picture – Matt Jones the last Australian to win a One Asia Tour event
Earlier this year the golfing world was surprised by the announcement, essentially in the week of the tournament, that the Solaire Philippine Open would become a One Asia Tour event and that it would be the first of several on a resurrected OneAsia Tour schedule.
Given the demise of OneAsia in recent years it was a surprise to many that the Tour had risen like a Phoenix from the Ashes after its original eleven event schedule in 2011 and 2012 had been reduced to just three by 2017.
Then, in February, came the announcement that the OneAsia Tour was back with the playing of the Philippine Open with a further four events to be scheduled for later in the year in Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Malaysia.
The Philippine Open was duly played and won by local Miguel Tabuena, a former winner of the event who no doubt felt a calling to play his own national open ahead of the Asian Tour and New Zealand Tour’s New Zealand Open which was played the same week.
The OneAsia Tour had earlier included events such as the Australian Open and PGA Championships on its schedule after the PGA of Australia was one of the original driving forces behind the establishment of the rival to the Asian Tour.
An announcement today by the Official World Ranking Board however would appear to be a blow to the standing of the tour, at least at this stage.
The statement read as follows:
“The Official World Golf Ranking Technical Committee and Board have monitored OneAsia over the past two years and reviewed the status of OneAsia as an OWGR Eligible Tour at their recent meetings during April 2018.
The Board’s primary responsibility is to ensure and protect the integrity of the World Ranking and, while it appreciates that OneAsia has received investment to aid a fresh start, it also recognised that there have been significant changes to the Tour’s structure, ownership and management.
It is also noted that OneAsia has not met the standards of an OWGR Eligible Tour for over three years.
In view of this, the Board has decided that OneAsia will no longer be an OWGR Eligible Tour with immediate effect.”
https://www.bruceyoungmedia.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Matthew-Jones-4th-tee.jpg8601200Bruce Younghttps://www.bruceyoungmedia.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/logo.pngBruce Young2018-05-02 10:25:192021-02-03 01:09:51World Ranking Body Says No To One Asia
Anthony Quayle’s runner-up finish at the Japan Golf Tour’s Crowns Tournament in Nagoya provides further evidence that the 23-year old Gold Coast based Northern Territorian is rapidly developing into one of Australia’s most promising young players.
It was his best finish to date since turning professional, was by some way his biggest cheque (A$120,000), provides a great boost of confidence and, importantly, will go a long way to retaining his status in Japan for 2019. Quayle’s finish over the weekend has him in 13th place on the Japan Tour money list and the leading Australasian.
Quayle turned professional late in 2016 after a solid amateur career but was forced to produce a best of the day round of 69 in the final round of qualifying for the Australasian Tour in early 2017 just to gain the right to play that year.
His rise has been if not meteoric then certainly impressive and this weekend’s performance confirms the regard in which he is held by many.
This was Quayle’s third Japan Tour event after earning his status there in December when 4th at the long winded and demanding Japan Tour School but with five top tens in his rookie season on the Australasian Tour last year and a 3rd place finish at this year’s Vic Open things were already looking good prior to heading to Japan.
When he turned professional, Quayle was outside the top 1250 in the world, now 16 months on he is now inside the top 300.
A winner of the North West Amateur in the US and the Keperra Bowl Championship in Australia during his amateur career, Quayle was a contemporary of the likes of Brett Coletta, Cameron Davis, Curtis Luck and Harrison Endycott and actually played with those players in the 2016 Australian team at the Asia Pacific Amateur Championship in Korea.
He now stands higher in the world rankings than all but Australian Open Champion Cameron Davis amongst that group and appears to have found the perfect place to play (Japan) as he develops his career in the paid ranks.
Quayle, now based at Sanctuary Cove on the Gold Coast, is yet another product of the Hills International College’s golf programme where he spent five years after moving there from his family home in Gove in the Northern Territory.
The college, at Jimboomba just south of Brisbane, has proved quite a nursery for Australian and International golfers with two world number ones, Jason Day and Taiwan’s Yani Tseng, having spent time there during their formative golfing years.
Quayle has done all that could be asked of him and more at this stage of his career but it would seem there is a lot more to come.
Brendan Jones with the 2011 Crowns Tournament Trophy
43 year old Australian Brendan Jones is in contention for yet another victory in Japan and if he was to convert his second place at the halfway point of the Crowns Tournament in Nagoya this weekend it would be his 15th title on the Japan Golf Tour.
Jones first joined the Japan Golf Tour in 2001 after his long-time coach and mentor Alex Mercer convinced him to test the competitive water of professional golf in Japan before considering other golfing arenas.
Seventeen years later Jones is the most prolific foreign money earner in the history of the Japan Tour (equivalent A$12 million) and displayed it is possible to develop a very successful career by commuting to and from one of the world’s leading tours rather than establishing a base in that country.
Jones did try the USPGA Tour in 2005 and 2006 after success on the Web.Com Tour in 2004. He was one of the beneficiaries of the push by the then Nationwide Tour into Australasia through much of the 2000’s, twice finishing runner-up in events in Adelaide and Christchurch and gaining limited status on the secondary tour in the US.
That status improved when he won an event in Chicago and finished runner-up, the limited status becoming full status and ultimately a card on the PGA Tour in 2005.
He would return to Japan full time in 2007 after splitting his time between the tours in 2006, injury and perhaps craving for a return to a lifestyle he had enjoyed earlier the driving force behind the change. The decision was soon vindicated when winning on three occasions that year and Japan was where he would stay. It was a case of back to the future.
Jones has escaped the attention of many Australian golf fans as when the flagship events of the Australasian Tour are being played in November and December he is involved in the lucrative, end of season events in Japan.
He has however played well on occasions in his home country having finished runner-up to Peter Senior at the 2012 Australian Open at the Lakes after a brilliant last round in some of the most demanding conditions imaginable saw him so nearly secure his national open.
Jones with a putt that could have forced a playoff at the 2012 Australian Open
Such a win in his home country might have alerted Australian golf fans to just how good Jones is although fame is not necessarily something he pursues. Rather the chance to ply his trade in a commercially successful way and to be able to commute between his family in Canberra and Japan which he has done for so long now is his motivation in staying on the Japan Tour.
Jones underwent surgery for a wrist injury in 2013 and it appeared for a while as if it might be a career altering moment but nearly three years later he won again and has had several other top three finishes since.
This weekend he gets the chance to win his 15th Japan Tour title in an event he has won previously but, even if he does not, the former Australian Amateur Champion continues to perform with great success as arguably the most successful foreign golfer in the history of the Japan Tour.
I say arguably as Graham Marsh was also a hugely successful player in Japan although some of his early success there came before the forming of the Japan Golf Tour as we now know it.
Either way Brendan Jones perhaps has a greater place in Australasian golf than his profile here suggests.
It is not something that appears to bother him greatly however.
https://www.bruceyoungmedia.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Brendan-Jones-Crowns-2011.jpg416650Bruce Younghttps://www.bruceyoungmedia.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/logo.pngBruce Young2018-04-27 10:09:512021-02-03 01:09:51Brendan Jones – continues to fly under the radar
While she will no doubt be disappointed by her near miss in a Ladies European Tour event in Morocco over the weekend, 32 year old New South Wales golfer, Sarah Kemp, will be buoyed by the boost it has given her both in terms of confidence and bank balance and that it vindicates what must have been a difficult decision for her to make late in 2017.
It was her equal best finish in a four-round event in professional golf and further confirms what must have been a painstaking choice to focus her full attention in Europe rather than continuing her very limited success on the LPGA Tour.
As an amateur Kemp was one of Australia’s best of her era. Victories at the Australian Strokeplay (twice), the Australian Junior Championship and playing in Australian teams at the World Amateur Championship, the Tasman Cup and the Queen Sirikit Cup highlighted a successful amateur career and saw her turn professional in 2005 with significant credentials for a professional career.
She had an excellent first season on the Ladies European Tour in 2006 after comfortably gaining status there at her first attempt at qualifying and later that year finished 9th at the LPGA Tour Q School and played the LPGA Tour as a rookie in 2008. It was a dream start.
Despite the significant progress she had made in such a short time however Kemp regularly flirted between full and conditional status on the LPGA Tour over the next ten years, supplementing her schedule and income by regular visits to the Ladies European Tour.
By late in 2017 however she had reached a point where the idea of continually pursuing the next level on the LPGA Tour proved too much for her and she made the (perhaps difficult) decision to focus her attention in 2018 on the Ladies European Tour.
During the McKayson New Zealand Women’s Open Championship in Auckland in September Kemp had reached the crossroads. Being the last full field event of the season and well outside where she needed to be to regain full LPGA Tour status again she needed something special that week if she was to regain the right to play in the US but it was not to be.
Kemp during an Australian event – photo Bruce Young
Kemp did play well in Auckland. After winning a pro am in the lead-up she was well enough placed heading into the horror weather of the final day where a round of 77 saw her finish 41st.
It was a finish which further confirmed the direction she needed and indeed had to take and so any thought of heading back to the LPGA Tour School was abandoned and she would focus her attention on Europe.
“It has been a real mental struggle – I didn’t really start the year well although I haven’t played all that badly, especially tee to green,” said Kemp in Auckland.
“I had a poor year in 2016 and decided not to go back to Tour School which, in hindsight, perhaps I should have but instead played the early season events and because of a reasonable week at the Australian Open I did ok in the re-rank and managed to play a reasonable amount of events but kept missing cuts.
“I look at those around me and feel I can compete but it is just that one up and down or one birdie putt that didn’t go in and there is my 1 or 2 over and on the LPGA Tour you can’t afford to shoot over par as the cuts every week are generally under par.
“So, it has been tough to keep going in the hope that something will turn around and keep pushing through it and ten events later I still haven’t made a cut.”
While the lure of the LPGA Tour and its riches are no doubt enticing, Kemp is well aware that the style of golf and courses in Europe and the countries the Ladies European Tour travels to are better suited to her game.
“I have had a better record there and that the courses are a bit shorter probably suits me but it would be nice to get back to the States.”
By focusing her full attention in Europe in 2018 however Kemp may well rebuild some of the confidence that years of battling the rigours of the LPGA Tour has eaten away and there could well be the opportunity to tackle the US again in the future if she so chooses.
Her performance in Morocco suggests that decision is already being vindicated and that long awaited first win in Europe may not be far away.
She might also see other arenas as a possibility such as Japan and even if she never plays the LPGA Tour again Sarah Kemp is already proving more than capable of building a very successful ongoing career.
He might have only just made the cut at the Valero Texas Open in San Antonio today but for 47 year old Queenslander John Senden it may well have felt like a performance of far greater significance and, to add to the joy, it was his birthday.
Twelve months ago, following this very event, Senden took a break from the game to be with his son Jacob who was undergoing heavy treatment for a brain tumour highlighting that for Senden and most others who would find themselves in such a predicament attending to family comes first.
Senden returned to competitive golf a month ago at the Web.Com Tour event in Louisiana where he missed the cut and did so again at last week’s RBC Heritage Classic but with those two outings now under his belt and the improvement competitive golf offers he has produced a second round of 70 to be in 48th position.
Senden a two time winner on the PGA Tour in addition to his 2006 Australian Open Championship title, has been a solid performer on the PGA Tour since first joining it in 2002 and has since secured earnings of US$21.5 million on that tour alone.
Senden has what is known as a ‘Family Crisis’ exemption to the PGA Tour where he has 13 starts to earn 310 FedEx Cup points – the amount needed to finish 125th last season.
Jacob Senden still has a tough road ahead, but the tumour has reduced in size, and for father John that he has been able to be there for his son and yet successfully return to one of the other great loves of his life (golf) today must have been an emotional one in so many ways.
https://www.bruceyoungmedia.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/John-Senden-Masters-day-1.jpg8181200Bruce Younghttps://www.bruceyoungmedia.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/logo.pngBruce Young2018-04-21 02:10:582021-02-03 01:09:51Emotional and milestone day for John Senden
43 year old New Zealander Mark Brown today became one of just two players to break 60 on two occasions when he achieved the feat during the second round of the Jennian Homes Charles Tour’s Carrus Tauranga Open in New Zealand’s Bay of Plenty.
Jim Furyk achieved the same feat when he produced a round of 58 at the 2016 Travelers Championship on the PGA Tour to add to his round of 59 at the 2013 BMW Championship.
For Brown, however, his two sub 60 rounds have come at the Tauranga Golf Club which he knows well as the former Wellingtonian is based in Tauranga these days.
Brown, a winner on both the European and Asian Tours earlier in his career, shot the same score four years ago, to join Richard Lee who also recorded the magical number at the former home of the New Zealand PGA Championship in 2010, the layout admittedly conducive to low scores but to perform such a feat on two occasions is quite a feat for Brown.
The score is the third best recorded in tournament golf worldwide, Furyk and Japan’s Ryo Ishikawa having produced rounds of 58 in respective events on the PGA and Japan Tours.
Ishikawa’s fellow countryman Shigeki Maruyama also recorded a round of 68 in US Open Sectional Qualifying in 2010.
“It feels amazing, this place is pretty special to me so it’s special to do it in front of all the members and supporters here,” said Brown.
“I thought about it [shooting 59] when there was about five holes to go and was thinking about going even lower than 59 at one stage, but I didn’t play two or three holes well towards the end.
Brown holes from off the final green for birdie
After 16 superb holes of golf, the highlight of his round and maybe even his career came on the par three ninth where he holed a flop shot from a hugely difficult spot.
“It was a terrible tee shot, I tried to hit a little six-iron in there and it was a really poor shot under that pressure, then got to the chip and it wasn’t the easiest shot either. I said to Micaela [caddie and wife] that it was either going to be a four or a two and just opened the face and let go.
“It was probably one of the best shots I’ve hit in my career.”
Brown, looking to win the Tauranga Open for the 4th consecutive year, leads by two over rookie New Zealand professional James Anstiss.
https://www.bruceyoungmedia.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Mark-Brown-59.jpg7921200Bruce Younghttps://www.bruceyoungmedia.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/logo.pngBruce Young2018-04-20 12:03:002021-02-03 01:09:51Mark Brown joins select club in Tauranga
In winning the RBC Heritage Classic in a playoff against Si Woo Kim on Hilton Head Island today, 28-year old Japanese golfer Satoshi Kodaira became just the 4th golfer from his country to win on the PGA Tour.
As a result of his win Kodaira moves to a personal high of 27 in the world ranking, earns the right to take up membership of the PGA Tour and if his post victory comments are anything to go by then the USA will be his hunting ground in the mid to long term.
“This is a stage I’ve been dreaming about,” said Kodaira. “And having this opportunity to play full-time is a dream come true. So, of course, I will accept the full-time membership.”
Kodaira will join his fellow countryman Hideki Matsuyama (two years his junior) on the PGA Tour and today spoke about what an inspiration the now five time winner of the PGA Tour has been to him.
“I’ve been watching Hideki Matsuyama in Japan, and I’ve always looked up to him or wanted to play just as well. So I feel that I’m getting closer to that level. So I’d like to do my best in major championships and hopefully work hard at it.
“Hideki is a great player, and of course I’m not as good as him, but I’m getting closer. But his course management skills is what I’d like to learn from him or being better at management of the course.”
Isao Aoki, Shigeki Maruyama, Hideki Matsuyama and now Kodaira are Japanese golfers to have won on the world’s most significant tour, Aoki becoming the first with his Hawaiian Open win in 1983, Maruyama with three victories and Matsuyama with five and climbing.
The six time Japan Tour event winner won his first PGA Tour title in just his 15th start but he has been a prolific winner of titles and money in Japan since first joining that tour in 2011 as a 21 year old.
Not only has he won six titles in his home country he has been a consistently high finisher especially over the last eighteen months or so.
In fact in his two Japan Tour starts this season in Myanmar and Singapore he had finished runner-up and then with the right to play events in Australia and the US he continued that good form including a debut 28th at the Masters.
It was not only the victory but rather the manner of his win today that so impressed a rather shocked golfing audience who were least expecting a win by a man with such limited experience in this situation.
Kodaira’s final round of 66 was the equal best of the day and his second round of 63 also set the tone on Friday.
This win perhaps more than many of the others will offer the belief of other Japanese players such as Yuta Ikeda, Yusaku Miyazato, Hideto Tanihara and indeed Ryo Ishikawa that winning on the holy grail of professional golf, the PGA Tour is not the bridge too far it might have previously seemed.
Now the task for a male Japanese golfer to reach greatness and receive cult status in his home country is to win a major.
It is not the near impossible dream it might have been two years ago.
Photo top – Matsuyama – Japan’s best internationally thus far
The Japan Golf Tour’s domestic season gets underway this week with the staging of their traditional season opener, the Token Homemate Cup in Nagoya.
While the Japan Tour has already played two events of their 2018 schedule, those events were in Myanmar and Singapore which has now been the case for the past three years. But as Japan emerges from its winter and early spring, the temperatures warm up and as has been the case over the history of the event, in the now 25-year old Token Homemate Cup has played its role in kicking off the Japan Tour’s home schedule.
Ten Australians will tee it up this week, three playing the Japan Tour in Japan as cardholders for the very first time namely Anthony Quayle, Andrew Evans and Aaron Wilkin.
The three played their way onto the Japan Golf Tour by securing cards at the Q School last December, Quayle finishing an impressive 4th, Andrew Evans 16th and Aaron Wilkin23rd at that testing examination.
Quayle has done well in the first year of his professional career, recording seven top tens in PGA Tour of Australasia events including a 3rd place finish at the Oates Victorian Open and by finishing 4th at the Q-School he gets plenty of early season starts to advance his cause.
32 year old Evans’ career claim to fame is his runner-up finish to Peter Senior at the 2015 Australian Masters at Huntingdale and a 3rd place finish at the 2016 Fiji International.
Wilkin has struggled in his few years in the professional ranks but by earning the right to play in Japan in 2018 he at least has a quality tour on which to play this year and the chance to improve his standing in the game.
The three rookies will be joined by former winner Brendan Jones, Brad Kennedy, Matthew Griffin, David Bransdon, Scott Strange, Todd Sinnott and Won Joon Lee.
Another former winner in New Zealander, Michael Hendry, makes up the Australasian contingent, Hendry having won the title in 2015.
The Japan Tour season consists of twenty-five events carrying prizemoney between A$900,000 to A$2.5 million.
Jones is the highest earning foreigner in the history of the Japan Golf Tour, his 14 victories there generating earnings close to A$12 million.
Brendan Jones with one of his many Japan Tour trophies
Feature photo (top) Anthony Quayle courtesy of NZPGA
https://www.bruceyoungmedia.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Anthony-Quayle-NZPGA-rd-3.jpg8001200Bruce Younghttps://www.bruceyoungmedia.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/logo.pngBruce Young2018-04-10 05:35:402021-02-03 01:09:51Japan Golf Tour begins its domestic season
Patrick Reed’s Masters victory today takes him to another level in the game, moving the 27 year old to 11th in the world ranking from his previous 24th and although he has been as high as 7th 18 months ago, this win takes him to a level in the game both in reality and perception that he has never been to previously.
As a major champion he joins a particularly elite group of the game’s best and perhaps even more so as a winner of the Masters.
While all the talk internationally will be on the breakthrough major championship for the feisty now six-time PGA Tour title winner and his showdown with Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler, for Australians the performance of both Cameron Smith and Marc Leishman remain as their highlights from the 2018 Masters.
Both Smith and Leishman stormed home over the closing few holes of the Augusta National layout to finish tied 5th and 9th respectively today, Smith in particular continuing to build on his reputation as a player capable of joining the elite of the game himself in the years ahead.
Brisbane’s, Smith, was playing in just his 7th major championship, his first appearance when 4th at the 2015 US Open at Chambers Bay essentially launching him onto the world stage for the first time, eventually that effort earning him the right to play the PGA Tour in 2016.
It was that performance that also gained him his first start at Augusta National in 2016. The leading four players at the previous year’s US Open are automatically invited to the Masters and Smith did well when making the cut on debut.
A third round of 82 that year was a little hard to take but importantly he had learned so much in that first year about the nuances and subtleties of the great layout to stand him in such good stead the next time round.
Back in 2018 as a considerably more experienced and skilled player he slowly but surely worked his way into the tournament and after comfortably making the weekend by finishing six shots inside the cutline he had established a base on which to build over the final 36 holes.
Round three was going very nicely until two late bogeys but at 3 under he was nicely poised to post one of his best major championship finishes and further his credentials for the road ahead.
Sunday however would see much better than that. Only two players, Paul Casey and Jordan Spieth, would better his final round 66 although a missed four-footer at the last proved both frustrating and costly for Smith.
His back nine of 30 however was sensational, a run of four consecutive birdies from the 12th setting up the brilliant closing nine holes.
“I saw a good putt go in on the 10th and that set things up for the rest of the back nine,” he said after his round today. “I hit a really good shot into 16 also and came up a little short but 6 under around here on the back nine I will take any day.
“The best part of today was to get a little bit of confidence going into next week with the driver. I struggled with that earlier in the week but hit it really good today so that is perhaps the best thing I will take out of today.”
Smith moves to 39th in the world ranking his highest standing ever, he earns US$368,000, takes his career earnings in the US to well over US$ 5 million and importantly gets another crack at the Masters in 2019.
Getting to know Cameron Smith
Smith took to the game like a duck to water when first introduced by his father at the age of 3 and after winning the Australian Stroke-play twice in 2011 and 2012 and the Australian Amateur Championship in 2013 he quickly adapted to professional life in 2014 after gaining his Asian Tour card early that year.
He finished runner-up to Anirban Lahiri in one of the early season events in Jakarta and he was on his way. It would however be a 5th place finish at the CIMB Classic late in the Asian Tour season, an event jointly sanctioned with the PGA Tour that elevated his standing even further.
As a result of that finish he had a start on the PGA tour and with his management company working overtime more would come. A 15th place finish at Hilton Head helped his cause but it was his big cheque at Chambers Bay that changed his direction.
His first PGA Tour win came in 2017 when partnering Swede Jonas Blixt to victory in a tournament in New Orleans but his first professional victory on his own came when winning the Australian PGA Championship in a playoff (see photo above) against Jordan Zunic last December.
At home also he so nearly won the 2016 Australian Open when losing a playoff to Jordan Spieth and Ashley Hall at Royal Sydney but it is in the US where he keeps stepping up to the plate and in some respects ‘boxing above his weight’.
His first individual win in the US must come soon and there will be little surprise when it does either from his peers or the golfing public generally who are becoming increasingly aware of the considerable game and mindset he possesses.
Next week for Smith will be the RBC Heritage Classic at Hilton Head a course he has played well previously and the style of course that should suit his game admirably. That first solo win might not be so far away.
Leishman, too, must take a lot of credit for the manner in which he fought back after losing his way early in round 4, four late birdies moving him to 8 under and into a share of 9th.
Like Smith, Leishman flies under the radar to a large extent but he has now earned US$21.5 million in earnings on the USPGA Tour alone and is regularly putting himself into contention in major championships.
His unflappable manner and significant game must surely be rewarded with a major at some stage and that may well be sooner rather than later.
Australians did well at the 2018 Masters. It was not the most expected who were to the fore, however, but rather others who might do even better in the future.
Marc Leishman has often shown in his now nearly ten years on the PGA Tour that he has the right stuff in terms of contending and potentially winning a major championship.
This weekend he gets another chance to break through and win at the one of the four major titles when he heads into the final 36 holes of the Masters just two behind Patrick Reed.
Ever since finishing as the PGA Tour’s Rookie of the Year in 2009 and making it to the Tour Championship that year, Leishman has gone quietly about his business, often flying under the radar but achieving at close to the highest level on several occasions.
Performing under the considerable shadows produced by Jason day and Adam Scott during much of his time on the PGA Tour, Leishman has managed to win three PGA Tour titles and produce ten other second or third place finishes and accumulate more than US$21 million in prizemoney earnings alone.
He has contended for a major on several occasions, the best of those when runner-up at the Open Championship in 2015, his unflappable manner allowing him to cope with the roller coaster that prevails when such high stakes are up for grabs.
This is Leishman’s sixth appearance at Augusta National although other than a 4th place finish in 2013 there has not been a lot to get excited about. He is, however, a more experienced player and as he displayed in today’s second round of The Masters he appears primed to take the big step.
Leishman birdied his opening three holes to join the lead on Friday but while that was an impressive start it was his second the Par 5 15th that was the shot of the day and perhaps told the story of Leishman’s perhaps more brilliant game and aggressive mindset than it would outwardly appear.
“I considered other options, but to win this tournament, you’re going to have to take a chance at some point,” he said when asked about taking on that spectacular shot.”
“I felt like that was one where the reward was worth the risk because that’s such a hard wedge shot, and it’s probably hard to make par from that wedge shot, hitting off a down-slope on to a narrow green.
“So I thought if I could get it up there somewhere and possibly 2‑putt for birdie, that would be a good outcome and it was a better outcome than that.”
From 226 yards with a 5 iron Leishman executed the shot beautifully turning the shot as much as 40 yards and releasing to 5 feet from where he converted for an eagle which at that point got him within one.
Reed would finish strongly to extend his lead to two shots but Leishman gets the chance to eye the leader when the pair play tomorrow.
He is not bothered by the prospect of playing in the final group, after all he played with Tiger Woods on the opening two days and outplayed one of the game’s greatest by 11 shots and survived the hype involved.
“It certainly can’t hurt,” said Leishman when asked how that experience might have helped in preparing for the weekend. “When I saw I was paired with Tiger, I really did look at it as a positive. We get along really well.
“If you are going to win this tournament, you’re going to play in front of some really big crowds and you’re going to have a lot of energy around your group, whether it’s in the crowd or inside the ropes.
“I really looked at it as preparation for that later in the week, so it’s ‑‑ I enjoy playing with him, I like playing in front of big crowds, and on the biggest stage, as well. Again, this is why, as a golfer, we do all our practice to be prepared for that. And I feel like I was prepared for it, and I’m glad I played well to show it.”
Leishman will of course not only have to watch the man he is pursuing but also those behind him who include some of the greatest names in the game currently but he there is something about the manner in which he is going about his business that suggests they should be as concerned about the Australian as he should about them.
https://www.bruceyoungmedia.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Marc-Leishman-PGA-Australia.jpg10001500Bruce Younghttps://www.bruceyoungmedia.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/logo.pngBruce Young2018-04-07 03:16:582021-02-03 01:09:51Marc Leishman – Is It His Turn?
