Laird Shepherd

Member at Rye Golf Club, East Sussex, Shepherd graduated in June 2020 from the University of Stirling.
Dean Robertson, the former Scottish European Tour player, helped Laird with coaching at the University of Stirling as part of their golf program.
His girlfriend is amateur golfer Chloe Goadby, who won the Scottish Women's Amateur Championship at Gullane in June 2021. Twin brother, Callum, is a professional flat jockey.
This was Shepherd's fourth start in The Amateur Championship. He played in The Amateur Championship at Royal St George's in 2017, shooting 71-72 to finish T-90th and didn't make it to match play.
Is healthy again after a left knee operation at the end of 2018 and recent back issues. To help pay the bills he worked in a Tesco call center during COVID-19 lockdowns. When Shepherd showed up at Nairn Golf Club in Scotland for the 2021 Amateur Championship, little did he know what was ahead of him. After a first-round 77 things looked grim, but he was able to shoot 70 in the second round to finish at 5 over and T-51st and just on the cut-line to get into match play. He then beat five golfers to make it to the finals against fellow Englishman Monty Scowsill. In the morning round, he played terribly, making five bogeys and 13 pars. After 17 holes he was 8 down, he got one back at 18 when Sowsill make a double bogey. Things didn't get any better at the start of the afternoon round, he made bogey at the 4th but got lucky that Scowsill also would make bogey so he was 7 down with 14 holes to play. Shepherd birdied 5, 8, and 9 to bring the margin down to 4, but with a bogey at 11, it went back to 5 down with just 7 holes left. He got one back at 12 but time was running out when they both made pars at 13 and 14 and was 4 down with 4 to play. He won the remaining holes to square the match. In sudden death, he won on the 2nd hole, the 38th hole of the match with a par. The comeback will go down as one of the most stunning comebacks in golf and got him into the British Open, where he missed the cut, and the Masters.
He played in three European Tour events in 2021, missing the cut in the Hero Open, 68th in the Cazoo Classic and missing the cut at the Andalucia Masters. In the English Men's Open Amateur Stroke Play Championship, he was T-27th and he was T-86th at the 2022 Spanish Amateur Copa S M El Rey. In the Georgia Cup, which matches the U.S. Amateur Champion and the British Amateur champion, James Piot beat Shepherd 1 up