10 million reasons why Leishman wants the Tour

WITH only 10 tournaments remaining before the FedEx Cup playoffs, Marc Leishman is determined to ice his season with a first Tour Championship visit in eight years.

The 33-year-old tees off this week at the US PGA Tour’s Quicken Loans National in 14th place on the seasonlong points tally, making him the leading Australian.

The Tour’s Potomac, Maryland, stop kicks off an eight-week run into the post-season, with the Barbasol and Barracuda championships running at the same time as the British Open and World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational. Only the season’s top 125 players advance to the playoffs — four tournaments starting in August featuring eliminations until the top 30 seeds book a spot at the Tour Championship in Atlanta in September.

Though Leishman has never missed the post-season since joining the Tour in 2009, the Victorian hasn’t made the finale since that year. The Tour Championship offers a $US35 million prize pool shared among the 30 competitors, of which $US10 million is awarded to the champion.

“I’m pretty motivated to get back to the Tour Championship,” said Leishman, who won the Arnold Palmer Invi- tational in March. “It’s a lot of money to play for.”

Joining Leishman this week at TPC Potomac is countryman Rod Pampling, who sits at 43rd on the FedEx Cup standings and is poised for his first playoffs berth since 2012.

Further down the FedEx Cup ladder are big-name Australians Jason Day and Adam Scott, sitting 47th and 63rd, respectively.