hole-out eagle from a plugged lie in the face of a bunker on the par-5 ninth? Or an otherworldly up-and-down after an extremely nervy push-fade on the par-3 17th? The 37-year-old Scot’s luck, however, ran dry at 18—needing a par to win in regulation, he necked a 3-wood, badly shoved his approach right of the green, mishit a chip and couldn’t convert the 28-footer for par.

He was a reeling man when he stepped to the 18th tee for the playoff, but a solid par on 18 kept him alive, and then he dropped a 20-footer on 18 for the victory. Because it just wouldn’t have felt right if his first win since 2013 came easy.

Matt Wolff is going to win so, so many golf tournaments

Matthew Stockman

The 21-year-old was making his first start since a solo second at the U.S. Open and nearly accidentally won this tournament. Three shots back with three to play, his chances seemed toast with Laird sitting on that lead with a reachable par 5 still to play. Wolff proceeded to make eagle on 16—he hit gap wedge for his approach—then darn near holed a 30-ish foot birdie putt at 18, which in hindsight would have been enough to win in regulation thanks to Laird’s stumbles coming home. Back to 18 for the first playoff hole, Wolff had a similar putt for birdie as in regulation, and came even closer to holing it. It wasn’t to be, but a second-straight runner-up finish will see him climb to No. 12 in the World Rankings. And, it’s worth mentioning again, he’s still just 21 years old.

Bryson DeChambeau posted a rather intimidating T-8, insomuch as that’s possible

Matthew Stockman

Here are Bryson DeChambeau’s nine-hole scores from this week: 32, 30, 34, 33, 38, 33, 31, 35. That front-nine 38 from Saturday—which could have been worse, as he was five over through seven before birdieing Nos. 8 and 9—cost him any chance to win this tournament. But in his first start since that seismic U.S. Open victory at Winged Foot, DeChambeau still picked up a top 10 and flashed some breathtaking displays of power. He had five two-putt birdies on Thursday and became the first player in the Shotlink era to drive the 380-yard par-4 seventh hole at TPC Summerlin … then he did it again on Friday. On Sunday, he drove the par-4 15th green with an iron and drained the eagle. You get the sense that if this tournament went a few more days, he’d win it, but the T-8 finish was still an ominous reminder to his competitors of what they’re up against. And, of course, he’s not letting up, with plans to debut a 48-inch driver for the Masters. The plight of players such as Matthew Fitzpatrick has never been more daunting.

Will Zalatoris, top-10 king

Matthew Stockman

Will Zalatoris is on a heater. It’s just that simple. In the last 17 weeks, the 24-year-old has played 15 events and has 11 top-10 finishes to show for it, including a T-5 this week. Most of those have been Korn Ferry Tour events, but the former Wake Forest All-American finished T-6 at the U.S Open and T-8 at the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship, meaning he now has three top-10s in his last four PGA Tour starts. He’s clearly good enough to play on the PGA Tour right now, and this most recent top-10 earned him yet another start, at the Bermuda Championship in three weeks. He’s just three FedEx Cup points away from receiving special temporary membership this early in the season, which would allow him to receive an unlimited amount of sponsor’s invites through next August. Zalatoris is creeping up on the top 50 in the World Rankings, and it looks like his days on the Korn Ferry Tour will not last much longer. Whether it’s through non-member points, or a win, or the Korn Ferry points list, he’s going to get his card

Justin Suh took his time, but he’s finally here

Jed Jacobsohn

At the 2019 Travelers Championship, which feels like a full decade ago, four kids who had just turned pro sat down for an introductory press conference: Matthew Wolff, Viktor Hovland, Collin Morikawa and Justin Suh. Wolff, Hovland and Morikawa are all ranked inside the top 30 in the World Rankings and have combined for five PGA Tour wins and a major championship. Suh’s path has been a bit more circuitous.

The USC grad failed to gain status on any tour last year and just recently played two tournaments on a circuit called the LOCAL iQ Series. Undeterred, he turned a sponsor’s invite into the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship into a solid T-14 finish. He got another invite into this week’s event and shot 68-65-66-67 to finish T-8, his first top 10 on the PGA Tour. Of course, there’s no shame in taking a little bit of time—it’s only been 16 months since he turned pro—to get your footing on tour, but the success of his three peers had some wondering what had happened to Suh. The answer: nothing. His path is the normal one; those guys are the unicorns.

The post Martin Laird hangs on (barely) to end winless drought and four other Sunday takeaways from the Shriners appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Sitting at 21 under through eight holes at TPC Summerlin, one shot ahead of Matthew Wolff, Laird went for the green in two on the par-5 ninth hole, and proceeded to get one of the worst breaks you could imagine. His ball needed six more inches to cover the front bunker and land somewhere on the green to set up an eagle putt. Instead, it plugged in the sand. And not just anywhere in the sand. Right under the front lip.

The Golf Channel commentators were using all their favourite commentating innuendo to explain just how impossible the shot was. They mentioned that Laird had had knee surgery only five months before and that wrist injuries could frequently occur from playing these kind of bunker shots.

They made it sound like the shot was going to be hazardous to his health.

Yet Laird decided to play on, the warrior that he is. And this was the result.

This was almost impossible. ? ? ?

A contender for shot of the season from Martin Laird.

This eagle gives him a 3-shot lead @ShrinersOpen.#QuickHits pic.twitter.com/vYzLTDdWvy

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) October 11, 2020

Of course when you see a shot like this, you risk being a victim of recency bias and want to praise the shot as the best thing since the remote control. But seriously, how amazingly good was that shot?

With the eagle—the third time he’d eagled the ninth hole this week—Laird went to 23 under and took a three-shot lead into the back nine at TPC Summerlin. Given how low scores are on this course, anything can happen. But we feel safe in predicting there will be no better holed bunker shot from a buried lie than this one for the rest of the day.

Or year.

Or decade.

The post Watch Martin Laird make the most incredible eagle by holing this impossible-looking bunker shot from a buried lie appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.