Martin is aiming to be the Laird of Carnoustie
Martin Laird missed the US Open carnage at Shinnecock Hills over the past few days.
But he is once again hoping to take the qualifying route to The Open at Carnoustie through earning a spot, as he did last year, with a high finish at the Quicken Loans National.
The Open has not been a very hospitable tournament for Laird to date.
He has missed the cut four times.
The Glaswegian, however, is quick to point out he did not play much links golf while living some way from the coast.
“I’ve played a lot more golf in the United States than in Scotland, and I’ve lived so long Stateside, my game is definitely Americanised,” he points out.
But despite some difficult times at The Open – running up a nine at one hole when leading at Muirfield in 2013 or an 83 at St Andrews – Laird has nothing but nice things to say about Carnoustie.
“Oh, I think it is a great golf course,” said the 35-year-old.
“I’ve played it both in competition at the Dunhill Links Championship, and also in a bounce game.
“So clearly I am hoping I can turn it on again in the National and qualify.”
Last year at Royal Birkdale, Laird bowed out at the halfway stage after rounds of 68 and 79 saw him miss the cut.
He recalled: “I missed two three-footers and didn’t make anything. But making putts was the hardest thing when it was blowing the way it was.
“No-one in our group really made anything.
“As I remember, I honestly didn’t really play that badly tee to green, yet shot nine-over. “It was extremely tough. “I wouldn’t want to play in those sort of conditions every day.
“It’s fun to come back to Britain and I love the week of The Open.
“I still had a great week of links golf at Birkdale.
“But I’ll take playing golf in Arizona year-round over playing links year-round, I’ll just say that!”
Laird’s form has picked up recently.
A seventh-place finish partnering Russell Knox at the Zurich Open in New Orleans left his partner in no doubt that Laird is close to the form that gave him three wins on the US Tour.
“The way he was hitting the ball has him really upbeat about his game again,” says Knox.
“And there is no doubt he has the motivation to get back into the top 50 in the world.
“That’s where you want to be as it gets you into the Majors and WGC events automatically.”
Laird has never been shy about changing coaches, or trying something new.
He firmly believes taking that route has worked for him, even though he is a two-time winner on the US Tour, and earned a runners-up spot at the Players Championship in 2012.
He became the first European to win Arnold Palmer’s tournament, shattering the old myth: ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’.
Laird states with no little conviction: “Sometimes you have to go backwards to go forwards.
“It is going to take time, but my recent results have got me excited about my game again.
“These things always take time to get used to, but it is not like it is anything big.
“It is what you hear guys saying all the time: ‘You have to play through it’.”