Ask any fellow tour player about Hale Irwin, and the chances are good that the word “competitiveness” — or some variation thereof — will come up.
In the world of professional golf, the former University of Colorado defensive back is focused exclusively on success more than most of his cohorts. And by success, we mean winning tournaments.
While PGA Tour players can make a very nice living without winning, getting close isn’t good enough for Irwin, a three-time U.S. Open champion. It isn’t now and it never has been.
“I still have the desire to succeed, and I’ve always felt success is measured by what you’ve done in the win column, not top-10s,” he told the San Francisco Chronicle recently. “We’ve romanticized the top 10. (David) Letterman put the top 10 out there, and now that’s all we talk about. On the PGA Tour, guys finish in the top 10, make a ton of money and think they’re great players. In my era, you had to win. We didn’t settle for anything else.”
With that in mind, the 2012 PGA Tour season tees off this week with a tournament that features no one but 2011 Tour champions. The Hyundai Tournament of Champions runs Friday through Monday (Jan. 6-9) on the island of Maui in Hawaii.
Among the 28 players in the field is former Colorado State University standout Martin Laird (pictured), who in recent years has been by far the most successful PGA Tour player with major Colorado connections.
Laird, who recently turned 29, has had a very impressive run the last 2 1/2 years. He’s won twice during that stretch, including at the 2011 Arnold Palmer Invitational, which qualified the Scot for the Tournament of Champions. In addition, he’s finished second three times (twice in playoffs), and in the top five eight times during that stretch. And that’s just on the PGA Tour.
That run has pushed Laird up to 47th in the World Golf Rankings, and he placed a career-best 23rd on the Tour’s 2011 money list.
But while Laird’s climb up the golf ladder landed him spots in all four major championships last year, one thing he hasn’t yet accomplished is his focus going into 2012. The native of Scotland wants to compete for the European side in the Ryder Cup matches for the first time. This year’s Ryder Cup is set for Sept. 28-30 at Medinah Country Club near Chicago.
In fact, to help his chances, the Scottsdale, Ariz., resident has become an affiliate member of the European Tour this year. But he won’t play his first European event until May, so he’s counting on a fast start on the PGA Tour to aid his cause.
In the first three months of last year on Tour, Laird recorded a win and three top-five finishes.
“The goal is to get off to that kind of start again and be on the Ryder Cup radar before coming back over to Europe to show that I want to make the team,” Laird said Wednesday in Hawaii. “If I go out and start the new season like I did last season then there’s no reason why I can’t keep that form up through the summer.
“I know I have to earn it, and I want to show that I want to be on that team and that I’m good enough — if not to earn it on points, then to warrant a (captain’s) pick.”
Laird is attempting to become the first Scot to play in the Ryder Cup since Colin Montgomerie competed in the 2006 matches.
“You look at the potential team, (and there are) 20 guys who have a legitimate shot at making the team,” Laird noted. “It is a stacked team and you can’t say there’s a guy who doesn’t deserve to be on that team. It’s as hard to make that team as it’s ever been. But I look forward to the challenge. It’s a big one.”
This week will mark the second Tournament of Champions for Laird, who placed fourth in 2010.
Laird is the only player with significant Colorado ties to qualify for the PGA Tour’s season opener.
Only one other “local” golfer finished among the top 100 on the 2011 Tour money list as Colorado Golf Hall of Famer Brandt Jobe placed 51st. Kevin Stadler, like Jobe a Kent Denver High School graduate, also retained his Tour card by placing in the top 125 on the money list.
The rest of the local contingent has more tenuous status on Tour in 2012. Thirteen-time Tour champion David Duval of Cherry Hills Village will rely on sponsor exemptions after finishing 152nd on last year’s money list. Two-time Tour winner Jonathan Kaye, a former CU golfer, made only two Tour starts in 2011. And Parker resident Shane Bertsch needs to earn at least $241,285 in his season opener to meet the terms of his medical extension and keep his fully-exempt status on Tour.
