Martin Laird wins 2020 Shrines Open in a playoff

The Scottish golfer Martin Laird ends his seven years drought to win a PGA Tour event.

The 37-year-old Laird rolled in a 23-footer for birdie on the second playoff hole to win the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open, holding off Matthew Wolff and Austin Cook for the title.   

Laird played exceptionally throughout the day but witnesses a rollercoaster ride on the 72nd hole at TPC Summerlin, dropping him into the playoff.

Laird survived a two-hole playoff with Austin Cook and Matthew Wolff to win the PGA Tour's Shriners Open. He completed 72 holes at 23 under after carding a final-round 5-under 66 in his first win on Tour since 2013.

 “This might be the best one, because it’s been awhile,” Laird said of career victory No. 4. “I’m going to really enjoy this one.”

Previously he had won the Shriners Open in 2009, Arnold Palmer Invitational in 2011 and the Texas Open in 2013.

“It was pretty hard for a couple of weeks,” he said of the surgery, which came thanks to a torn meniscus in his left knee. “You’re kind of chomping at the bit to get back out, and then I was on the sofa for a month.”

Laird once at 21st in the world, but as he came at TPC Summerlin this week, he had slipped to No. 351. He also missed most of the summer due to his knee surgery in June.