LAIRD ATTEMPTING TO EARN TICKET HOME

AT INTERNATIONAL FINAL QUALIFYING

NEWS RELEASE ISSUED BY THE R&A
On Monday, Scotland’s Martin Laird will compete for one of eight places available in the 150th Anniversary Open Championship, when he takes his place in the field at International Final Qualifying – America.
The current world number 105 will play 36 holes of the Queens Course at Gleneagles Country Club in Plano, Texas, to determine whether he will make only his second Open Championship appearance at St Andrews in 2010, having made his debut last year.
The Glaswegian, who missed the cut by two strokes at Turnberry, won the 2009 Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospital for Children Open, securing his PGA Tour card for 2010 and 2011. It was the first victory by a Scot on the PGA Tour since Sandy Lyle won the Masters Tournament in 1988.
Laird is joined in the field by two-time European Tour winner Brian Davis of England. Davis has made five Open Championship appearances, with his best result, tied-sixth, coming at Royal St George’s in the 2003 Open Championship. Now a regular on the PGA Tour, Davis finished in second place at the Verizon Heritage in April.
Notable names due to contest eight Open Championship berths at IFQ on Monday include Rickie Fowler, the PGA Tour rookie who has registered four top-ten finishes already this year and who took four points out of four for the USA during last year’s Walker Cup Match.
Others due to stake their claim for a 150th Anniversary Open Championship berth are 2008 US Ryder Cup player JB Holmes; India’s Jeev Milkha Singh; 1992 Masters Champion Fred Couples, who finished in third place when The Open was last held at St Andrews in 2005; and Davis Love III, the 1997 PGA Champion who successfully qualified for The Open last year at IFQ – America.
Play will get underway at 7.00am local time from two tees. Live scores and stories will be published on www.opengolf.com throughout the day.