Leishman leads changing of guard for Aussie golf
New faces making their mark
IT was the year that heralded the arrival of a new Australian golfing front.
Victorian Marc Leishman, the affable Warrnambool lad, finally enjoyed clear air in his off-course life and, surrounded by good vibes, made the world stand up and take notice.
Leishman, 34, was 2009 US PGA Tour rookie of the year and in the seven seasons since had ploughed away with moderate success and the odd appearance at or close to the top of the leaderboard.
As his children were born and priorities were sorted, Leishman looked ready to deliver his best in 2015.
He won the Nedbank Challenge in South Africa and made the playoff at The Open at St Andrews.
But his life was shaped that year by the near-death experience of his wife, Audrey, and putting back all the pieces, with the right perspective, took some time.
In 2017, it all fell into shape and the Leishmans even welcomed their third “miracle” child, a daughter, Eva, to be doted on by her two brothers.
As his life reached a happy place, so too did Leishman’s golf.
He won twice, banked $7 million and entrenched himself in the world’s top 15.
“I thought my game was in a good enough spot but, you know, having one win in eight years it’s hard to imagine winning twice in one year and two big events like they were,” Leishman said in September after securing the BMW Championship by five shots in Chicago.
“But now everything is great off the course.
“I’m happy. Just my golf game feels better than it ever has in all respects.
“Everything is feeling really good, but I think off-course stuff is really, really important. That’s going well, having a good wife, good kids, yeah, is the key.”
That happy life also helped shape Leishman’s golf perspective and – considering what he and his family had been through – the ups and downs of holed and missed putts didn’t cut quite so deep.
But rainbows and flowers can’t be your only outlook for life at the top of world sport and Leishman was not a player without ambition.
“I mean, you set goals, I guess a little bit. I always thought I was good enough to get into the top 20 but, you know, thinking you’re good enough to do it and doing it are different things,” he said.
“Like I say, in my own head I thought I could do it, but actually doing it is a different thing.
“That’s another thing that’s pretty satisfying.”
Leishman, who collected the Greg Norman Medal as Australia’s best golfer in 2017, picked up the slack as perennial winners and former world No. 1s Adam Scott and Jason Day went winless and rarely showed their true capabilities.
But as the top-end failed to fire, the underbelly of Australian golf showed its strength, in the men’s and women’s games.
Queenslander Cameron Smith, only 24, secured his maiden US PGA Tour win in New Orleans in April and had five other top-10 finishes as the 2017 season bridged into 2018 in
November, then capped it off with victory in the Australian PGA Championship on the Gold Coast.
Wade Ormsby won his maiden European Tour event after 264 starts – at the Hong Kong Open last month, officially the start of the 2018 season – and Todd Sinnott won on the Japanese Tour.
But the stamp of generation next was truly felt when Cameron Davis, 22, won the most revered trophy in Australian golf, his name etched on the Stonehaven Cup after victory in the Australian Open in November.
On the LPGA Tour, Katherine Kirk collected her first win in seven years at the Thornberry
Creek Classic in June, and Minjee Lee, at only 21, kept her place in the world top 20 with 10 top-10 placings and more than $1.3 million in prizemoney.
That’s not to forget West Australian Hannah Green, who, at only 19 and in her rookie season on the secondary Symetra Tour in the US, won three times, including two of the final four events, to secure her full LPGA Tour card for 2018.
The new brigade forged new frontiers in 2017 and with so many players on main tours through the US, Europe and Asia too, young and established alike, 2018 looms as another big one for Australian golf.
MY GOLF GAME FEELS BETTER THAN IT EVER HAS IN ALL RESPECTS. –MARC LEISHMAN