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WGC BRIDGESTONE INVITATIONALJuly 31, 2014Marc LeishmanAKRON, OHIO MARK STEVENS: Just talk about your round in general and what was going well today. MARC LEISHMAN: To start with, I drove the ball well. It makes this course a lot easier when you're on the fairway. It's pretty tough when you're playing from the rough. Then I hit my irons really well and was rolling the ball awesome. So it's a pretty good combination for a tough golf course like this. Something I can hopefully keep going. Q. Other people might be surprised to see it, but for people who have been watching you for quite a long time are not surprised. You feel like this has been building and sort of hitting your strap, so to speak, hitting your prime. MARC LEISHMAN: I feel like I've been playing pretty well for the last few months at least, and the results have been fairly good. Had quite a few top tens and just haven't really‑‑ obviously haven't had a win, which has been‑‑ I know it's hard to win out here and all that‑‑ but slightly disappointing, the way I feel like I've been playing. Yeah, I'm playing well. Everything off the golf course is great. I wouldn't say it surprises me, but you've still got to do it. It's something that's not just given to you. Just because you're playing well doesn't mean you're going to shoot really low rounds. I've got to work hard. Keep doing the simple things well, I guess. Q. You've always been a relaxed character, typical Australian or whatnot, but I think in the last couple of years you've actually even gotten more relaxed on course. Less sort of emotion shows when things go right or wrong, and I feel like you've really found a groove there. MARC LEISHMAN: Yeah, that was probably a weak point. I've always been pretty hard on myself, not really anywhere but just on the golf course. On the golf course, I've always been really hard on myself. I feel like I'm working that stuff out. Things are really good off the course, two great kids and a great wife and the rest of my family, and everything's going good. So there's no real reason to kind of not be happy, I guess, yeah. Q. What's the hardest part of taking the lead in a big event like this? Obviously, you did it at the Masters a couple of years ago. You've had experience in this situation. You've been in the mix a couple of times Sunday, this year as well. What's it going to take to still be there come Sunday? MARC LEISHMAN: I think I've just got to not get too far ahead of myself. It's definitely easy to do that. You start thinking about what might happen if you are to put four good rounds together. I think on a tough course like this, it's going to be pretty easy not to get ahead of myself because there's so much trouble out there. There's a lot of‑‑ if you're not quite on your game, you can have a pretty high score. Just got to try to keep doing the simple things good and keep doing what I'm doing. Just keep doing it. Q. Is there anything about your game that you think fits really well to this course? What were some of the key shots for you today that you felt really got you going? MARC LEISHMAN: Well, the putter really was the key today. You can hit close iron shots, but if you're not making the putts, you might as well be hitting it to 30 feet and 2‑putting all day. I had a tap‑in birdie on‑‑ I hit a really good 9 iron on 13, hit it to inside a foot, and that's what really got me going. Hit a good shot on the next hole, didn't make that putt. It was about 8 feet. And then good up and down on the par 3 and then birdied 16, birdied 17, and it sort of went on from there. I'd say that shot on 13, but then not getting too frustrated with the bogeys I made because it's easy to get down on yourself. You're always going to make bogeys out there throughout the tournament, I'm guessing. Q. What about your game? What about your game that fits this course? MARC LEISHMAN: I guess I'm reasonably long off the tee. That helps. So if you do hit it in the rough, you're not having to hack 4 and 5 irons out. You've still got 7s and 8 irons. That fits pretty well. I can work my irons both ways. And I've got a reasonably good short game. It's a decent combination on a tough golf course like this when you are going to miss greens. Q. When you talk about looking ahead, it seems like there's two ways to do that. It can be positively, like maybe I'll win, and then negatively, like maybe something bad's going to happen. Have you dealt with those both, and is there one that's more harmful than the other? How does that work? MARC LEISHMAN: Yeah, I've dealt with both. This year at the Masters, I was playing great and stuffed that up pretty well on the Friday. So that happens. Obviously, it's frustrating, and it's disappointing when it does happen. I guess it's probably happened to everyone. Maybe not on that stage. But you can't be thinking about that sort of stuff. You've just got to try and play good golf and see what happens, I suppose. And then on the other side, I've won tournaments before. Not on this tour, but on the Nationwide Tour or the Web.com tour, by big margins. I guess, if you get in the right frame of mind and stay in that frame of mind, that's probably the key, more so than the golf. You've got to just think about this shot, not think about oh, the next hole's a birdie hole, and that's a birdie hole as well. You can't do that. Q. Which one was it? Sorry. Out of curiosity at the Masters, was it more negative looking ahead or positive looking ahead? MARC LEISHMAN: Both, I think. Yeah, you've got the so‑called birdie holes there like 13, 15. I got too aggressive on those holes trying to make birdies and eagles and made bogeys. You can't be doing that. I guess‑‑ yeah, both. Q. Talk about your putt on 17. That pretty long one. MARC LEISHMAN: Actually, I hit that putt in the practice round. Q. Same putt? MARC LEISHMAN: Pretty much the same putt because it looks like it breaks towards the back of the green, but it actually doesn't. I remembered something weird with that putt from two years ago when I played, so I hit it, and it was a lot slower and a lot straighter than what it looks like. So when I hit it there, I'm like, Oh, well, I know this. Obviously, you've still got to hit it there and at the right speed and all that, but it's nice for your practice rounds to pay off like that. It doesn't always happen like that. Normally, you'll putt from the places you want to be putting from, and you'll be nowhere near. Q. So you weren't too worried when you were playing 16 that way or whatever it was? MARC LEISHMAN: I wasn't expecting to‑‑ I was hoping to make it, but I wasn't expecting to make it. Q. You knew the putt? MARC LEISHMAN: I knew what it did, and I knew it was slow. A little slow for around here. It was uphill and dead straight. So that was a good one to fall in. It got me to 4 under. Q. I don't like to keep taking you back to this year at Augusta, but how much of it was a turning point, if you will, for you? Obviously, a massive learning experience whichever way you look at it. Do you use it now, or is it at the back until someone like us brings it up? MARC LEISHMAN: Yeah, I mean, occasionally I'll think about it. I learned a lot from it. Like I've heard Tom Watson talk about it, and he said you learn a lot more from your disappointments, or not winning, than you do from winning. That one I learned so much about myself and my game, and mentally as well, just mindset. It was just I walk away from there, and I felt like I was‑‑ obviously, I was really disappointed and crushed and all that. But once it passed, I felt like I learned a lot and I was a better‑‑ a lot better player mentally, I guess. Could handle more than what I could before that. Q. You have so far. As I said, you've put yourself in the mix in other tournaments. And I guess you'll get another chance to prove that here, right? MARC LEISHMAN: Hopefully. It would be nice to try to prove that on a Sunday afternoon rather than‑‑ give myself a good chance. There's a lot of water to cross between now and then. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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