The Englishman picked the 35-year-old ahead of his three Australian counterparts - 2013 winner Adam Scott, Cameron Smith and Jason Day - to be among his pool of genuine chances of collecting the conveted green jacket.

"Leishman has been good; his putting was great (at the World Golf Championships-Match Play) in Texas and I've got him as one of my 20 guys who could win it," Faldo said.

The world No.20's results this season support the highly-regarded commentator's backing for the Warrnambool export to be knocking at the door of a maiden major PGA championship breakthrough.

Leishman, who recently finished in the top 16 at the WGC-Match Play, has collected five top-10 finishes - including three top-four placings - at PGA events so far this season.

The father-of-three will tee off his Masters campaign at 10.42am (12.42am Friday AEST) alongside 2010 British Open winner Louis Oosthuizen and Charley Hoffman.

The Australian has had a mixed bag of results at Augusta finishing ninth last year and fourth when Scott saluted in 2013. He has also been cut three times and finished tied for 43^rd in 2017.

Leishman was sitting in second at last year's Masters before a mediocre weekend, where he fired rounds of 73 and 70, saw him drop to ninth.

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