Marc Leishman: Our Hottest Prospect?
BY Anthony Powter | 24 Nov 2008
Marc Leishman returns home ready to secure another win on home soil this summer but this time on the main Australian PGA Tour. He’s arguably one of Australia’s hottest golfing prospects, already making a name for himself in the US with his exciting and blistering style of play.
Leishman now has a PGA Tour player’s card in his pocket after graduating from the Nationwide Tour this season in the US and is eyeing off the big three Australian events, this week’s Australian Masters at Huntingdale, the Australian PGA Championship and the Australian Open.
Marc Leishman Audio Interview
Back in October, Leishman blew away the field at the WNB Golf Classic to record his maiden US Nationwide Tour win, shooting an incredible 21-under-par 267 and equalling the Nationwide Tour’s largest margin of victory of eleven shots.
Records aside, what’s more impressive is Leishman played with only conditional status on the Nationwide Tour this season. The 25-year-old from Warrnambool a coastal town on Lady Bay some 260km south west of Melbourne managed to get starts in twenty-five events, made the cut in sixteen tournaments, had five top-10 finishes including a win and a runner-up finish, and in the process went on to bank US$244,224 to finish 19th on the Nationwide Tour Money List and graduate to the PGA Tour.
Leishman achieved all this in just one season in the US, a relatively short time period by any standard and it is a tangible reflection of his immense potential to become one of Australia’s great players.
“I didn’t play that well at the start of the season,” says Leishman. “It was a little bit of a lean start and I didn’t play that great but managed a few top-10’s and then things started to pick up for me.”
“You always set your goals to make the main tour, and I was expecting it to take a little longer than what it did, but I’m just lucky to have done it in the time that I have.”
Leishman has always possessed a magical game. A game that combines power off the tee with with a deathly touch of class around the green. The signs he would progress to the main tour where there early in his professional career, particularly whilst playing the 2005-06 Von Nida Tour events back in Australia during his rookie professional season.
There was something about his game that separated him from the others in the field.
The ability to shoot low numbers and attack both the course and the field and take an event wire-wire makes Leishman a formidable opponent. This is his style of golf and it’s exactly how he won his first two professional tournaments, the 2006 Toyota Southern Classic on the Von Nida Tour and the 2006 Jisan Resort Open on the Korean PGA Tour where he opened with a 61.
These results came just six months after turning to the paid ranks in September 2005. Leishman’s amateur achievements in 2005 included victories at the Lake Macquarie Amateur and the Keperra Bowl, as well as top-five finishes in the US at the Rice Planters Amateur, Players Amateur and the Porter Cup.
Like all talented amateurs, professional golf seemed only a natural progression and despite not gaining playing privileges in either Asia or the US in 2005, 2006 and 2007, Leishman has moved on and done his share of pre-qualifying and proven that he has the game to now seriously compete on the US PGA Tour. The golfing world is now at his feet and deservedly so.
“My game has progressed and is different to when I first came out on tour,” he now says.
“For a start I’m hitting it straighter and putting better and that obviously helps a lot. But it’s my approach that’s different and I feel that I have the game to take tournaments and I go out there with the mindset that a tournament is there to be won.”
Leishman has graduated with honours from the school of golfing hard knocks to become arguably one of Australia’s most talented rookies set to play on the PGA Tour next season.
Before returning to the US to compete in his first PGA Tour event, the Sony Open in Hawaii, there’s the shortened Australian season and with only three main events on the schedule, Leishman is eager to take one out.
“Looking back at the season in the US it was probably my runner-up finish at Utah in September that gave me the confidence to take my game to the next level.”
“Hopefully I can get an event back home during our summer, which is something all Australian players want. The fields are good and the Australian Open is certainly one to win if you can as is the PGA Championship.”
With his recent stellar achievements in the US, Leishman will certainly be one to follow this summer.
“I’ll see how I go,” says Leishman modestly this afternoon in Melbourne.
“I’m probably playing some of my best golf and that certainly makes for exciting times.”
