Scot beats cut by one in California

MARTIN LAIRD IN THE MONEY
FOR SECOND WEEK IN A ROW

Former Open champion Justin Leonard shot a six-under-par 66 to move to 23-under 265 to lead by four shots going into today's fifth and final round of the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic in California.
Robert Gamez, D J Trahan, Anthony Kim and Kenny Perry are his closest challengers on 269.
Glasgow's Martin Laird, pictured right, who graduated this year to the US PGA Tour from the Nationwide Tour, will pick up a pay cheque for a second week in a row.
The former Scottish youth champion and past US college circuit player beat the cut by one shot with a fourth-round 70 for a running total of 281.
Laird had made things difficult for himself two days in a row with a double-bogey 6 on Friday and a double bogey 6 on Saturday. At La Quinta in the fourth round, the long-hitting Scot birdied the fourth and fifth and then gave the advantage away with a 6 at the par-4 ninth.
He was rocking at the part of his round - he dropped another shot at the 10th before getting a grip of himself and using his length off the tee to birdie the long 11th and the long 13th as well as the short 15th.
Again Laird let it slip with a bogey at the par-4 16th. That meant he needed a birdie and a par in either other over the last two holes to make the cut. And he coped with pressure by birdieing the 17th and parring the last.
His double bogey 6 in the third round came at the sixth.
England's Brian Davis played well on Saturday for a 67 to beat the cut with ease on 277 but Welshman Richard Johnson, who had not played well in the tournament, was eliminated with a 74 for 291.

Justin Leonard said: "You can make a lot of birdies here. Whether the lead was one shot, two shots, 10 shots, I've got to go out there with the same attitude that I've had. Just go play and try and play well and see if it's enough."

Gamez was the third-round leader in the five-day pro-am event but shot a three-over-par 39 on the front nine and had to scramble to finish with a one-under 71. Trahan was two strokes behind Leonard but bogeyed his final hole while Leonard birdied his for a two-shot swing.

Kim struggled from inside 10 feet with his putter for the second consecutive day but nevertheless matched Leonard's 66 to move from a tie for fifth to a share of second going into the final round.

Leonard, an 11-time US PGA Tour winner, is now 18 holes away from not only winning this event for the second time in four years, but capturing a tour event for the second consecutive year after claiming the Valero Texas Open last October.

He added: "I'd like to think I am heading down that path. I don't want to think too much about it but I feel I am on the verge.
Leonard demonstrated once again that length is not everything. In his fourth round, he average "only" 275.4yd with his drives (Martin Laird is a 300yd+ driver) but he hit 80.6% of the greens in regulation and averaged 1.621 putts per green.

Kim revealed he had adopted a safety-first approach to his putting, saying: "I just wanted to make sure that I gave every putt a chance to go in. I felt like last year, I left too many putts on the lip.He added: "Four shots is a lot of shots. You never know what can happen, though. Hopefully, my game will be sharp and the birdies will come. I need to play well on the front nine and make some birdies on those holes."

Trahan was the most disappointed of all after a poor end to his round, saying: "Now I've got a lot more work to do. Hopefully, I can go out and hit some quality shots and make some putts and give myself a chance."
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