Marc

Leishman

During his maiden season on the PGA Tour, Marc 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 fell out of the mix.

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 National 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 best finish at a major came in 2015 at The Open where he narrowly missed out on the win after a making it into a four-hole playoff.

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 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 in the event as International team lost narrowly to the U.S. 16-14.

Leishman returned to winning ways at the 2020 Farmers Insurance Open, beating Legion XIII captain Jon Rahm by one stroke with a final-round 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 overcame a pairing of Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel in a playoff.

Leishman also represented Australia at the delayed Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

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.

In August 2022 it was announced that Leishman and fellow Aussie Cameron Smith, The Open champion and world No. 2, were to join LIV Golf 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 U.S. 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 Golf’s all-Australian outfit Ripper GC, and along with teammates 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.

In 2025, Leishman won LIV Golf Miami for his first LIV Golf individual title after shooting the week’s only bogey-free round in extremely challenging scoring conditions at Trump National Doral. He shot a final-round 4-under 68 to win by one shot over Fireballs GC Captain Sergio Garcia. Leishman also led Ripper GC to the team title.

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 $2 million 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 fundraiser 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.