Laird's gaffe hands title to Kuchar

PARAMUS, N.J.

Pressure does strange things to men.

Not everyone has the stomach to make a putt to win a tournament.

But Martin Laird didn’t need to; he just had to two-putt from 23 feet to win The Barclays on Sunday and collect $1.35 million as well as rocket to the lead in the race for the $10 million FedEx Cup.

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For anyone with a name stitched onto their golf bag, it should’ve been a formality.

Matt Kuchar, who’d posted a five-under-par final round of 66 and was sitting at 12 under par for the tournament, thought he’d come up one stroke short when Laird hit the green from the left rough on the 72nd hole.

“Once he hit that great shot just to the back fringe on 18, I was pretty much shutting down my practice session,” Kuchar said later.

“I went over and just was a spectator thinking that he’s got this wrapped up.

“(I) was basically ready to go over and shake his hand.”

But instead of trickling his first putt down to the hole and tapping in for victory, Laird watched helplessly as his first putt ran past the hole. And not just a little.

Far from celebrating the greatest success of his career, the 27-year-old Scotsman instead faced the longest 7 feet of his life.

Alas, his putt didn’t scare the hole.

Kuchar knows the one about looking in the mouth of gift horses and made an unforgettable birdie on the first playoff hole, gouging a 7-iron out of the left rough and watching his ball take the slope of the green and settle 2 feet from the pin.

“I feel bad for Martin,” said Kuchar, who has an "aw shucks" sort of Jimmy Stewart quality to him.

“You don’t want to win with a guy three-putting the last hole.

“But it’s a nerve-wracking game.

“I’ll tell you, that 2-footer I had in the playoff, I was extremely nervous.”

He was not alone on a day when many of golf’s young guns couldn’t close the deal at Ridgewood Country Club.

Luke Donald got off to a scintillating start, making birdie on the first six holes, turned in 28, then limped home with a 40 on the inward nine. Adam Scott made five birdies but couldn’t stop three-putting, finishing the day at even par. His compatriot, Jason Day, who is 22, could also only muster a 71.

And then there was Dustin Johnson.

Fresh off his nightmare two-stroke penalty at the PGA Championship, he started the day in the final twosome.

At nine under par, he was three shots behind Laird and was coming off a third-round 64.

But the demons that caused Johnson to implode in the final round of the U.S. Open haven’t gone away.

He was the only player in the top 10 to shoot over par on Sunday.

His final-round scoring average this season is 72.69, more than two shots worse than his average in any other round.

For Johnson to become the player all the savants think he can be, he needs to find a way to play well on Sunday afternoons.

At Ridgewood on Sunday, he played the par fives in two over par. A ludicrous proposition for a player of his prodigious length off the tee.

And then there was the story of the 33 putts.

Kuchar, on the other hand, had 24 putts on Sunday.

The 32-year-old has 10 top-10 finishes this season and leads the PGA Tour with a scoring average of 69.62 and, now, the money list, too.

He said he didn’t need a win to legitimize his season but the look on his face revealed that it sure didn’t hurt.

“I would have shut down the year had I not won and been very pleased with my year,” he said.

“To win, it’s an incredible year.

“There’s nothing like the feeling of winning a PGA Tour golf tournament. You feel like you are the best player in the world for this week. It’s an amazing feeling.”

Tiger Woods used to know that feeling. And, he thinks, he will again.

Woods started with a 66 and finished with a 67 to end The Barclays in a tie for 12th.

“If I would have putted like I did today in the middle two rounds, I would be up there,” he replied when I asked how close he felt he was to winning.

“People don’t realize you really have to putt. Granted my swing’s a lot better, but you still have to make putts.”

Woods said he was “very pleased” with the way he played on Sunday, his five birdies offset by just one bogey, caused by a “stuck” swing on the 10th hole.

“I certainly haven’t won all year but this is a week I was very close.

He said he’d return to Orlando to work more with instructor Sean Foley before heading to the outskirts of Boston for the Deutsche Bank event next weekend.

He’s currently 65th in the FedEx Cup standings and needs to stay inside the top 70 to progress the following week to the BMW Championship in Chicago. After that, the top 30 players move to The Tour Championship in Atlanta.

“Looking forward to it,” he said, “The next three venues I’ve won on, so I’m going to three venues I’m very familiar with and looking forward to it.”