A 17-year title drought on home soil is over for Marc Leishman after he made a clutch birdie on the 72nd hole to claim the Vic PGA by a shot over fellow Victorian Josh Younger on Sunday.
On a chilly, windswept day on the Open Course at Moonah Links, where par was a more than adequate score on every hole, Leishman battled to a 4-over-par 76 that was good enough to repeat his 2008 win in the same event, his last success on the Challenger PGA Tour of Australia.
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Since then, more than a dozen victories have come worldwide for the Victorian, including on the PGA Tour and LIV Golf, but this victory was made even more special by having his dad Paul on the bag as caddy and his son Harvey watching on in the gallery.
The 18th hole pin flag will take pride of place in the Leishman family home in Warrnambool.
Leishman finished at 5-under-par to deny Younger (76), who had the outright lead for much of the final round, his first win since the 2019 NSW Open.
The duo was tied coming to the 580m closing hole, Younger running into trouble when his second shot found the fairway bunker around 40 metres short of the green, while Leishman hit his 4-iron approach shot from 239m just over the back.
After Younger came up well short on a very difficult third, Leishman played a chip and run to inside a metre to seal the title.
“It was a brutally tough day,” he said.
“I sort of knew it was going to be like that (but) you hope you can shoot better than that.
“On days like this, obviously you know everyone’s going to be having bogeys and unfortunately I had a few early, but fought back and managed to birdie the last there which was nice.”
Leishman’s victory completed a run of high finishes in recent times, including T3 at both the Nexus Advisernet Bowra & O’Dea WA Open and BMW Australian PGA, backing up his win earlier in the year at LIV Miami.
“I’m really happy to get a victory,” he said.
“I’ve been playing well for the last well all year really. I’ve been hitting the ball great these last three weeks in Australia with not a whole lot to show for it results wise, but it’s nice to walk away with a win here.”
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His second Vic PGA title lifts Leishman to second on the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit and he will now give some thought to possibly adding an event or two in the second half of the 2025/26 season to push for the coveted No.1 spot.
This season’s two Qualifying School winners, Jimmy Zheng and Chris Malec, were the only players to break par on the final day on the Open Course, which averaged 76.47 shots for the day.
New Zealander Zheng’s 71 lifted him to equal third place alongside young Victorian Connor McDade (73) and South Australia’s Adam Bland (74), while Malec jumped from T45 to a share of 21st thanks to a 2-under-par 70, the day before he heads home to the United States.
The Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia will resume after a short Christmas-New Year break with Webex Players Series Perth hosted by Minjee and Min Woo Lee at Royal Fremantle on January 8-11.
