EXILED-SCOT Martin Laird is hoping to turn the clock back five years to the last of eight career wins when he plays his first tournament on home soil since 2018.
The 42-year-old Glasgow-born PGA Tour player is a surprise entry for the $2.75 million Nexo Championship at Trump International outside Aberdeen.
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Laird, who claimed a fourth PGA Tour title at the 2020 Shinners Hospital For Children Open, last competed in the land of his birth at the Scottish Open at the Renaissance.
Back in 2011 he reached a career-high of 21 in the world, making him the highest-ranked Scot at the time.
But he can’t wait for play to start this week after revealing: “I haven’t been back here for a couple of years, even non-competitively.
“But to be here in Scotland again to play in a tournament is brilliant.
“The way the Scottish Open falls was always a tough one for me for a few years. Unfortunately, I wasn’t in a position where I could just come over for that.
“There were a lot of tournaments around that time that I had to stay and play in and the week after the Scottish Open, it’s the Barracuda tournament and I’ve got a really good record in that, so that was one I always wanted to play.
“Then I didn’t qualify for the Scottish Open for a few years. But this was kind of a no-brainer, because I ended up getting less in America as they have cut their cards to 100 from 125.
“So, you might see me over here at least in two more tournaments and maybe even more.”
After only two of the over-50s managed to finish in red figures at last week’s wind-blown PGA Seniors Championship, Laird fears that the course at Balmedie may again be close to unplayable if the forecast of gusts this week proved accurate.
“It’s spectacular, but flipping hard,” he said. “They need to get the tees right, otherwise on some holes, even if you hit a good drive, you are hitting long irons into small targets and with 25-30mph crosswinds, it almost gets a bit unplayable.
“I saw the scoring last week with a 14 over cut and that just shows you what this place is capable of as I have never seen a 14 over cut in my life.”
It has been decided to bring several of the tees forward in an effort to at least partially wind-proof the links and that was music to Calum Hill’s ears.
The 30-year-old two-time DP World Tour winner from Fife got his first taste of the track a month ago when he played a practice round with close buddies Connor Syme and Grant Forrest in sunshine and 10mph winds.
And he recalled: “It felt quite straightforward. Then on Monday it looked much trickier.
“The difficulty here is that it’s not like some links course where you get a bit of leeway. It’s fairways or bushes and it’s quite penal. You’ll have a lot of reloading.
“It’s very strong off the tee and the greens are slightly upturned so you have a lot of runoffs, and if you get it wrong it could be like ping pong.
“I think I started triple-bogey, double-bogey and I didn’t know where I was the first few holes.”
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