Marc Leishman insists he\u2019s playing the \u201cbest golf\u201d of his career and is inspired for an overdue win in an Australian major by the golden ticket into the Masters on offer at Royal Melbourne next week.<\/p>\n
On a day when he again led the local charge at the Australian PGA Championship, the 42-year-old Leishman is shaping up as Australia\u2019s best chance of toppling Rory McIlroy on the sandbelt.<\/p>\n
Having lurked ominously on the final day, Leishman (-15) couldn\u2019t collar Spaniard David Puig (-18), who led an international one-two at the Australian PGA Championship at Royal Queensland on Sunday. China\u2019s Wenyi Ding (-16) finished second.<\/p>\n
It was the third consecutive year Leishman has finished third in the Australian PGA Championship.<\/p>\n
Leishman\u2019s attention will immediately turn to the national championship, which will offer the winner a coveted spot at Augusta National, and the top three finishers not already exempt a spot at The Open Championship.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you can have a good week, it can mean a lot and save a lot of stress,\u201d said Leishman, who is not qualified for any of the four majors next year due to playing on LIV Golf.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor everyone in the field, the carrot is going to be dangling. When you\u2019re out there it\u2019s something you might think about coming down the stretch on Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been to the Masters a few times and contended there. Hopefully it\u2019s a little less pressure knowing I\u2019ve been there and done it \u2026 and it works out in a good way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Having started the final day as part of the cluster on top of the leaderboard \u2013 14 players were within three shots of the pace \u2013 Leishman looked the best of the local chances midway through the final round before signing for a four-under 67.<\/p>\n
His momentum halted with a bogey on the 14th hole, and Puig was ice cool after an early birdie blitz.<\/p>\n
\u201cMomentum was there and that is definitely the hardest tee shot on this golf course,\u201d Leishman said. \u201cI\u2019ve struggled with it over the years. I\u2019m glad I don\u2019t have to hit that tee shot for another year.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe story of the week was missing, I wouldn\u2019t say short putts, but makeable putts. Everyone in the field could probably say that.<\/p>\n
\u201cA little frustrating, but the signs are really good for next week. I\u2019m playing some of the best golf I\u2019ve ever played, driving it good, irons are good, putter feels great so hopefully I can make a few putts next week.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love Royal Melbourne and I\u2019ve played well there before. Golf\u2019s fun when you\u2019re playing well and giving yourself birdie opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Min Woo Lee (-14) threatened to be a contender on the final day but could only muster a closing two-under 69, while Adam Scott posted the same score to finish solo seventh at 13-under.<\/p>\n
Leishman\u2019s LIV Golf teammate Lucas Herbert and PGA Tour winner Karl Vilips will be the other Australians who skipped the Australian PGA Championship to peg it up at Royal Melbourne.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Marc Leishman insists he\u2019s playing the \u201cbest golf\u201d of his career and is inspired for an overdue win…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":319635,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-319634","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-golf","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319634\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/319635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}