What a great weekend for Martin Laird! Laird is from Scotland and has been on the PGA Tour since 2004 and today was the biggest day of his career. He was on fire all weekend, shooting fantastic scores but he still had to really work very hard to nail his first PGA Tour victory. Martin put himself in the best possible position by kicking off the tournament with a 63 on Thursday. He was able to keep the pace on Friday and Saturday with a 67 on both days.

Today the pressure was on with Jim Furyk, Jeff Klauk, George McNeill and Chad Campbell all in very close contention for the title. Furyk and Klauk dropped out of the race when they finished 18 under the card – 1 stroke shy of McNeill and Campbell.

Laird, Campbell and McNeill headed back to the 18th for a play-off. They all had a par on the 18th and moved on to the 17th. Campbell was eliminated when he made bogey and so Laird and McNeill headed back to the 18th for the 3rd play-off hole. McNeill had a par, however Martin was able to make a vital birdie and seal the deal as the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open champion. A huge congratulations to Martin Laird from everyone here at Team Badds – what a great win!!

It was a good week for our Badds too. His game is really starting to come together. He had the lowest putting average on the field this week, which was awesome to see as putting has always been such a special part of Aaron’s game.

Aaron had his best round on Thursday with a 66. He kept up a good pace with a 69 on both Friday and Saturday. Today he was on fire and really started to climb up the leader board. The front 9 was full of birdies and things were looking really good. A double on the par 4, 12th was a set back but it was the par 3, 17th that damaged his great round. After finding trouble, Aaron ended up with a triple bogey and dropped back to 2 under for the day with another 66. At -11, Aaron tied for the 38th place. It was a good week for Badds in Vegas!

It’s back to Scottsdale for Aaron and Shells now for the Frys.com Open next week, which is hosted by Grayhawk Golf Club. Aaron always looks forward to this event as he has played at Grayhawk many times since he moved to Arizona and it is always nice to be so close to home for a tourney!

Have a great week,
Shelley