WHO am I?
I’m 33 years of age and was born and raised in country Victoria.
Since winning the 2009 US PGA Tour Rookie of the Year award, I have gone on to register three victories on golf’s grandest stage, just two short of Greg Norman at the same age.
My $23.9 million in career earnings already ranks me 73rd on the PGA Tour’s all-time moneylist. This year alone I banked $7.3m – more than Jason Day and Adam Scott combined.
I love a laugh and beer with my mates and still choose to fly economy so that I can pour more cash into my charity, the Begin Again Foundation, set up to help families suffering from illness after my wife Audrey’s near death to Toxic Shock Syndrome.
Just this year I was labelled “Australia’s most unappreciated sports star” and went within a whisker of winning golf’s most lucrative prize, the FedEx Cup …
Many non-golfers would struggle to link the name Marc Leishman to those accomplishments. It’s a sign of the anonymity Leishman has enjoyed for much of his pro career. But on his current rate of improvement, he will have to get used to a higher media profile.
Leishman was the shining light on what was Australia’s least productive season in seven years on the US PGA Tour. He collected half of Australia’s four titles. (Evergreen Rod Pampling won the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in Las Vegas, while rising star Cameron Smith teamed with Swede Jonas Blixt to take out the Zurich Classic of New Orleans.)
It was the first season since 2012 that neither Day or Scott failed to record a tour victory. And, Australians failed to record a top-five finish across the four Majors for the first time since 2010.
More concerning, however, was the fact we failed to have a single winner on the secondary Web.com Tour – former Australian Open winner Matt Jones saving face on the final day of the season to finish 17th on the Web.com Tour’s money list and secure his US PGA Tour card.
In short, it would have spelt an incomprehensible disaster, if not for that man Leishman.
Our US-based PGA Tour editor Evin Priest has spent countless hours following Leishman over the past 12 months and quickly noted traits that put him in a league of his own. “’Leish’ never lets his mood dictate how he deals with media post-round. His answers after a 76 wouldn’t be that different from a 66. Not that he shot many 76s this year,” says Priest.
“He has a polite confidence. He knows he can beat the world’s best golfers, but he won’t tell you he can’t and he won’t tell you he definitely will. He’ll just go out and beat them. It was frustrating watching broadcast coverage of the US PGA Tour this year because Leish was more often than not one or two off the lead, but he’d get next to no coverage while networks scrambled to show Phil Mickelson scraping in to make a cut.”
That all changed when Leishman obliterated the field at the BMW Championship in September, his second win of the season after stealing the show in March’s emotional Arnold Palmer Invitational.
“Leish rose to a career-high ranking of world No.15 immediately after winning the BMW. But if he climbed to No.1, he’d still be the same bloke from Warrnambool,” adds Priest, who admits he can’t recall a more popular player-caddie combination on tour than Leishman and his bagman and childhood mate, Matty Kelly. “That relationship is a big part of his success,” says Priest. “Everyone loves them and goes out of their way to say hello on the practice fairway. I don’t think I’ve ever seen more top-ranked players include a caddie in their congratulatory tweets than after Leish won the BMW. To me that says a lot.”
So how good can Leishman be? The sky’s the limit when you’ve been gifted the natural ability and carefree attitude of the humble country boy – not to mention a strong frame that rarely sets foot in a gym and “hasn’t gone for a run in 10 years.”
To think there were times during those dark days when, fearing that his boys would grow up without their mother, Leishman seriously contemplated retirement. As Audrey lay lifeless in a medically-induced coma, Leishman played videos of his children, Harvey and Ollie – hoping their mum could somehow hear their voices.
Two years on, a healthy Audrey still has her husband by her side, living his dream but refusing to change one bit.
While he’s become a champion player, Leishman remains a champion family man, evidenced by the fact he will skip the Australian Open to be with his loved ones, which recently expanded with the arrival of baby No.3.
Life’s good being a Leishman.
Brad Clifton
Editor-in-Chief
Twitter: @bradcliffo
