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Scots golf star drops out of full PGA Tour status for first time in 15 years – despite winning $100,000 in latest event

MARTIN LAIRD has been a staple on the PGA Tour for over a decade.

But that will all change next season and he faces a desperate fight to win back his status at golf‘s elite level.

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Martin Laird, of Scotland, has lost his full PGA Tour card for the first time[/caption]
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The Scot finished well at the RSM Classic but not well enough for full Tour status
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The big-hitting Scot finished in a tie for 17th in the RSM Classic in Detroit at the weekend.

While that was good enough to earn him $104,690 (£83,059.94) of cash in the bank, it WASN’T enough to ensure he retained his full PGA Tour card.

In order to keep his full playing status, Laird needed to jump into the top 125 of the FedEx Cup standings.

But he was only able to gain five places, moving from 152nd to 147th.

That slight jump in itself proved crucial – but more on that later.

Laird, 41, turned professional in 2004 but took four years to break onto the PGA Tour.

Originally from Glasgow and having played his early golf at Kirkintilloch Golf Club and Hilton Park Golf Club, he moved stateside on a sports scholarship and studied at Colorado State University.

After winning four events at college and then working his way up from PGA Tour Qualifying School and the developmental Nationwide Tour (now known as the Korn Ferry Tour), the Scot struggled in his rookie season on the full tour and only just managed to retain his status by making a nail-biting eight-foot par putt on the final hole of the final event of the season.

Laird then had a breakthrough year in 2009 as he banked $1.3m, playing in The Open for the first time and winning his first PGA tournament, the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open.

The Scot helped establish himself on the PGA circuit with statement wins in 2011 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and 2013 at the Valero Texas Open (beating Rory McIlroy by two strokes to the latter prize).

Laird also had consecutive top-five finishes at the prestigious Players Championship, known as golf’s unofficial fifth major, in 2012 and 2013.

He went a whole SEVEN years without a win and his ranking dropped from a year-end high of 47th in 2011 to as low as 340th in 2019.

But he produced a shock repeat of his first Tour win at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in 2020 that saved his PGA status.

Since then Laird has generally kept his ranking within the top 200 but as the PGA Tour undergoes a major transformation to its playing membership, spots in golf’s most esteemed circuit are becoming harder to come by.

For 2025, only the players who finished in the top 125 in the FedEx Cup rankings in 2024 would retain their full playing cards.

And in 2026 that number will drop to 100.

However, those who finished in spots 126-150 in 2024 will be granted conditional status on the tour – and this is the category Laird falls into.

Conditional status reduces a player’s playing rights drastically, meaning they can often only enter certain events when fully exempt players have either pulled out due to injury, decided to play elsewhere or taken a week off.

So with Laird finishing 147th, that is the prospect he faces next year which means he will have to drop down to play events on the Korn Ferry Tour – unless he re-enters Qualifying School for the first time in 20 YEARS.

If he opts to enter Qualifying School he can improve his standing so that he is A) a full card member again or B) higher up in the rankings for when players drop out of competitions.

With only 100 full playing cards being issued in 2026, it means Laird faces an uphill battle over the next 12 months to win back his full playing rights for the foreseeable future.

Laird’s best finish across 26 events in 2024 was at the Cognizant Classic, where he secured a tie for ninth.

It meant he took home $770,034 in earnings for the year his lowest since the Covid-curtailed 2019-2020 campaign (in which he only entered 12).

Laird banked $1.3m last season, $1.1m the previous year and $1.8m the year before.

The 2011 season was his best for earnings as he raked in a cool $2.7m.

Fellow Brit Matt Wallace has also lost his full PGA Tour card but the Englishman has fared better on the DP World Tour this year, rising to 65th in the world rankings thanks to his success there.

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