MARTIN LAIRD reckons he can sneak in under the radar and make a big noise in this week’s Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open at Gullane.

The 32-year-old Glaswegian has made the journey back to his homeland from the US to join a sizeable tartan army competing in the £3.25million showpiece over the East Lothian links.

Laird, who was fifth in the Scottish Open at Castle Stuart in 2013, claimed the last of his three PGA Tour wins in Texas two years ago.

Since then, the exiled Scot, who carried the saltire in the upper echelons of the global rankings, has dropped out of the world’s top 100.

Laird has shown signs that he can get back to his best with a trio of top-10 finishes earlier in the season.

The former Scottish Youths’ champion remains his own harshest critic and the high standards that he sets himself will continue to drive him on.

He said: “I guess you could say I’m coming in under the radar a bit because I’ve really not been playing my best for a couple of years.

“Nobody puts more pressure on me to win than I do myself. If I come here and I’m playing well and people are talking about me as one who can win it, or if I come here not playing well and nobody’s talking about me to win it, I still feel the same.

"I want to win it just as much. I feel like I can win it. Coming into a tournament that you want to win and feeling like it’s one you can win produces its own pressure and that’s what motivates me. I’ve always said that outside the majors, this is the one I’d want to win.”

Laird added: “I played really well at the start of the season and there were three weeks in a row where I had a chance to win. Then I kind of went off the boil a bit.

"I really wasn’t driving it well, and that’s normally one of the strengths of my game. You are just kind of battling from there when that’s the case. The last couple of months, though I’ve started to play really well again.

“For a few of those weeks, it was the old ‘playing really well, it’s just not showing yet’. Then, finally, last week at the Travellers Championship, I finished 15th and it was one of those weeks that could have been a lot better.

"It was a week where I felt like I played okay and finished 15th, which is a good sign. I was having weeks where I felt like I was playing well and finishing 40th.

"So I’m always happy when I really don’t feel like I’ve played that good and I have a good finish. Last year, I really didn’t play that well and then about this time of year I started clicking into gear again. Hopefully that’s the case and I can keep it going.”

Despite plenty of links golf experience during his amateur days on the Scottish scene, Laird has little knowledge of this week’s host venue, but the Hilton Park honorary member is looking forward to a different sort of golfing test.

Laird said: “You maybe forget how to play the kind of shots into the wind that links golf will throw at you. It always takes me at least nine holes or maybe a practice round to get used to the clubbing.

"When you’re playing in America, generally the weather’s pretty good, and you can hit it miles. Then you come over here and you hit a five-iron 150 yards. It takes a couple of days to get that into your head again.

"Around the greens, I don’t think you forget. It’s more just getting comfortable hitting those kind of shots again. It might not be a course that people might pick me to win on, but it’s still my favourite type of golf.”