Marc

Leishman

During his maiden season on the PGA Tour, Cameron Leishman finished runner-up to Tiger Woods at the 2009 BMW Championship and after securing another couple of top- 10 finishes he was named Rookie of the Year.

Leishman’s first PGA win came at the age of 28 in spectacular fashion at the 2012 Travelers Championship, where he teed off on the Sunday six strokes behind the lead.

He shot an 8-under 62 that included eight birdies then went back to the clubhouse to eat and waited for a couple of hours until leader Charley Hoffman blew a two-stroke lead over the final two holes.

When remaining challenger Roland Thatcher found a bunker on the 18th it was all over.

In typically laid-back fashion Leishman said: “I think Charley was on the 15th when I turned the golf on.

“I watched that, then just went over and hit some balls and putted for a bit and it turned out well.”

Leishman first qualified for The Masters in 2010 but failed to make the cut.

On his second outing at Augusta in 2013 it was a very different story as after the opening round he held the lead jointly with Sergio Garcia.

Leishman remained competitive until the final day and went on to finish the tournament tied in fourth place, his best result in 10 appearances at The Masters.

It wasn’t his favorite time at Augusta though, that came in the second round in 2018 where his playing partner was Tiger Woods.

Leishman eagled the par-5, 15th hole to shoot a 67 which left him second on the overnight leaderboard.

“At some time in the week you’re going to have to take a chance, grab the bull by the horns,” he said to the media afterwards.

“It’s not going to come to you, you have to go out and win it, that’s the way I’ve always played.”

His top placing at a Major came in 2015 at The British Open where he narrowly missed out on the No.1 spot after a four-hole playoff.

With six holes to play on the Sunday he held the lead at St Andrews but a bogey at the 16th saw him drop back into the chasing pack.

Zach Johnson won the Claret Jug after the playoff, with Leishman tied in second along with Louis Oosthuizen.

Leishman’s second win on the PGA Tour came in March 2017 in the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill, with his young family in attendance, and six months later he was posting a tournament record 23-under to claim his third title at the BMW Championship.

He was hunting down records again at the 2018 CIMB Classic, winning with an overall score of 26-under-par to match Justin Thomas’s tournament best.

Leishman qualified to play for the International Team in the 2019 Presidents Cup held at Royal Melbourne Golf Club by virtue of having the most official world golf ranking points from August 2018 to August 2019.

He scored two points with a record of 1-2-2 as The International team lost narrowly to the USA by 16-14.

One tweak he did make towards the back end of the year was to his waistline, as he shed around 18lbs in weight.

“It was a conscious thing that I did and I’m glad I did it,” he said.

“It’s not a whole lot of weight but if you put eight kilos [18lb] in a suitcase and carry that around all the time, it makes a difference.”

Leishman returned to winning ways at the 2020 Farmers Insurance Open, beating Jon Rahm by one stroke with a battling final round of 65.

His sixth and final win on the PGA Tour was claimed at the 2021 Zurich Classic of New Orleans where he partnered with Aussie pal and future LIV captain Cameron Smith, the duo overcoming a pairing of Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel after a playoff.

Leishman also represented Australia at the delayed Tokyo 2020 Olympics, finishing 51st when the Games were finally held in July and August, 2021.

Ahead of joining LIV Golf, Marc Leishman had played in 335 PGA Tour events achieving six wins, seven runner-up spots and 10 third-place finishes, all of which helped him to earn total prize money of $35,216,825.

In August 2022 it was announced that Leishman and fellow Aussie Cameron Smith, The British Open champion and world No.2, were to join LIV together.

Speaking on LIV Golf’s official podcast, Fairway To Heaven, Leishman explained that it became a joint decision between the two friends.

“I got a call from Greg [Norman], it was the week after the US Open,” he said.

“They wanted me and Cam and I called Cam and said ‘mate, I’m probably not going to go unless you go’.

“So if you don’t want to go that’s fine, but don’t judge and make your decision on me.’

“He said: ‘Well I’m not going unless you’re going.’

“We put all the positives and negatives down and the positives far outweighed the negatives, and it turned out to be a pretty easy decision.”

Leishman and captain Smith are members of LIV’s all-Australian outfit Ripper Golf Club, and along with team-mates Lucas Herbert and Matt Jones they won the LIV Golf Team Championship in Dallas in 2024.

The foursome had set their home country buzzing earlier in the year by winning LIV Golf Adelaide after a playoff and followed that up by topping the leaderboard again in the following event in Singapore.

The Dallas win earned Ripper $14m in prize money with each player being allocated $1.4m while the rest is being invested in team management.

While preparing for The Masters in 2015, Marc Leishman received the traumatic news that his wife Audrey had been rushed to hospital by a friend with what was diagnosed as acute respiratory distress syndrome.

Sepsis and toxic shock syndrome began to affect Audrey’s organs and she had to be put into an induced coma with Marc being told she had just a 5% chance of recovery.

“We had some difficult conversations with doctors with them giving us pretty bad news, saying she probably wasn’t going to make it,” Marc told Fairway To Heaven.

“When they put her into the coma the first day her eyes were open and she was texting me to communicate.

“She couldn’t talk, she had the tube down her throat and she was sedated.

“That was after I’d had the meeting the with the doctor who gave us the bad news and I went back into the hospital room and she asked ‘Am I going to be okay?’

“I had to blatantly lie to her, I’m like, ‘Yes, you’re going to be fine but you’re going to have to really fight’.”

Against those daunting odds, Audrey managed to pull through and after learning to walk again and make a full recovery, Audrey and Marc created the Begin Again Foundation to help provide financial assistance to survivors of sepsis, support women and children in need and raise awareness.

“In the end we’re very lucky because she survived it,” said Marc.

“We’ve created – but mostly her – the foundation where we’ve given away over $2million to families who really need it, so a lot of good has come out of it.”

Leishman Lager was born in conjunction with Travis Powell at Back Bay Brewing, based near the Leishman family home in Virginia Beach.

Originally it was only meant to be brewed for a limited period as a fund raiser for the Begin Again Foundation, but the beer proved to be so popular that it is now in full-time production.

Audrey grew up in Virginia Beach and she and Marc designed their house in the area around their needs and those of their two sons and daughter.

That meant dad took care of the outside which, unsurprisingly, has a golf practice area with some artificial turf, while mum added the style and taste to the interior – though somehow an indoor putting green did manage to find its way upstairs.

To pronounce the family name, think of the start as having two Es, so you say ‘Leesh-man’.

Leishman is one of LIV Golf’s taller players at 6ft 2in which can present a problem to some when adopting the correct stance over the ball – but not the towering Aussie.

At the tee he has a balanced, athletic posture and moving into the backswing he has good knee flex while his lower body provides a stable base.

At the top he is coiled with the club face open but he is still tension free and is not overdoing the grip.

What you notice primarily about his swing is how his head is rock steady behind the ball as he focuses on it.

As he straightens his legs on the downswing, he looks balanced and tall as he keeps his arms really straight and at full length through impact, allowing him to drive with power and full control.

When the LIV Golf players assembled for the final event of the 2024 season – the Dallas Team Championship – Marc Leishman’s red Ripper GC golf bag was stocked with the following clubs.

Leading the big guns was a Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Triple Diamond driver (10.5 degrees) with Fujikura Ventus Black 7X shaft. His 5-wood (which he uses as his equivalent 3-wood) was a Ping G430 Max (18 degrees) as was his 7-wood (21 degrees), with Fujikura Ventus Black 8X and 9X shafts respectively.

The selection of six irons was made up entirely of Callaway Apex CB (4 to 9) with Nippon N.S. Pro Modus 3 120X shafts. For a 3-iron he had the choice of a Callaway or utilizes his 7-wood.

There was another switch of brands for his wedges with a Titleist Vokey Design SM10 46 degrees (10F), 50 degrees (08F), 54 degrees (10S) and Vokey Wedgeworks 60 degrees (A) all with the same shaft as his irons.

His putter was an Odyssey Versa 1 Wide White paired with a SuperStroke Zenergy Pistol grip. His choice of ball is the Callaway Chrome Soft X and he uses a Begin Again Foundation ball marker.