After making a relatively low-key start to his rookie season on the PGA Tour, Britain's Martin Laird has set his sights on a sprint finish.
The 25-year-old buried memories of eight missed cuts in his first 14 tournaments with consecutive ties for fourth to book his place in this week's lucrative Barclays Classic.
With three more FedExCup playoff events remaining after that, he hopes to qualify for at least one of them to end his debut campaign on a high.
"My goals at the start of this year were to make the top 70 in the money list and to try and win an event," Laird told Reuters in a telephone interview on Tuesday.
"It didn't look as though I would get them for a while but now, if I keep playing the way I am, I might have a chance."
Helped by his fourth-place finishes at the Reno-Tahoe Open and last week's Wyndham Championship, the Scot lies 135th in the PGA Tour money list with earnings of $490,100.
More significantly, he has climbed 36 spots to 128th in the FedExCup standings, high enough to qualify among the top 144 for the first playoff event this week in Paramus, New Jersey.
"Six weeks ago I wasn't anywhere close to getting into the playoffs but I have played really good the last five events and worked my way in there," Laird said.
Twelve months ago, he was competing on the satellite Nationwide Tour in the U.S. and remembers very little of the inaugural FedExCup playoffs.
"I can't recall a lot about it but I do remember watching the third one (the Deutsche Bank Championship) when Tiger (Woods) and Phil (Mickelson) were going at it," Laird said.
Getting hot
"Hopefully I get to play two, maybe three, of them this year. With these playoffs, if you get hot at the right time, you could go all the way."
Next week's Deutsche Bank Championship in Boston will have a field of 120. Fifty players will be eliminated there for the 70-man field at the BMW Championship in St. Louis where the final 30 are determined for the Tour Championship in Atlanta.
Laird, who left his native Glasgow eight years ago to accept an American university golf scholarship at Colorado State, said his season changed for the better six weeks ago.
"I had no confidence and then my coach came out to the (July 10-13) John Deere Classic and we got some things sorted out in my swing," he said.
"I ended up playing pretty good there, finishing 29th, and since then my confidence has just kept building."
Another turning point came at the Canadian Open where Laird tied for 22nd while his room mate Chez Reavie clinched his first PGA Tour title.
"It was a fun week watching Chez win from start to finish," said Laird, who shared a hotel room in Toronto with Reavie.
"It was good to see someone I've played a lot with win and it proved to me that I am good enough to win out there too."
