WARRNAMBOOL’S Marc Leishman produced his second-best result of 2015 on the US PGA Tour yesterday.
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Leishman fired a closing round five-under-par 67 to finish in a tie for 28th at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans in Louisiana.
It was a welcome result for Leishman, who missed the US Masters after his wife Audrey was gravely ill.
Leishman, who finished at 14-under, had rounds of 74, 63, 70 and 67, giving him a confidence boost as he enters this week’s World Golf Championships-Cadillac Match Play event at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco.
The 29-year-old, who has won $US331,350 this season, sits 115th in the tour standings.
It was his best result this year since he was tied for 27th at the Farmers Insurance Open in February and comes after he missed the cut in three of his past four events.
Leishman is one of 64 players in the matchplay event, which starts later this week.
Fellow Australian Jason Day had to settle for a share of fourth place in Louisiana as England’s Justin Rose stormed home to win the classic.
The highest-ranked player in the field, world No.6 Day shared the lead with Rose entering the final round after completing most of his third round earlier yesterday.
But he could not keep pace on the saturated TPC Louisiana course as Rose finished birdie-birdie to card a six-under 66 and win by one stroke from American Cameron Tringale (65) with a tournament-record 22-under-par 266 total.
Boo Weekley also closed with a 65 to grab third place on 268.
Preparing to defend his World Golf Championships-Match Play title this week, Day shot a closing 69 to be a further shot back in a tie with American Jim Herman (65).
Earlier Day had five birdies and one bogey in his third-round 68, while Rose had climbed up the leaderboard with a bogey-free 65.
But Day’s final round started poorly and never really got going.
He hooked his opening drive into boundary trees off the second fairway. On the next swing, his ball smacked a tree and bounced back to him and he took a bogey on the par-5 hole which he’d birdied twice previously.
He said hot, steamy conditions wore him down over the course of 32 holes in one day. “The early days and the hot days, and just the long days in general kind of finally caught up to me,” Day said.
“I played great all week, but this final round just had a lot of mental errors.”?
- WITH AAP, AFP