Three time Tour winning Martin Laird tongue- in-cheek remarked the 2017 PGA Championship trophy should now be presented more than two years ahead of the Major to World No. 1 Rory McIlroy.
Laird had completed his final round of the Wells Fargo Championship holing a superb 31-foot par putt in a round of 71 for a two-under par tally and on the Quail Hollow course that in two years will host the PGA Championship.
The Scot, and along with his wife, was already well into the 90-minute drive back to their North Carolina abode before McIlroy had teed off.
McIlroy brilliantly set-up becoming the first ever repeat winner of the Wells Fargo Championship on the back of Saturday’s sizzling 11-under par 61 and his lowest in his professional career, and matching a 61 he shot as a then 16-year in the 2005 North of Ireland Amateur at Royal Portrush.
Martin Laird denied Rory McIlroy to capture the 2013 Valero Texas Open and now says McIlroy should be handed the 2017 PGA Championship trophy.
“The way Rory’s played this course in his career recording his two lowest rounds of the Tour here at Quail Hollow they should be etching his name onto the PGA Championship trophy now given we’re back here for the event in two years,” said Laird.
“It’s like he’s playing a different golf course all together compared to the majority of the field.”
And with McIlroy also targeting a second win in three weeks along with the 18th win of his career, Laird was quizzed on the impact the 26-year old is having on the PGA Tour compared to the 79-times Tour winning Tiger Woods.
“No one is going to have the impact Tiger had and while Rory’s the best player in the world, and clearly playing spectacular golf around here and the kind of golf that will get more people watching golf on TV, Tiger took the game of golf to another level,” said Laird.
“As well, I read a stat the other week that when Rory won in San Francisco he matched both Jack Nicklaus and Tiger with 10 PGA Tour wins before he turned 26 years old.
“But then you look at Tiger’s record before he turned 26 and he’d won like double that number and that puts it into perspective.
“So as good as Rory is when Tiger came on the scene he was just so dominant and when there had been no one for a very long time who had single handed dominated the game.
“And there’s a big difference personality-wise between the pair as Rory’s just a really down-to-earth nice guy that happens to be really, really good at golf.
“Whereas Tiger had more of a presence than Rory and everyone could feel that players, officials and fans and when ever Tiger got into contention everyone around him would crumble, but then that aura around Tiger has long gone now.”
Laird’s final round was a mix of three bogeys and one less birdie and in what is his seventh start in the event and with the Scot suggesting it could be his last.
“I felt I played decent this week but standing here I am in 55th place at two under and Rory’s still to tee off at 18-under so that kind of sums it up and there’s the big difference,” said Laird.
“So given my record around here there’s a chance this event won’t be on my schedule. I love the golf course but it just doesn’t suit my game.
“But then I’m headed now to the Colonial in Fort Worth and looking forward to playing a golf course where I really don’t have to play my best but then I can still get myself in contention.”
And there could be no Scots in the Wells Fargo field next year with Russell Knox, who after being six under for the first two days, shot rounds of 77 and 72 over the weekend for a one under par total.
“I had that double to start Saturday’s round and never really recovered,” he said.
“But then I hadn’t been here in three years since my first visit, and I still find this course does my head in.”
