Martin Laird’s opening round at the start of his 14-year in the pro ranks looked plain sailing until the US-based Scot made a hurtful splash at the par-3 17^th at the Career Builder Challenge at La Quinta in California.

Laird, who turned 35 on December 29^th, was cruising at four-under par on the ‘hardest’ of the three golf courses that play host to the $US 6.2m championship.

However, a poor tee shot saw his ball find the water hazard and guarding the left side of green and with Laird walking off with an eventual double-bogey ‘5’.

Laird then pared the last in a round of a two-under par 70 that handed him a share of 88^th place in the now 155-player field following the withdrawal of American Corey Pavin.

At the opposite end of the leader board it was Spain’s Jon Rahm producing a career-low 10-under par 62 that included a fifth hole eagle and eight birdies for a one-stroke lead over the American trio of Austin Cook, Jason Kokrak and Andrew Landry.

Laird is returning to competition for a first occasion since finishing in a share of 54^th place in last November’s RSM Classic.

However, it was not till mid-December Laird began practicing for 2018 proper and while he was clearly disappointed in taking a double on his penultimate hole, it was the driver that gave him the most despair and the Tour’s stats revealing his managed to hit just eight of 14 fairways.

“Seventeen was disappointing but it was just a horrible day with the driver as I just drove it horrendous all day,” he said.

“Around the Stadium Course I could have been four, five under par but then overall to finish two-under I am pretty happy given how badly I drove the ball.

“The Stadium Course is the hardest of the three this week and there was no other excuse as I have been practicing well on a month before this week and I felt very good about my game.

“It was good to get a scorecard in my back pocket for a first time in a long while but I just drove it terrible.”

Suffice to say, it was his driver that Laird spent much of his time working on in the fading light before joining his wife and young family and heading back to their hotel.

Fellow Scot Russell Knox was at the La Quinta Country Club course and signing for a three-under par 69, and the course where Rahm had produced his scorching 62.

Though in contrast to Rahm, Knox produced 10 opening pars before completing his closing eight holes in 3-under par.