Golf news - Laird looses to Kuchar at Barclay’s
The Scottish Martin Laird lost to American Matt Kuchar after a very embarrassing finish in his final round at the Barclays. Leading by five shots at one stage, Laird had three putted from inside 25 feet in the 18th hole. On his primary playoff hole, Kuchar hit the ball so that it would strike the slope and rolled 30 inches from the cup for a birdie, making it his primary win of the year. At the final round, Paul Casey ended five off course at seven along with Tiger Woods. Paul Casey with his game beat all of the players known as the “Fed ex four” that includes Casey himself, Padraig Harrington, Luke Donald and Justin Rose. They all chose to play in the United States instead of The Johnnie Walker championship that took place at Gleneagles in Scotland. However, unfortunately Casey’s efforts were of no use since he was overlooked by European Ryder captain Collin Montgomerie who picked Parraig, Donald and Edoardo Molinari for as his final three wild cards.
Luke Donald demonstrated a final round of 68 for six under but subsequent to initiating six birdies in a row, he divulged five bogeys when he finished after Justin Rose and Ian Poulter and tied for fifteenth. Irish golfer Harrington sealed the last round with an aborted performance. He golfed a four-over round of 75 and finished one under for the event. Laird started the final round with a three shot lead, which was soon incremented to five with birdies at the opening two holes. However on the third, he shot a double-bogey seven and also bogey the fourth. After he reached the turn in 36-one over par, he resuscitated and birdied the 12th and 17th and thus had a one-shot lead to the 72nd hole. However, with two putts in order to win the title, Laird sent his birdie try seven feet ahead of the hole and also passed up the one coming back. This gave him a closing 71 and also ended up tying with Kuchar on 12 under par which was before Kuchar set the target with a final round of 66. When they both returned to the par-fourth eighteenth for the first play-off hole, both of them missed- Kuchar missed to the left and Laird missed to the right.
Nevertheless, Kuchar’s attempt went over the green and almost towards the back before it rolled back into the hole, and therefore finished only about two feet from the cup. The Scottish player also discovered the green and at this attempt he two –putted for far but unfortunately it wasn’t enough for victory because Kuchar hit in for a birdie.
"It's obviously not the finish I would have liked but I am very proud of the way I played today," Laird said. "I was battling all day and I holed two or three big putts just to be where I was.”
Tiger Woods who initiated at number 112 moved up to 65, and now will easily make to the top hundred. The top hundred players will move on to the second of the four playoff event next week at the Deutsche Bank Championship. Woods who has been working with Coach Foley said that he hasn’t won all year but was close to winning this week. He feels that if he had putted better he would have won and Woods is looking forward to next week with great enthusiasm.
The players who end up in the top 75 in Boston will proceed to the BMW championship, and the top 30 will move on the season ending tour championship. And who wouldn’t want to be the lucky player to win the Fed-ex cup prize? The prize money for this event is 10 million dollars. With European Ryder team decided on Sunday, the golfers are looking forward to the Captain Corey Pavin’s pick on September 7th. The aim for these players is to not only winning the Fed-ex cup, but to also be chosen for the Ryder cup that will take place in October in Wales. With the competition getting tougher every day, it truly depends on Pavin and the luck of the players as to who will be chosen for the team.
Tags: