Nothing To Lose

Marc Leishman may be the most unexpected player in this week's Tour Championship, but he's intent on making the most of the opportunity

Those who know Marc Leishman well says he has the game and the mindset to be a force on tour.

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By Tim Rosaforte

Photo by Hunter Martin/Getty Images

September 21, 2009

The 112th ranked player in the world was home in Virginia Beach last week, chilling Australian style with barbies by the beach. Marc Leishman bought a house earlier this year, got engaged last month to Audrey Hills, an American woman he met after a four-spot qualifier for the Nationwide Tour, and made wedding plans for next April. Just in case, Marc blocked out the week of the Masters. "It worked out pretty well," Leishman said when I caught up with him on Wednesday. "It was most likely that I would not play in the Masters, but I told Audrey, 'You never know.'"

You never know in golf or the playoffs, and Leishman has emerged as the wild card team that got hot and found himself paired on Sunday at Cog Hill with the league's franchise -- in this case, Tiger Woods -- and didn't fumble or punt. Without a bogey on his card, "Leish," unleashed some big drives that caught Tiger's attention in a good way. He shot 69 and finished T-2 when he had to, hitting 7-iron from 200 yards over water into the 18th green and two-putting to jump from 67th to 16th in the FedEx Cup standings, and qualify for all of next year's majors.

"I was nervous over only two shots all day, the first shot and the second at 18," Leishman said. "I just like playing with nerves. If you're nervous it means you got yourself in a good position. I love playing when I'm nervous. I really enjoy playing when the pressure is on."

That's what attracted Denis McDade of the Victorian Institute of Sport, when word filtered to Melbourne about this tall kid from Warrnambool who was different than some of the new-generation prototypes that are more into playing swing than playing golf.

"It was just obvious watching him, that he could take what he had on the day and go shoot the best score he could," McDade said. "Every time he goes out and plays, he just plays. That's almost a gift. The other thing is, he's not the sort who will protect a score. If he's five under at the turn, he thinks he should probably shoot five under on the backside. He can go with the flow and keep playing. That's just the way he's hard-wired."

As a teenager, Leishman would ride the train those three-and-a-half hours from Warrnambool to Melbourne, a set of golf clubs and a weekend travel bag in the compartment. On some weekends parents Paul and Polly would load up the Ford Fairlane and make the drive from their beach town to the city, the bricklayer and the nurse accompanying their son to the VIS, where Geoff Ogilvy, Aaron Baddeley, Stuart Appleby and Robert Allenby were among the hand picked Australians that went through the program. "They gave up a lot for me to play golf at the highest level, to get on the PGA Tour," Leishman said. "To get into the majors is unbelievable. I'm really looking forward to getting them back over here for the Masters and the wedding. It'll be great to be able to show what they did for me was worthwhile."

Pete Coe, the close friend of Phil Mickelson and head pro at La Jolla CC, remembers hosting Leishman when he came to play the 2001 Junior World Golf Championship. Anthony Kim -- knocked out of the FedEx Cup playoffs at the BMW -- was the winner while Leishman missed the cut.