Date: June 20, 2015
Author: Mark Hayes @ US Open

Leish lets his bad day slide

It’s safe to say Marc Leishman isn’t enamored by the US Open set-up.

Not that the Victorian blamed anything but a wayward driver for his early departure from Chambers Bay today.

But he won’t be sorry to see the USGA affectations tucked into his kit bag for another year after shooting a 77 to finish 10 over and miss the cut.

“It wasn’t a whole lot of fun out there,” the world No.53 said.

“I didn’t play well today and I’m obviously disappointed, but it makes you appreciate being on the (US PGA) Tour.

“Just the way they watered the front of the greens, quirky stuff like that – steps in bunkers you get relief (but then) the way you don’t get relief off roads.

“It seems like they try and trick it up when they invent the rules of golf and then don’t go by them, which is kind of weird.”

But don’t for a second think it go the better of Leishman, who was typically smiling and upbeat after his round.

“I’m over it already, I was over it about nine holes ago actually,” he joked.

“I played the back nine carefree and I’m not stressing over it – I’ve got a lot more tournaments this year to play and I’m looking forward to those.

“I didn’t drive it well … and when you do hit good shots it was hard to hole the putts.
“It was just a rough day and if you play well you think differently of all those things … but that’s golf and we’ll come back next week and paly another tournament.”

Leishman will return to the scene of his first PGA Tour triumph next week at the Travelers Championship, then play in the Greenbrier, have a week off and then the Open Championship at St Andrews.

But, as he has said consistently since returning to the tour after his wife Audrey’s near-death health scare in March, his priorities are greater than golf.

“Obviously I have got pretty good perspective now and can let this go very easily,” he said.

“It’s important to have a healthy family – that’s pretty much everything.”