Winner: Martin Laird
Around the wider world of golf: Sei Young Kim blistered Aronimick to win the KPMG Women's PGA Championship on the LPGA; Ernie Els won the SAS Championship on the Champions Tour; Trey Mullinax won the Orange County National Championship on the Korn Ferry Tour; Laurent Desmarchais won the Canada Life Series Championship at TPC Toronto on the Mackenzie Tour; Justin Doeden won the Classic at The Club at Weston Hills on the LOCALiQ/PGA TOUR Latinoamérica; Tyrrell Hatton cruised to a win at the BMW PGA Championship on the ET; Ren Takeuchi won the Ryo Ishikawa everyone PROJECT Challenge Golf Tournament on the Abema TV Tour/Japan Golf Tour; and (thanks, IC!) Na Rin An won the Autech Carrier Championship on the KLPGA, Mone Inami won the rain shortened Stanley Ladies Golf Tournament on the JLPGA, and Taehoon Kim won the Genesis Championship on the KPGA.
A typical week in Vegas, I guess, as my Twofer Tuesday picks provided more excitement than wanted. I had Patrick Cantlay (T8) and Tyler McCumber
(MC). I rolled the dice on Tyler and he came up snake eyes, but Patrick started the final round tied for the lead -- I thought I might even get a winner -- then dropped off the leaderboard before charging back to give me a Top10. Wow!
- Top10s: 23 for 56 (9 Top5, 14 other Top10s)
- Winners: 2 for 27 events
Martin Laird avoided most of the ups-and-downs -- at least, he avoided the bad kind. Except for a couple of bogeys he spent the day making amazing recovery shots and sinking long putts while the rest of the field struggled to keep up.
In the end Matt Wolff and Austin Cook took him to a playoff but it just seemed to be Martin's day. He won with a birdie on the second playoff hole.
It had been seven years since Laird's last win. It's totally understandable, not just because it's hard to win any event but because Laird has dealt with medical problems like his rebuilt left knee.
Apparently the knee is fine. He certainly had no problems with the buried lie he holed on the par-5 ninth for eagle.
After waiting so long for this win, Martin will certainly enjoy celebrating with his friends. Perhaps they'll all gather together for a dramatic reading of his Limerick Summary.
A seven-year dry spell now ends
As Martin Laird bucks all the trends.
The young guys were strong
But Laird led all day long
And now he celebrates with his friends.
No comments:
Post a Comment