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0 shares 3 View comments How wonderfully typical of this thrillingly unpredictable sport that the man who ended American domination on the PGA Tour this year should prove to be a Scot who had spent most of the season struggling to hit a veritable cow’s backside with a golf club. Fourteen events had produced 14 winners of Yankee persuasion until Martin Laird rediscovered the form that saw him claim the Arnold Palmer Invitational two years ago with a stunning final round 63 to win the Texas Open on Sunday. Coming through the field with a fabulous last round is usually the easiest way to win golf tournaments, since the pressure is largely on the men who start out in front. But the measure of this victory should not be underestimated, since the 30-year-old, who is based in Arizona, knew that it was win or bust if he was to punch the last ticket into the field for the Masters. Phenomenal: Martin Laird hit a course-record 63 to blitz the field, including a resurgent Ro

2 shares 2 View comments Picture a promising 15-year-old Australian golfer in tears after Greg Norman threw away a six-shot lead at the 1996 Masters. He  had been allowed a day off school to watch his idol supposedly bring Australia’s Augusta jinx to a close. Instead it turned into a day so  difficult to watch that even the motor racing driver Damon Hill, who lived life on the edge every day of his sporting career, had to turn away. Imagine what it was like for  15-year-old Scott, who had met Norman and was in awe of him. ‘I want to play in that event one day,’ he vowed. ‘I want to win it.’ Pure joy: Adam Scott celebrates his memorable Masters triumph at Augusta on Sunday night Scott stated at school 13 years ago that he wanted to be the world's best golfer No wonder Scott came into the media centre on Sunday, proud as punch in his splendid green jacket, and spoke about fate. ‘It is amazing that it is my destiny to be the first Aussie to win the

1 shares 0 View comments Where have all the Ryder Cup players gone? Four months into the new season, it was becoming a rather worrying lament, as the Medinah miracle-makers who dominated the game from August to December appeared to be suffering from a collective hangover. Rory McIlroy’s travails are well-documented, but he was hardly alone. Up to and including the  Masters, the vast majority must have been looking at their early-season form and giving it a C-minus grade or below. Happily, everything changed in that traditional post-Augusta delight, the RBC Heritage tournament played alongside the tranquil shores of the Calibogue Sound in South Carolina, where the instigator proved to be the quiet assassin  himself, Graeme McDowell. Well plaid: Graeme McDowell shows off his new plaid jacket after winning the RBC Heritage on Sunday On a Harbour Town course that is all about strategy and a cool head, who better to call upon than the 33-year-old Northern Irishman

2 shares 1 View comments What was your golf-loving 14-year-old up to last week? Mine spent most of the time being  persuaded by his mother to work hard on his French GCSE.  Over the weekend he went hiking up Moel Famau in Wales as part of the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme. Wouldn’t that be typical for someone his age living in the western world? Perhaps you will understand, therefore, why my deep sense of admiration at 14-year-old Tianlang Guan’s latest wondrous achievement in New Orleans last week  was accompanied by an equal sense of unease. Child's play: Fourteen-year-old Guan Tianlang made the cut in the Zurich Classic of New Orleans last week Proud parent: Guan talks with his mother, Liu Hongyu (left) in New Orleans on Saturday     More from Derek Lawrenson...   DEREK LAWRENSON: Plucky Pepperell is well

11 shares 0 View comments Robert Rock would never have got to beat Tiger Woods down the stretch in Abu Dhabi last year if there had been the current dearth of top-class professional tournaments in England when he was growing up. So perhaps it is not surprising to see him put his weight behind the English Tour, a series of 16 two-day events for young, up-and-coming players that begins life at beautiful West Lancs on Wednesday and will take in some of the best courses in England over the next few months. Eye on the future: Robert Rock is putting his weight behind the English Tour for up-and-coming talents Coaching career: Rock passes on some tips to our man Derek Lawrenson at his academy in Lichfield     More from Derek Lawrenson...   DEREK LAWRENSON: Plucky Pepperell is well worth his salt after stellar show at We

9 shares 7 View comments Tiger Woods’s stirring victory at the Players Championship was another significant signpost on his way to winning majors again. His comeback from the depths of 58th in the world began just over a year ago with a victory in a regular tour event. In March he stepped it up by winning a WGC tournament and now he has claimed the most important title in the game outside the four big ones. This is how majors are won, one step at a time, and he will rightly start as a prohibitive favourite to land his first for five years and 15th in all at the United States Open at Merion next month. What was significant about  Sunday’s success was that it came on a less than happy hunting ground. Step by step: Tiger Woods won on his 300th appearance on the PGA Tour, as he did on his 100th and 200th We saw his obvious discomfort with certain aspects of Sawgrass when he tossed away a two-stroke lead with five holes to play with a careless double bogey at the 14th

0 shares 21 View comments The fear factor – fear of Wembley, fear of England’s fighting spirit – is being eroded. Not only game by game but, as it was in Podgorica, half by half. Montenegro were visibly nervous in the first 45 minutes, paralysed as they were by the importance of the occasion and the crushing expectations of that volatile crowd. The interval came with a wake-up call in the dressing room, one which played into a chronic England weakness Too many England players – in their wealth and celebrity – are amounting to a one-half team. Scroll down for video Falling to pieces: The recriminations begin in Montenegro after Dejan Damjanovic's 77th-minute leveller Smoked out: England flagged after the break and were shown up by an increasingly confident Montenegro in front of a partisan crowd If they start like an express train, as they did in the Balkans, they begin believing they are as wonderful as their agents, sponsors and bank ma