Martin Laird is adamant his first PGA Tour victory at the Shriners Open last week can inspire him to even greater heights – starting with this weekend’s Frys.com Open in Arizona.

The 26-year-old went into the event sitting in 134th position on the money list and was only looking to put in a good performance to get him into the top 125 and secure his card for next season.

But the victory has now given him a two-year tour exemption and opened the door to the higher reaches of the game.

He said: “Everything at the moment is so weird and fresh – it’s not really sunk in yet. But now I need to focus on this week and doing well.

“It’s given me so much confidence because it was the first time I was in a position to win and I was surprised as how calm I was.

“It means that I can look to events like the HSBC Champions tournament in China and think about competing – two weeks ago I hadn’t even thought about it.”