The unassuming boy from Warrnambool wouldn’t mind going unnoticed but having committed late to play in the Australian PGA Championship at RACV Royal Pines Resort on the Gold Coast this week, Marc Leishman insists he is ready to steal the limelight from two of golf’s most recognisable faces.
The build-up to this year’s Australian PGA Championship has been dominated by the inclusion of reigning Masters champion Sergio Garcia and Australia’s only Masters victor Adam Scott, allowing Leishman to slip back into the country for a hit-and-run mission that will also include attendance at the Greg Norman Medal dinner on Tuesday night where he is expected to be crowned Australia’s best golfer of 2017.
And if that comes as a surprise to occasional Aussie golf fans used to hearing the names Jason Day and Adam Scott more than any other, Leishman’s ascendancy to be the highest-ranked Aussie in the field comes on the back of a two-win season on the US PGA Tour, five further top-10s and a top-10 finish at the British Open.
Last week prior to the Australian Open Leishman was unveiled as the Australian Golf Digest Player of the Year but says he won’t mind if the galleries following Scott and Garcia later this week dwarf those attached to the No.13-ranked player in the world.
“That’s fine with me. I’ll just take whatever happens. I’m very easy-going. It’s just my personality to keep it low key,” Leishman told Australian Golf Digest. “Hopefully I can play well and prove myself. I’ve probably flown under the radar because I hadn’t put the big results on the board.
“I’d had wins and played well but never really had a good stretch. I’d never put a big, long stretch together, so to do that this year was good – to have two wins and contend in other events.
“I love flying under the radar because I can go wherever I want to go and I’m just a normal person, which I am. At the same time you want to put the runs on the board and if you put the runs on the board then you are on those posters. That comes with good play so hopefully I can continue to play good and be on those posters and all that but I don’t mind flying under the radar at all.”
Leishman finished in a tie for 21st at last year’s Australian PGA Championship, 15 shots behind eventual champion Harold Varner III, and shot 4-under in 2014 to finish in a tie for 11th when Greg Chalmers triumphed.
After a thrilling end to his 2017 US PGA Tour season where he finished sixth in the rich FedEx Cup points race and collected close to $US6 million in prizemoney, the 34-year-old began the 2018 wraparound season with a second-place finish at The CJ Cup @ Nine Bridges in Korea. After a month off he says he is feeling confident about his prospects at winning a first Joe Kirkwood Cup in the co-sanctioned European Tour event.
“The form’s been good all year. I played good in Korea a few weeks ago and I like playing when I’m feeling fresh and coming off a bit of a break. I did that in Korea, I had two weeks off before that where I didn’t touch a club,” Leishman said.
“I’ve played a little bit of golf leading up to this but I’m still fresh and looking forward to getting back out here. It’s a course that you can make birdies on but there’s definitely trouble out there, especially around the greens.
“There are a lot of good players here and anyone who is going to be contending is going to have to play well. You can’t turn up and just expect to be contending just because I’m one of the highest-ranked players. You’ve still got to play well and make those putts.”
