Leishman surpasses Tiger with 23-under
WARRNAMBOOL’S Marc Leishman has bettered Tiger Woods’ tournament record in scoring a wire-to-wire victory at the US PGA Tour’s rich BMW Championship in Chicago.
Starting the final round with a five-shot lead, 33-yearold Leishman carded a fourunder-par 67 at Conway Farms to finish at 23 under par, five strokes clear of Rickie Fowler (67) and Justin Rose (65), who tied for second.
Fellow Australian Jason Day continued his late season resurgence with a 69 to be outright fourth at 16 under.
Leishman’s total score of 261 was one shot better than the existing 72-hole tourna- ment record of 262 Woods posted in 2007.
It is Leishman’s second win this year, following his triumph at the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March, and his first wire-to-wire victory on the PGA Tour.
His win also comes with the added bonus of climbing into the top-five seeds for this week’s Tour Championship.
The top-five, led by Jordan Spieth, are guaranteed to win the $US10 million FedEx Cup bonus if they are victorious in the Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta.
Leishman would become the first Australian to do so since the FedEx Cup play-offs were created in 2007.
Day, who also won the BMW wire-to-wire in 2015, climbed up the FedEx standings to 15th, meaning he is an outside chance of claiming the FedEx Cup.
Although Leishman held his five-shot cushion, it was not without drama and several challenges from the 70-man field.