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The National
6 days ago
- Climate
- The National
Martin Laird returns to Scotland for Nexo Championship
In his typically modest way, the two layouts at Trump International Golf Links are now championed as 'The Greatest 36 Holes in Golf.' His original 18 is the host venue for this week's Nexo Championship on the DP World Tour. 'It's spectacular but it's flippin' hard,' gasped Martin Laird with a statement that could be a new advertising slogan for The Donald's domain. Laird has not played competitively in his homeland since the Scottish Open of 2018 and the 42-year-old is delighted to be back in the auld haunts. 'Being back here has energised me,' added the Glasgow exile. Laird was actually a member of the guest party at the grand opening of Trump's first course back in 2012 when he was the standard bearer for Scottish golf on the PGA Tour. 'I played with Eric and Don Jnr (Trump's sons) and Monty (Colin Montgomerie) played in front of us with the main man,' added Laird with a smile. 'It was soft back then as it had just opened. "Everything around here is about keeping the ball in play. You've got to drive it straight. If you don't you may as well pack up and go.' A few of the game's golden oldies probably felt like packing up golf completely after a punishing PGA Seniors' Championship here at Trump's wind-ravaged joint last week. Only two players finished under-par while the halfway cut fell at an extraordinary 14-over. 'That shows you what this place is capable of as I have never seen a 14-over cut in my life,' noted Laird. 'I was saying to my caddie that they need to get the tees right (this week). 'Even today, when the wind is less than yesterday, they really have to move some of those tees up just purely for pace of play. 'On some holes, even if you hit a good drive, you are hitting long irons into small targets with 25-30mph crosswinds. It almost gets a bit unplayable.' The forecast for the next few days is certainly not as boisterous as last week with official Met Office updates suggesting 'fresh' and 'moderate' breezes. That probably means it'll be blowing an absolute hoolie. As of the eve of the championship, tournament officials were planning on moving the tees forward on seven holes to combat any meteorological menace. That could make it some 270-yards or so shorter than its full 7439-yard stretch. It'll still be flippin' hard as Laird would say. 'I just love a tough golf course,' he added. 'Someone even asked me yesterday if I was here playing in the seniors last week. I was like 'steady on, I'm eight years away from that'.' Time flies, though. Laird has been in the good ole US of A now for 25 years. A four-time winner on the PGA Tour during a terrific career, he is now juggling competition on three fronts having lost his full status on the US-based circuit at the end of last season. He still gets a few starts on the main PGA Tour while he bolsters his schedule with outings on the second-tier Korn Ferry Tour and the odd DP World Tour event. 'The hardest part was at the start of the year, when I'd get in a tournament one month then have to wait another month to get in another one,' said Laird of the scheduling guddle that's par for the course when you don't have full playing rights. 'It's just simple stuff. My wife, for instance, would say 'are you going to be around this week?' and I said, 'I don't know'. Whereas in the past I could say 'yes' or 'no'.' Despite the professional plooters of his reduced status, there have been plenty of personal pleasures to savour. 'It's actually been kind of nice this year both from a family point of view and a me point of view, too,' he reflected. 'Last year was the first year that I would admit that at times I didn't want to be out there. "I had full status and was playing in great tournaments, but my game wasn't great and the grind of 20 years of travelling finally just hit me. 'The kids are older now and I was missing stuff with them. If you are not playing great and it's a battle every week, it is tough to keep going all the time. "At the end of last year, I was annoyed to lose my card. But, at the same time, I pretty much had December, January, February and half of March off. 'I'd never been at home for three months prior to that in 20 years. It was brilliant. I needed it. It was like a reset.' Laird, it seems, is good to go.
The Herald Scotland
6 days ago
- Climate
- The Herald Scotland
Martin Laird returns to Scotland for Nexo Championship
His original 18 is the host venue for this week's Nexo Championship on the DP World Tour. 'It's spectacular but it's flippin' hard,' gasped Martin Laird with a statement that could be a new advertising slogan for The Donald's domain. Laird has not played competitively in his homeland since the Scottish Open of 2018 and the 42-year-old is delighted to be back in the auld haunts. 'Being back here has energised me,' added the Glasgow exile. Laird was actually a member of the guest party at the grand opening of Trump's first course back in 2012 when he was the standard bearer for Scottish golf on the PGA Tour. 'I played with Eric and Don Jnr (Trump's sons) and Monty (Colin Montgomerie) played in front of us with the main man,' added Laird with a smile. 'It was soft back then as it had just opened. "Everything around here is about keeping the ball in play. You've got to drive it straight. If you don't you may as well pack up and go.' A few of the game's golden oldies probably felt like packing up golf completely after a punishing PGA Seniors' Championship here at Trump's wind-ravaged joint last week. Only two players finished under-par while the halfway cut fell at an extraordinary 14-over. 'That shows you what this place is capable of as I have never seen a 14-over cut in my life,' noted Laird. 'I was saying to my caddie that they need to get the tees right (this week). 'Even today, when the wind is less than yesterday, they really have to move some of those tees up just purely for pace of play. 'On some holes, even if you hit a good drive, you are hitting long irons into small targets with 25-30mph crosswinds. It almost gets a bit unplayable.' The forecast for the next few days is certainly not as boisterous as last week with official Met Office updates suggesting 'fresh' and 'moderate' breezes. That probably means it'll be blowing an absolute hoolie. As of the eve of the championship, tournament officials were planning on moving the tees forward on seven holes to combat any meteorological menace. That could make it some 270-yards or so shorter than its full 7439-yard stretch. It'll still be flippin' hard as Laird would say. 'I just love a tough golf course,' he added. 'Someone even asked me yesterday if I was here playing in the seniors last week. I was like 'steady on, I'm eight years away from that'.' Time flies, though. Laird has been in the good ole US of A now for 25 years. A four-time winner on the PGA Tour during a terrific career, he is now juggling competition on three fronts having lost his full status on the US-based circuit at the end of last season. He still gets a few starts on the main PGA Tour while he bolsters his schedule with outings on the second-tier Korn Ferry Tour and the odd DP World Tour event. 'The hardest part was at the start of the year, when I'd get in a tournament one month then have to wait another month to get in another one,' said Laird of the scheduling guddle that's par for the course when you don't have full playing rights. 'It's just simple stuff. My wife, for instance, would say 'are you going to be around this week?' and I said, 'I don't know'. Whereas in the past I could say 'yes' or 'no'.' Despite the professional plooters of his reduced status, there have been plenty of personal pleasures to savour. 'It's actually been kind of nice this year both from a family point of view and a me point of view, too,' he reflected. 'Last year was the first year that I would admit that at times I didn't want to be out there. "I had full status and was playing in great tournaments, but my game wasn't great and the grind of 20 years of travelling finally just hit me. 'The kids are older now and I was missing stuff with them. If you are not playing great and it's a battle every week, it is tough to keep going all the time. "At the end of last year, I was annoyed to lose my card. But, at the same time, I pretty much had December, January, February and half of March off. 'I'd never been at home for three months prior to that in 20 years. It was brilliant. I needed it. It was like a reset.' Laird, it seems, is good to go.
Daily Mail
24-04-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
QUENTIN LETTS: The Colombian's interpreter at Ed Miliband's global energy shindig had a growly voice worthy of any Spaghetti Western bandido
Well that was a bit of a diplomatic floater. Ed Miliband's global energy shindig started yesterday at London 's Lancaster House. The gilt-chandeliered room filled with climate-change illuminati and renewable-energy snoots from every corner of the civilised world. Self-congratulation suffused the air and it was all going swimmingly – they had just taken a delicious thrashing from a Barbadian lady who claimed her island was about to sink under the waves owing to global warming – when a chap from the Trump administration was handed the microphone. He proceeded to tell them that the US of A, under its bracing new management, couldn't give a fig about Net Zero. Washington intended to go on burnin' fossil fuels and anyone who argued to the contrary must have a national death wish. He offered this view as an act of Godly love. Oil and gas were a Christian leg-up to the world's poor and needy. Cue silence. Not a single clap. Nor even a boo. There was just the frigid, absolute noiselessness Lady Bracknell might observe if the under-butler, serving luncheon, dropped a warm pork rissole down her cleavage. Energy secretary Miliband had made the first speech on a morning of glutinous virtue. Hailing the 'distinguished delegates', Red Ed honked and spluttered his way through a spiel about 'the shifting global landscape' and how 'countries need to collaborate' to overcome energy-security problems. 'Shared challenges invite shared solutions,' schnorfed our hero, spraying the front row with spittle as he bared his cow-catcher teeth. 'We are the optimists!' he added. How cruelly this sanguine mood would soon be shattered. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen and IEA Executive Director, Fatih Birol, on day one of the Future of Energy Security at Lancaster House in London, Britain, 24 April 2025 Mr Miliband kept referring to his great friend 'Fatty'. This turned out to be Fatih Birol, head of the International Energy Agency, a global quango. Mr Birol, in rather heavily accented English, gave a chewy lecture about his 'three golden rules', the first of which was diversification. 'Not to put all da eggs in vun basget,' said Fatty. The bien-pensants nodded knowingly, veritable connoisseurs of such fare. Rule two was 'predictability' (this has possibly never been a problem with Fatty, for he was no sparkler); rule three was 'de kooperation', which meant countries not competing too much with one another. Conference's moderator Francine Lacqua, from Bloomberg telly, launched the first plenary session with various excellencies: Spain's minister for ecological transition, Iraq's oil minister, a chatty Egyptian, an impenetrable Malaysian, a lad from Colombia. Iraq and Egypt were keen on crude oil but said this subtly enough not to cause offence. The Colombian's English-language interpreter had a growly voice worthy of any Spaghetti Western bandido. I was so gripped by it that I failed to follow the content of his speech. After windy pieties from the floor we moved to the second plenary session: a smooth Frenchman, the Barbadian dame and Tommy Joyce, acting assistant secretary at Donald Trump's energy department. He was in a pinstripe suit of a type Marks & Sparks stopped selling a few years ago. Add a Mormon haircut, college-kid accent and a clipboard speech he served on the assembly's snoots like a bailiff's writ. Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer, center, meets Britain's Energy Secretary Ed Miliband, left, and Fatih Birol, right, Executive Director at the International Energy Agency (IEA) for day one of the International Summit on the Future of Energy Security at Lancaster House in London, England, Thursday April 24, 2025 The White House intended to 'bring back common sense' on 'so-called renewables'. Joe Biden was attacked, as was China, which had too much of a grip on the wind turbines industry. Net Zero and corporate wokery caused human suffering. The US would have no truck with such lunacies. Every other speaker was clapped. Mr Joyce put down his clipboard to the racket you hear at rush hour on planet Jupiter. The Bloomberg TV woman finally broke the silence by saying, somewhat stickily: 'The messaging is pretty clear.' Later Mr Joyce returned to the fray to say that 'we remember God's golden rule that we should love our neighbour as ourself and let others lift themselves out of poverty' by using oil. Sir Keir Starmer made a fraudulent speech. The EU's Ursula von der Leyen queened over the conference as if she owned the place. Fatty repeated his golden rules. But after Trumpster Tommy it was all pointless.
