Martin Laird buried a run of three missed cuts to be well in contention after two rounds of the Wells Fargo Championship in suburban Charlotte, North Carolina.
Laird showed his fondness for the course located just 45 minutes from his ‘summer’ residence to add a two under par 70 to his opening 69 on the Quail Hollow course.
It put the Scot in a share of ninth place and only four strokes behind American Martin Fores (68) and Argentina’s Angel Cabrera (69) who head the $US 6.9m event on nine under par.
Martin Laird ends run of three missed cuts to be sharing ninth place after two round s of the Wells Fargo Championship. (Photo – www.golfbytourmiss.com)
Reigning US Open champion Justin Rose grabbed an eagle and four birdies in a score of 67 to be in second place on eight under par as he looks to win for a first time since his stunning Merion success.
Laird capped his round for a second day running with an eagle, and on this occasion holing a 20-yard chip shot at the par five fifth hole and a day after eagling the par five 15th hole.
“I had hit my best shot all day to 10 feet for birdie at the fourth which is the hardest hole on the course, so that gave me a nice feeling going down the fifth,” said the Scot.
“I just love playing this golf course as it’s only about 45 minutes from home, and while I don’t come down and play it very often, I just love it when I am here.
“That’s why we moved to the Charlotte area. I just love the region and also to be able to stay at home for the week makes it a little more relaxing, and it’s nice to wake up in your own house and drive to the golf course as opposed to staying in hotel.
“So there is a definite home feeling for me this week.”
The effort is Laird’s best opening 36-hole tally in six straight appearances in the event, and with prior best start being two years ago when he was two under par on route to finishing T26th.
However after missing the cut in his past three events, including the defence of his Valero Texas Open title, Laird arrived at Quail Hollow with a new caddy having handed Michael Waite his notice who was the caddy former US Open champion Michael Campbell of New Zealand.
Laird’s new caddy is American born Brian Reed who previously caddied for England’s Brian Davis.
However the strength of Laird’s game over the two days has been his putting and in fact, he’s had just 25 putts in each round.
“I’m putting much better this week and that’s probably the reason for the turnaround in my game,” he added.
“In practice the last few weeks I have been hitting the ball unbelievable, like in New Orleans last week as my practice round was probably one of the best practice rounds in a long time, but I haven’t been transferring that over into the tournament proper.
“A lot of that was down to putting, and now that they have changed all the greens here to Bermuda grass I really like them and I’ve putted well on them.
“So anytime you do that always helps and while my game wasn’t as solid tee-to-green, on the greens it was very solid.”
Rose fought off allergy concerns to also put himself in position for a fifth PGA Tour success and just six weeks shy of his US Open defence at Pinehurst No. 1 and located about a 90-minute drive east of Charlotte.
“It would be nice to win before going to Pinehurst especially after winning a Major like I did last year but then not win in the next twelve months,” he said.
“So for sure, it would be nice to win in the next few weeks that would give me the confidence going into my US Open defence.”
