John Huggan: American dream

JUST ABOUT eight feet it was. A cup outside the right edge and slightly downhill. And he holed it; dead centre, passing what was the ultimate test of nerve rather than mere execution. The date was November 9 and the setting the 72nd green in his 29th and final event of a long season. Scotland's Martin Laird, by the narrowest margin possible, was in the process of grabbing the 125th and last fully exempt card on the 2009 PGA Tour.

Had Laird missed that putt, his eventual tie for 21st place in the Children's Miracle Network Classic would have become an unavailing 28th; that 125th spot would have turned into 126th; fully exempt would have faded into partly exempt; and much of the last two months of this nearly done year would have been spent in preparation for the dreaded qualifying school rather than satisfied contemplation of a job well done.

"I realised what I had to do after making bogey on the 16th hole," he says from the comfort of his parents' living room in Upper Largo, where tomorrow he will celebrate his 26th birthday. "I was 13 under par at that point. I knew that I couldn't be any lower than that. Top-15 was always going to be good enough; too far outside the top-20 probably wasn't. So I knew that dropping even one more shot was going to finish me.

"I hit a great drive down the 17th and had only a wedge to the green. But I hit only an average approach. So that was a par. The 18th is about 470 yards and there is trouble off the tee – not the sort of hole you want to be playing when you need a par.

"Anyway, I'd pulled my last couple of drives left and there was a hazard over there. So I hit a drive that was never going left, a low push into the right rough. Not only that, I got the worst lie of the week. It was horrible.

"The ball came out OK but ran through the green into the back bunker. Over that shot I was trying to make it rather than just get down in wo. I still didn't know if par was good enough. It ran about eight feet by.

"Over the ball I knew that if I missed I had no chance. But I didn't know that holing it would be enough either. All I tried to do was hit a good putt. And I did. I walked away in a bit of a daze.

"To be honest, I was disappointed in how I had finished. With six holes to play I was in the top-10, then made two bogeys to fall away. When I should have been thinking about winning the event, my mind was on keeping my card. So, at least initially, I was feeling down rather than relieved."

Still, it didn't take too long for Laird to realise the magnitude and implications of his accomplishment. The only Scot playing full-time in the States, where he has lived since venturing over the Atlantic to take up a scholarship at Colorado State University in 2000, the former Scottish Youths champion has suddenly found himself attracting more attention than he has so far been used to.

"When you first turn up as a pro on tour no-one knows who you are and no-one cares," he explains. "A lot of guys can't handle that, but it never bothered me. In fact, being in the States and being unknown has helped me, I think. I certainly haven't had pressure put on me by the press in the way that some other young Scots have had.

"In effect, I've flown under the radar and have been able to concentrate on improving at my own pace. And now that I am a little better known I feel ready for that side of things. I've had the time to work on my game without anyone pinning 'next good Scottish player' on me."

Still, for all that he is currently ranked only the 267th best golfer on the planet – "I'm just going to keep working hard, take care of my stuff on the course and it will all work out in the end. The world rankings only matter if you are in the top-100. Being 102nd or 280th makes no real difference" – Laird has come a long way since turning pro back in 2004 and he is certainly looking forward to what 2009 has in store for him.

"The difference between 125th and 126th is massive," he points out. "Now I can pretty much pick where I want to play outside of the majors and a couple of invitation events. That's a big difference from this year. I can go to events I like and miss those I don't like. That's a great feeling.

"There won't be as much pressure on me to perform well early in the year either. When you are ranked as low as I was this year, the re-rank in April becomes vital. This year, because I performed so poorly early on, I hardly played in April, May and June.

"My ball striking was awful in the first half of the year. That's normally my strength. I'm never going to win tournaments chipping and putting. A lot of my struggles stemmed from the fact that it was so windy and I hit the ball higher than most. So that worked against me."

Indeed, in what became the classic "season of two halves", the contrast between Laird's golf before and after June 30 could hardly have been more marked. In the 14 events he played in the first six months of the year, his best finish was a lowly tie for 55th and eight times he was back home in his Scottsdale base for the weekend. In his next 15 appearances he missed only one cut and was inside the top-35 eight times. During one three-week spell in August he recorded successive top-10s and picked up more than $500,000 of his eventual $852,752 prize money. It was quite a turnaround.

"My coach, Steve Dalby, came out to see me at the end of June and we figured out what was wrong," says Laird by way of explanation. "The problem was in the start of my downswing. Suddenly, I was playing well. I was hitting my little cut rather than fearing a hook. And I got better and better. The big breakthrough came in Reno, where I made five early birdies in the final round and finished fourth. That convinced me that I could actually compete out there. Until then, I had doubts.

"If you ask most players if they can win most will say 'yes.' I always did. But I'm not sure I really believed it. Actually, for most players, winning isn't such a big deal. They can make so much money without winning. Finishing between 75th and 100th on the money list means you are earning maybe $1.2m. Guys are making $750,000 and losing their jobs. So you can do well financially and not even be on tour.

"I want more than that though. My number one goal for 2009 is to win (and, hopefully, qualify for the Open Championship at Turnberry). That has always been the biggest motivation for me. Winning on the PGA Tour, the world's most competitive circuit, would be a dream. I like to aim high. So just keeping my card is never going to be enough."

Happily this likeable young man, who last week was granted honorary membership at his home club of Hilton Park, has retained both his accent and a healthy Scottish disdain for the cancer that is slow play on the golf course.

"One event I will definitely be missing next year is the AT&T Pro-am at Pebble Beach," he says. "I played there this year and one of the rounds took as long as six and a half hours. Most other events are nearly as bad, too. It seems like every tee I walk on to the group in front is still there. So you stand and wait all the time. It is so slow. There are some guys on tour – not naming any names – that you just want to tell, 'look, will you just hurry up and hit the damn thing.'"

You can take the boy out of Scotland…