Martin Laird watches a drive during the final round of the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open on Sunday in Las Vegas. Laird won a three-way playoff for his first PGA Tour win since 2013. John Locher/Associated Press

LAS VEGAS — Martin Laird lost a chance to win by making bogey on the 18th hole, only to redeem himself in a three-way playoff with a 20-foot birdie putt on the second extra hole Sunday to win the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open.

Laird ended seven years without a victory in a year filled with so much doubt, including knee surgery right about the time golf was set to resume from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 37-year-old Scot suddenly is flying high.

He needed a sponsor exemption to play the tournament he won in 2009. He ended it with a birdie to beat Matthew Wolff and Austin Cook. It was the third three-man playoff in Las Vegas for Laird, who won in 2009 and lost the following year when Jonathan Byrd made a hole-in-one on the 17th hole at the TPC Summerlin.

Laird had a one-shot lead with two holes to play Sunday when he sent his tee shot on the par-3 17th off a cart path and some 30 yards right of the green with the pin to the right. He hit a chip-and-run over the cart path, under the trees and between a pair of bunkers, and then made a most improbable par with an 18-foot putt.

But he missed the green to the right on the 18th and chipped to 30 feet, two-putting for bogey and a 3-under 68 to fall into a playoff at 23-under 261 with Wolff and Cook, who each closed with a 66.

They all made par on the 18th in the playoff, and then Laird ended it on the 17th. Laird, at No. 358 in the world, becomes the third winner in the last four regular PGA Tour events to be ranked outside the top 300.

Now he has a two-year exemption, and he’s headed back to the Masters in April and the PGA Championship in May.

Laird appeared to have everything going his way when he caught a buried lie near the lip of a bunker while facing a front pin on the par-5 ninth. He blasted away, turned his head and looked back to see the superb shot trickle into the cup for eagle. That gave him a three-shot lead heading to the back nine.

But he couldn’t hold it.

Cook closed within one shot with a 40-foot birdie putt on the 17th and burned the edge of the cup on his birdie attempt on the closing hole. Wolff was never far away and arrived in a powerful burst with a two-putt birdie on the reachable par-4 15th, then blasting a 375-yard drive on the par-5 16th and stuffing wedge to 10 feet for eagle.

Patrick Cantlay, who shared the 54-hole lead with Laird, was the biggest surprise of the day. The 2017 champion and runner-up each of the last two years, Cantlay opened with four bogeys in six holes and closed with a 73.

LPGA: Sei Young Kim lined up for the putt on the 18th hole that would seal her first LPGA major championship and somehow missed by inches. One member of the gallery – in this instance, roughly 75 officials, photographers and course stragglers – even said “she made it.”

Not quite.

The 27-year-old South Korean laughed off the rare misstep, tapped in the winner and shed the unwelcome label of winningest golfer on the tour without a major. Kim raised her arms “Rocky” style, hugged her caddie and, at last, was a major champion.

Sei Young Kim shows off her trophy Sunday after winning the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship in Newtown Square, Pa. Kim closed out a five-shot victory with a 7-under 63, earning her first major championship. Chris Szagola/Associated Press

Kim chewed up Aronimink Golf Club in record style, shooting a 7-under 63 to win the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. She was five strokes better than runner-up Inbee Park, never seriously challenged on the arduous course in suburban Philadelphia.

“I’m actually really hiding my tears at the moment,” she said, standing next to the trophy.

Her dominance was in plain sight. She finished at 14-under 266. Her final-round 63 tied a tournament record, and her 266 set the championship scoring record.

Kim, who earned her 11th LPGA victory, got the championship push rolling when she matched a tournament record with a 29 on the front nine on Friday. She never really slowed down.

About the only surprise Sunday came when her father appeared on a video chat toward the end of her press conference.

“See you soon,” Kim said with a smile and a wave.

She was, Park said, “really untouchable.”

Park, a three-time winner of this event, shot a 5-under 65. Park won the Women’s PGA Championship in 2015 and Kim was in the first group of people on the course to celebrate with her.

Five years later, it was Kim’s time to hoist the trophy.

Kim, a 2016 Olympian, was runner-up at the 2015 Women’s PGA Championship and tied for second at the Evian Championship in 2018. She held the 54-hole lead at a major once, at the 2015 ANA Inspiration, where she finished in a tie for fourth.

She clinched the championship with a round to remember. Kim’s fifth birdie of the day at the par-3 14th gave her a four-shot lead over Park and put her at 12 under for the championship.

She earned $645,000 for the victory. Kim has at least one win in every LPGA Tour season since 2015.

“It was just so hard to believe that she never won a major before because it felt like she won a few,” Park said.

Nasa Hataoka and Carlota Ciganda tied for third at 7 under. Anna Nordqvist (4 under) and Brooke Henderson (3 under) both played in Kim’s group and finished fifth and sixth.

Kim is the latest addition to a growing list of first-time major winners in recent years, a sign of growing parity on the LPGA Tour. Her victory means nine of the last 10 major champions had never won one before. She joins Sophia Popov (Women’s British Open) and Mirim Lee (ANA Inspiration) as this year’s major champions.