Martin Laird made it a Scottish 1-2 following Paul Lawrie’s win on the European Tour, with victory at the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill. However, Laird’s win might be down to others throwing the win away, as much as it is Laird’s battling to win.
Leading by two shots overnight, Laird bogeyed the third hole and followed with two more on the seventh and nine holes as he frittered away his lead. A double-bogey on the 11th hole saw him five-over for the day and his lead was gone, as Steve Marino birdied the 9th and 10th to take over at the top of the leaderboard.
However, the Scot was in no mood to be denied and although his birdie at the 12th was cancelled out by a bogey at the 14th, he made back-to-back gains at the 15th and 16th holes.
Laird’s cause was helped in no small measure when Marino then conspired to throw victory away with a bogey at the 15th hole, and followed up with a double-bogey at the 17th hole. A birdie at the last wasn’t enough, and Laird – left with two putts to win, rolled his first to inside three feet and then holed out for the win.
“That was a hell of a day,” Laird said afterwards. “That was a tough fight out there. It was a battle out there, but you know, it makes it even sweeter at the end when I got this trophy.”
Laird finished with a three-over par 75 to close on 8-under par 280 for the tournament, one shot ahead of Marino, who finished with a level-par 72.
Justin Rose shot a final round 68 to claim a share of third place with David Toms and Marc Leishman; while KJ Choi and Spencer Levin shared sixth spot on 5-under par.
Sergio Garcia continued his comeback with a closing 70 to take sole possession of eighth place on 4-under par.
Tiger Woods, who has won six times at Bay Hill previously, had his sights set on a second successive top-10 finish in 2011, but a bogey on the 17th and a double-bogey on the 18th hole dropped the former world number one back into a tie for 24th place, seven behind the leader. He was joined by Phil Mickelson, who dropped three shots in his last five holes.
