Laird Goes Low At Travelers & Bob Mac Rewarded At BMW International For ‘Working His Arse Off’.

Martin Laird produced a lowest round since his last Stateside victory with a sizzling 63 early on day one of the Travelers Championship in Cromwell, Connecticut.

Laird, 39, grabbed seven birdies in a bogey-free 63 to be in the clubhouse sharing second place with American Xander Schauffele, and with the duo a shot adrift of Rory McIlroy.

Laird said:  “Very happy with my round.  I putted very nicely. Got off to an average start. Pretty much flat-out chunked an 8-iron from the middle of the fairway on the first hole short of the green and hit a nice pitch up there to about eight feet and made the putt, which even early in the round to see that putt go in and not make bogey from the middle of the fairway was nice, and then after that played good.

“Saying that, it’s hard to hit some of these greens out here when it gets windy like it is this afternoon, or later in my round, but anytime I missed the green I pitched it really nicely and was pretty low stress for pars, which is always nice.”

McIlroy was seeing the holes as big a bucket on the TPC River Highlands course in holing eight-birdies to be the early clubhouse leader at eight-under and at day’s end with McIlroy at day’s end sharing the lead on eight-under with American JT Poston.

Laird’s score is a best since he shot a second round 63 on route to victory at the 2020 Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in Las Vegas.

Russell Knox, and former Travelers winner, was out in the afternoon half of the draw and posting a disappointing round of a one-over 71.

At the BMW International Open and top-ranked Scot Robert MacIntyre’s off-course efforts in ‘working his arse off’ paid handsome dividends in Munich.

MacIntyre produced his lowest opening round in some 18 months and also an equal best low this year on day one thanks to a bogey-free five-under 67 on the Munich Eichenried Golf Club course on the northern outskirts of the Bavarian capital.

China’s No. 3 ranked Haotong Li brilliantly grabbed a pair of eagle ‘3s’ and six birdies in a sizzling 62 for an eventual first round one shot lead at 10-under and with overwhelming crowd favourite Martin Kaymer, and one of six LIV Golf stars in the German field and with each paired in two groups, is already well placed at six-under.

However, the DP World Tour is expected to announce today (FRID) the imposing of sanctions on all LIV Tour players

MacIntyre’s 67 is a best first round since a similar score on the opening day to the 2021 Dubai Desert Classic, and helped set-up an eventual third place finish while that third in Dubai is the Oban lefties best finish in his 26 DP World Tour starts.

MacIntyre’s return to form is timely as he had slipped to World No. 95 but thanks to work with long-time coach Davy Burns this week could see the Scot correct his slide down the World Rankings.

He said: “It was a good round, as I’ve worked my ass off the last week and a half, on a few swing changes.

“It’s hard to trust them, but what a change it is. I’m striking the middle of the club face and I’m seeing the golf I used to play a year and a half ago. It’s so pleasing. I’ve seen it in practice, but it’s not been under the gun yet. I stepped on 18 there, didn’t like the tee shot with the wind, laid it up. I was trying my best to drop a shot. It’s just good to go bogey free and see the things you’re working on actually working”.

Just a shot behind is the duo of Ewen Ferguson and Richie Ramsay.

Ferguson, and the reigning Qatar Masters champ, was delighted also with his effort of five birdies and just a lone bogey.

He said: “I played really smart golf and just plugged my way around nicely, holed a few nice putts here and there.

“The key part of the round was on the third hole, I holed a really long par putt and the momentum I got from that was nice. I just ticked along from there.

“At this level, if you’re playing well, any course will suit your eye. You need to drive it well out there and that’s usually one of the strengths of my game, I drove it quite nice today.

“Hopefully it’ll be more of the same for the rest of the week”.

OTHER SCOTS 

69 – Craig Howie

70 – Marc Warren and Stephen Gallacher

72 –  Connor Syme

76 – David Drysdale



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