Former Colorado State University golfer Martin Laird didn’t waste any time notching his first top-10 finish of the PGA Tour season.
At the Safeway Open in Napa, Calif., the opener for the 2016-17 wraparound season, Laird tied for eighth on Sunday. The three-time PGA Tour winner shot rounds of 67-68-68-71 for a 14-under-par 274 total. That left him four strokes behind champion Brendan Steele.
Laird (pictured), a past winner of the Denver Open, recorded three top-10s last season, including a runner-up finish at the RBC Canadian Open in July.
Also at the Safeway Open, Gunner Wiebe of Aurora missed the cut after Monday qualifying for the event with a 9-under-par 63 at the Bayonet Course in Seaside, Calif. It was Wiebe’s second PGA Tour start, but his first as a professional. He competed in the 2010 Farmers Insurance Open while a college golfer at the University of San Diego. Wiebe shot rounds of 75-69 in the Safeway Open, falling three strokes short of advancing to the weekend with an even-par 144 total.
Meanwhile, Tom Whitney of Fort Collins finished second Sunday in the Roberto De Vicenzo PGA Tour Latinoamerica tournament in Uruguay.
The former Air Force Academy golfer shot rounds of 68-65-69-67 for an 11-under-par 269 total. He finished five strokes behind champion Guillermo Pereira of Chile.
Whitney eagled two holes in a four-hole stretch on Sunday — Nos. 10 and 13 — and added 15 birdies on the week. For the year on the Latinoamerica circuit, Whitney has notched four top-10 finishes, with Sunday’s runner-up being his best showing. He’s now eighth on the tour money list for 2016, with $50,970.
