At LIV and loving it, Leishman returns to the majors and will get within the combine on the US Open
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Suddenly, a reputation that was as soon as no stranger to leaderboards at majors was up there as soon as once more. Not dangerous for a participant who had each cause to surprise if he’d ever get one other likelihood to play in a single, not to mention contend.
The 41-year-old Australian, whose departure to LIV Golf three years in the past generated few headlines however modified his life utterly, shot 2-under 68 on the U.S. Open on Saturday. He made 5 birdies over his first 12 holes to briefly get on the leaderboard earlier than leaving the course six pictures off the lead.
“I’ve been playing some of the best golf of my career this year,” stated Leishman, who’s coming off his first LIV win, at Doral in April, then earned certainly one of 4 spots at a U..S. Open qualifier in Maryland this month. “The schedule sort of lends itself to be able to work on your game between tournaments, and I was really able to prepare for this tournament.”
This is Leishman’s first main because the 2022 British Open. He is already exempt for this yr’s British based mostly on a third-place end on the Australian Open in December.
His transfer to LIV, the place tournaments don’t qualify for factors on the earth rating that assist determine giant chunks of the sphere in main occasions, left the six-time winner on the PGA Tour in limbo when it got here to ever enjoying in golf’s greatest occasions once more.
“You wonder, of course, if you’re ever going to get in,” Leishman stated. “But there was certainly no regret. My life is as good as I’ve ever been right now.”
The $24.8 million Leishman has received since heading to LIV, to say nothing of the decreased schedule and the 54-hole tournaments, assist clarify that.
What went lacking had been the all-but-automatic spots in golf’s greatest tournaments that go to the PGA Tour’s prime performers. Leishman performed in 39 of 41 majors between 2012-22. For a time, he had a knack for getting within the combine.
His three top-10s on the British Open within the 2010s included a three-way tie for the lead iafter 72 holes in 2015, earlier than shedding in a playoff ultimately captured by Zach Johnson. The Aussie performed within the second-to-last group on Sunday on the 2013 Masters .
“I like tough courses,” Leishman stated. “I like courses that separate the field, when it really punishes bad shots and rewards good shots.”
He had his share of each Saturday. Good: the bunker shot on 8, and a 300-yard fairway wooden on the par-5 twelfth that arrange birdie and received him to 2-over par. Bad: Three straight bogeys on 14-16, although he got here again with a birdie on the drivable par-4 seventeenth and par on No. 18.
Leishman left the course tied for fifteenth, six pictures out of first, with the leaders nonetheless early of their rounds Saturday.
He’s properly conscious {that a} top-four end right here would add the Masters to his 2026 schedule. Either manner, he’s at peace with the alternatives he made, and the place that left him — which on this case is with a late beginning time within the remaining spherical of a serious once more.
“I really enjoyed sitting down with my kids and my mates watching the Masters and the PGA,” Leishman stated of the yr’s first two majors. “I’d be more happy if people were sitting down watching me.”
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