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By Dave Lagarde
PGATOUR.com Contributor

The temptation was absolutely killing Martin Laird as the pressure built with a tournament title squarely on the line late Sunday afternoon.

The outright leader since the opening round of the Athens Regional Foundation Classic, Laird had steadfastly stuck to his game plan, avoiding even so much as a cursory glance at the leaderboards as he made his way around the Jennings Mill Country Club golf course. But back-to-back bogeys on the 15th and 16th holes gave him an itch he desperately wanted to scratch.

That's when Laird turned to his caddie Butch Vail and said, "Should I look?''

"No, we're fine right now. Let's just keep going,'' Vail quickly replied.

Hey, what's one little white lie among co-workers?

Martin Laird is the fifth first-time winner on the Nationwide Tour this season. (Cox/WireImage)

No telling what might have happened had Laird, a Nationwide Tour rookie from Glasgow, Scotland, learned the truth -- that Justin Bolli and Jeremy Anderson came charging at him on the back nine by shooting 32 and 30 respectively -- at that extremely ticklish moment. Laird's bogeys and the braces of birdies by Bolli and Anderson had created a three-way tie for the lead, something Laird finally discovered as he surveyed his 75-yard approach to the par-5 closing hole. The thought occurred that Vail absolutely had done the right thing.

"I didn't feel pressure because I didn't look at the leaderboards,'' he said. "I had no idea how I was standing, which is exactly why I don't do it.''

His first glance told Laird all he needed to know.

"When I saw I had to make birdie I had no decision -- I had to try to hit it close,'' he said. "But if I knew at 18 tee that I had to make birdie to win, I guarantee that landing area on my last tee shot would've just shrunk.''

Displaying talent and nerve, Laird's sand wedge pulled up 7 feet from the cup. He saw a left-edge putt. He drilled it to fuel a Nationwide Tour trickle that is rapidly becoming a trend. Laird is the Tour's fifth first-time winner in seven events in 2007. His wire-to-wire victory, worth $90,000 and a leap into seventh place on the all-important money list that rewards its top 25 with PGA TOUR playing privileges, was the first since Kevin Na turned the high-degree-of-difficulty trick in October of 2006.

The journey to the winner's circle in Bogart, Ga., began when Laird, 24, was a highly impressionable 11-year-old. His father, Charles, introduced him to the game as soon as he could walk, but the fire to play competitively was lit when he attended the British Open at Turnberry in 1994. He followed Greg Norman for nine holes, and the hook was set.

"It was just the way he played,'' Laird said of Norman. "He was the power guy in the game, one of the finest drivers of the ball ever.''

In that sense then, Laird's victory was definitely Normanesque. Showing his ability as a ball-striker, Laird led the field in driving distance (327.1 yards), driving accuracy (89.3 percent) and greens in regulation (80.6 percent).

Bolli, a University of Georgia alum, saw Laird's game first-hand when paired with him in the first two rounds of the South Georgia Classic the previous week. He was duly impressed.

"The guy can hit it a mile; I could tell he was a very good player and that he had all the shots,'' he said. "It's the hardest thing to do on this Tour, go wire-to-wire. That's very difficult to sleep on the lead every night. A guy deserves it if he does that.''

Laird admitted Monday that he had little trouble nodding off while sitting in first place. Sunday evening was a totally different story.

"I only got about two hours of sleep,'' he said groggily. "But it was definitely worth it. I'm feeling a bit hungover.''

Laird first set foot on United States soil when he arrived at Colorado State University in Fort Collins. Although he had been recruited by bigger universities, he found the smaller Mountain West Athletic Conference school more to his liking and felt comfortable dealing with coach Jamie Bermel, who had come over from Drake University, where he coached 2007 Masters champion Zach Johnson, a former Nationwide Tour Player of the Year.

Laird became a two-time All-American for the Rams, setting school records for top 10s (23) and top (31). He won four times as a senior. He won the Denver Open immediately after leaving Colorado State and made it through all three stages of the PGA TOUR Qualifying Tournament.

"I heard all the horror stories about guys not making to finals after trying so many times,'' he said. "I didn't play that well in the third stage, but getting there gave me a confidence boost. It was a sign I could play.''

Laird's 2005 season on the Nationwide Tour sapped him, though. He said he started poorly and only got worse as the long year grinded on endlessly. He knew right away his short game wasn't up to standard. A year on the Gateway Tour took care of his issues as he won his second event and started a string of top-five finishes. He then played his back onto the Nationwide Tour by surviving all three stages of the Qualifying Tournament for the second time in three years.

"I know I'm a better player this time, and this year I felt I could win,'' Laird said. "Two years ago I wasn't sure.''

Laird closed that book of doubt Sunday.