Martin Laird was rueing giving the Old Course “a little too much respect,” which possibly cost him a chance to mark his return to Scotland with a win, but he gave it a good old lash before falling short at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.
The 27-year-old from Glasgow shot a final-round 67 on the links as he went for broke in an attempt to make up groundeight shots better than Friday’s performance when he was trying to carefully plot his way around.
He moved up into a couple of shots off the lead before a bogey at 17 and a visit to the Valley of Sin left him at 11 under-par and a share of fifth.
“I wasn’t very happy on Friday and I was guilty of showing the Old Course a little too much respect both then and at the Open in July,” he said.
“I was playing up too far off the tees and I said to my caddie that I would hit driver every time on Sunday, and that’s the way I’m going to play this course from now on.
“Sure, you can hit it in bunkers but I’ll still probably make more birdies than pars being aggressive and that’s my style. I tend to struggle when I back off a bit.”
The other key to his good week was being back home with his parents and family, who live just down the road in Upper Largo.
“Maybe the key is not to hit a practice ball or a practice putt all week, like I’ve done here,” he said.
“It shows what happens when you just relax, just enjoy being at home and seeing the family.”
Laird did still feel that he had a chance of winning the event, especially as he reached the home stretch.Consistency”At 14 I figured if I made a couple of birdies and got it to -13, -14, then that would have a chance with the way the back nine was playing.
“Anything can happen on 17 and the 18th you can come up short and bogey it fairly easily, but in the end I came up just a little short.”
Stephen Gallacher continued his consistent season with another top-20 finish, a birdie at the last for a 71 pushing him to six-under and a share of 17th, helping his bid for a top-15 on the Race to Dubai.
He is still scratching for starts as a result of last season’s ranking.
“I’ve played something like 26 events, which could be 30 by the end,” he said, having overcome a little back trouble during the week. “Next year I’ll be able to work out when my breaks should be and prepare better, playing 24 or 25 events.
“I’m not surprised this has happened because I’ve been playing well, but it looks like I’ll be in Portugal next week, then Castellon and hopefully the HSBC in Shanghai the week after that.
“If I keep the consistency and ‘top-tenning it’plus get a little bit of luckwho knows, it could be really good come the end of the year.”
Exiled Scot Alan McLean also finished strongly with a 71 to complete a seven-under total, while Paul Lawrie put together a 69 to finished tied for 22nd.
Freed of captaincy’s pressures, Colin Montgomerie’s one-under 71 playing the back nine first broke his succession of par rounds on the first three days and meant his 41st place finish was his second-best of the entire season in 15 starts on the tour.