La Quinta Resort, CA …

Martin Laird ended a two-month competition lay-off sensationally holing his second shot for an eagle ‘2’ on the opening day of the PGA Tour’s Career Builder Challenge at La Quinta in California.

Laird was level par after two birdies and two bogeys through nine holes when standing over his second shot on the 10^th fairway and 105-yard from the flag stick before choosing a sand wedge and then watched in delight as his ball took one bounce to disappear into the cup.

The Scot’s ‘2’ helped ignite a run of four other birdies, at the 11^th, 15^th and 17^th holes, before a last hole bogey from a greenside bunker and signing for a four under par 68 on the PGA West course and one of three venues hosting this week’s $US 5.8m event and formerly more known as the Bob Hope Classic.

It handed Laird a share of 25^th place and four strokes behind little known American Dominic Bozzelli who signed for an eight under par 64 on the adjacent Stadium Course.

Martin Laird just missing the hole with his par attempt at the final hole at the PGA West course on day one of the Career Builder Challenge.

Five-time Major winning Phil Mickelson, who returned to competition for a first time since the Ryder Cup and having undergone two hernia operations in that time, was pleased to also sign for a 68 at the La Quinta Country Club.

Laird has not competed since a share of 13^th place two months ago in the Mayakoba Classic, and his third event of the Tour’s 2016/17 wraparound schedule.

And after such a long lay-off the recently-turned 35-year old could not be happier with his round.

“Holing my second shot at 10 was really nice to see it disappear into the bottom of the hole,” said Laird.

Martin Lairds heads to the scorer’s hut after a round of 68 that including holing his second shot for an eagle at the par four 10th hole.

“I had birdied nine which is one of the hardest holes on the course and then to eagle 10 and birdie 11 was a great three holes I played in four under.

“I was bit off my game the first six to seven holes and I put that down to a bit of mental rust more so than rust in my game as I have been playing well away from the Tour.

“But compared to the front nine, I played well over the back nine with a couple of putts lipping out and to bogey the last, after finding the greenside bunker left, wasn’t ideal but overall it was a nice solid day’s work.

“This course and the La Quinta Country Club course are the easier of the three and with the Stadium course that I play tomorrow probably the toughest, so if you were to shoot one or two under on this PGA West course you’d feel that you left something out there.

“So, I am very happy with four under as I did play solid and it was fun also to get a scorecard back in the pocket as it has been a while since I last teed-up on the Tour.”