Laird ends drought with win in Las Vegas
Martin Laird lost a chance to win by making bogey on the 18th hole, only to redeem himself in a threeway playoff by making a 20foot birdie putt on the second extra hole to win the PGA Tour’s Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in Las Vegas on Sunday.
Laird ended seven years without a victory in a year filled with so much doubt, which included knee surgery right about the time golf was set to resume from the coronavirus pandemic.
“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. “I just played so well all week. This week, tee to green, was probably the best I ever played. To see that putt go in, it was pretty special.”
Laird, 37, needed a sponsor exemption to play the tournament he won in 2009. He ended it with a birdie to beat Matthew Wolff and Austin Cook. It was the third threeman playoff in Las Vegas for Laird, who won in 2009 and lost the following year when Jonathan Byrd made a holeinone on the 17th hole at the TPC Summerlin.
Laird contributed a pair of big shots on the par 3.
He had a oneshot lead with two holes to play when he sent his tee shot on the par3 17th off a cart path and some 30 yards right of the green with the pin to the right. He hit a chipandrun over the cart path, under the trees, between a pair of bunkers and then made a most improbable par with an 18foot putt.
But he missed the green to the right on the 18th and chipped to 30 feet, twoputting for bogey and a 3underpar 68 to fall into a playoff at 23under 261 with Wolff and Cook, who each closed with a 66. They all made par on the 18th in the playoff, and then Laird ended it on the 17th. PGA Tour Champions: Ernie Els birdied the final two holes, running in a 30footer in the rain on the last, for a 6under 66 and a onestroke victory over Colin Montgomerie in the SAS Championship in Cary, N. C.
Jim Furyk missed a chance to become the first player to win his first three PGA Tour Champions events, closing with a 70 to tie for ninth at 8under — four strokes behind Els. Furyk won at Warwick Hills and Pebble Beach.
Els won for the second time in his first 10 starts on the 50andover tour. The South African, a fourtime major champion with 19 PGA Tour titles, finished at 12under 204 at Prestonwood Country Club.
Els tied Montgomerie, playing three groups behind, with the birdie on the par5 17th and pulled ahead with the long putt on the par4 18th. European Tour: In Virginia Water, England, Tyrrell Hatton held off a finalround challenge by Victor Perez to win the BMW PGA Championship by four strokes, giving the English player a first victory on home soil at a tournament that inspired him to become a professional.
Hatton shot 5under 67 to finish at 19under 269, capping a week when he shot in the 60s every round around Wentworth’s storied West Course.