Laird: I set tone for Russell to follow

MARTIN LAIRD doesn’t think of himself as the tartan trailblazer who showed Russell Knox how to cut it on the PGA tour.

But the American exile will still be proud to line up beside his fellow Scot when the pair step out together for the first time today.

With both men plying their trade on the PGA Tour it’s surprising that they haven’t encountered each other in a competitive round before.

But this afternoon all that will change when one boy from Glasgow – Laird – tees off with the lad from Inverness who followed his lead to uproot and chase his dreams on a golf scholarship at an American university.

Laird said: “I don’t know if I would say I’m a trailblazer but I maybe showed some people it was possible to come over from Scotland and get on the PGA Tour.

“Russell kind of followed the same path as me, coming over to college and staying to make his career over here.

“We’ll see if there’s any more following us, hopefully we’ll see more Scots do the same in the future. But it will be fun to play together these first two rounds.

“We’ve never played together in a competitive round before but I’ve certainly played with him in a couple of practice rounds.

“Although there’s the Scottish connection, he lives in Florida and I’m in Arizona.”

While Laird may have been the shining example at the start Knox is undoubtedly the man to catch these days as his steady rise over the last three years propelled him to a career-high ranking of 18th in the world.

Less steady recent form has seen him slip back to his current spot of 39th but he remains a formidable threat this week.

For Laird, who made it into the field by getting through a local qualifying event, this is a big opportunity to put his own indifferent form of the last year behind him.

And he insists he feels good going into his 19th Major appearance.

He said: “I’m looking forward to it and I really like the golf course. It’s different to any other US Opens I’ve played in terms of the type of challenge.

“I don’t have any targets beyond just playing my game. I’m playing nicely.”