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BMW CHAMPIONSHIP

September 6, 2016

Marc Leishman

Carmel, Indiana

JOHN BUSH: Like to welcome Marc Leishman to the interview room here at the BMW championship. He's making his seventh start at this tournament and I know, Marc, having missed it last year you're really glad to be back.

MARC LEISHMAN: Yeah, definitely. Didn't want to miss it two years in a row. So, last year was disappointing. Obviously what I did yesterday was a lot of fun for the most part. But, yeah, really happy to be back and hoping to have a big week.

JOHN BUSH: Number 70 in the FedExCup, so a lot of work to do this week. Just comment on the state of your game here at Crooked Stick.

MARC LEISHMAN: Yeah, the game's decent. Feel like it's been pretty close all year but just the results haven't been what I would like. Hopefully can get my body all right, have a good week this week, and try and somehow get into Atlanta. I guess it's pretty simple what I have to do, I think have I to top two or three. So, yeah, play to win.

JOHN BUSH: Start with Ben, please.

Q. I understand you had a couple of back issues, is that what's causing you some pain?
MARC LEISHMAN: Yeah, back hasn't been great, but it's just an old injury that has popped up begin at a convenient time as always.

(Laughter.)

But we're on top of it. It's certainly been a lot worse. It's just not as bad as it has been. So I got a trainer now that I'm working with and he's on top of it and we're treating it every day and it's slowly getting better. It was not very good at the Barclays, but last week it got better as the week went on.

Q. How conscious were you of your position in the FedExCup going in that last nine holes yesterday? Were you watching the projections change and players go in and out?
MARC LEISHMAN: I didn't actually see anything until the 15th maybe. It said I needed two more birdies to be inside. And then I had two more birdies and I saw that I still wasn't inside on, some time on the front nine. Then I had like maybe two or three more and then threw in that on the 8th, which I would like to have not had, been a little bit higher up the list, but, yeah, that was, those things happen on days like yesterday when it's blowing that hard and gusting. So, yeah, I was aware that going up the 9th I thought I might have blown it and maybe needed a birdie, but it was convenient, I actually had about a 20-footer downhill at 9 and I was looking straight at a leaderboard and it popped up that I was projected inside. So I was able to lay that putt down and hope that nothing silly happened.

Q. How did you spend the last couple hours kind of seeing where your position might fall in the tournament?
MARC LEISHMAN: Well, it was a two-tee start, so I was like the third last group off on the wrong nine, on the back nine. So it was only about 20 minutes that I had to wait. The PGA TOUR stats score mathematician was there, and he told me that I was pretty much a lock, which was nice. As soon as I finished he told me that. But human nature tells you that there's always a chance that I might go out and until it was completely done, you never are a hundred percent sure. But he sounded pretty sure.

Q. When you talk about getting treatment on your back, your physio guy's on top of it, without getting into too much detail what does the tremendous entail and has it been cutting into your practice time?
MARC LEISHMAN: Yes, it has been. I've got two bulging discs and one herniated disc in my lower lumbar spine. They just flare up every now and again. It can be silly things like hopping into a car or just twisting and sitting, that can do it. Luckily this year it's been pretty good. In the first two playoff events it happened as well -- actually at the PGA last year is when it first popped up.

So I've been getting 30 minutes treatments before and after every round. Generally once in the morning it will stiffen up as the day goes on, but it's just we're golfers and it's just wear and tear. Probably every golfer's got something wrong with their back. Just happened that mine flared up at a bad time in the playoffs and hopefully we can manage it like we have been and I can roll a few more putts in and we can be talking about getting to Atlanta instead of my back.

Q. Have you ever felt that in a crucible of competition niceness is not a strength?
MARC LEISHMAN: In what, sorry?

Q. Niceness is not a strength when you're trying to close out a tournament or in any way in tournament golf?
MARC LEISHMAN: I think you can be nice and still competitive. I feel like I'm very competitive. I'm nice most of the time, I guess. But, no, I think that they're probably two different things. You can be nice and very competitive at the same time and I feel like that's what I am. Obviously I would like to play a little bit better golf to give myself more chances to win, but yeah, no, I don't think it's a disadvantage.

Q. You don't think they're mutually exclusive in other words? You can be nice, but you can be a cut throat competitor when it matters?
MARC LEISHMAN: Yeah, yeah, for sure. I love winning just as much as anyone else does and yeah, I think you can be nice and still very competitive. Which I think I am. I think in match play or head to head the last nine holes on a Sunday I'm still, I want to win just as much as the guy -- I think I might as well win as compared to them, you know? Why not?

Q. Just a quick follow-up, you sometimes see a set of people that are too nice. Is that ever, is that an unfair criticism to level on an athlete?
MARC LEISHMAN: That they thought I'm too nice?

Q. That people in general are too nice, they're not cut throat enough, that's why they don't win more.
MARC LEISHMAN: No, no, I don't think so. Like I said, I feel like you can be nice and still competitive. No, I don't think that.

Q. Is the benefit if there is one of being 70th or 65th or whatever that you know what's in front of you and you can just go sort of go hard or go home or does it change your game plan sort of being more aggressive from the start?
MARC LEISHMAN: Yeah, it's pretty much win or go home almost for me. I don't know where I have to finish. It would be -- third? There you go. So, that's all you're thinking about is a good chance it will be my last tournament of the year, so try and make it a really good one. If it is a really good one, I'll get to Atlanta. If not, I can spend a month home with my kids. But having said that, I really want to get to Atlanta again. It's been seven years since I've been there, eight years maybe. So, I'm definitely playing to get to Atlanta.

Q. On that, it took what you need to do that last time, you were second I think to Tiger in this event back in your rookie year, so you've done it before so you can obviously do it again.
MARC LEISHMAN: Yeah, hopefully. Hopefully I'll prove that I can do it again this week. I would rather be first.

(Laughter.) And not having to worry about finishing third to get to the next tournament. But, yeah, it's clear what I've got to do. I got to play really well or there's no next week, so it's very simple and I guess that worked for me yesterday, I was able to play well or go home and was able to do it. So hopefully I can do it again this week.

Q. Obviously there's some perks attached with making it all the way to the TOUR Championship. But what's the significance to you of reaching East Lake after a long year?
MARC LEISHMAN: Obviously, having a chance to win the FedExCup is the main one. And then if you get there you're in the Majors, the Top-30 gets you in the Masters, all the other Majors. Obviously, the money's great that comes with it, but more so just proving to myself that I can get back there. It's been a long time and I feel like I haven't played as well as I can since I've been on TOUR and I want to prove to myself especially, as well as to everyone else, that I'm a good player and can prove myself, cement myself high in the rankings on the TOUR and the world rankings and all that.

Q. One of the really cool things I think about the FedExCup, I think probably from a players' perspective is here you are coming in 70th, but with a really good week, you can make it inside the Top-30. Can you just talk about that from a players' perspective like the ability to really leap frog a lot of players with a solid week. It's got to really spur you at a time like this.
MARC LEISHMAN: Yeah, it's the good thing about it. Everyone here this week can do what Billy Horschel did a couple of years ago. Go win, win and all of a sudden you got the FedExCup in your hands. And if you look at playoffs in other sports, it's cut throat like it's generally sudden death, seven game series or five game series or whatever it is, and if you lose, you go home. This is a little bit less cut throat, but I still like it how if you -- you can just sneak in and win and all of a sudden you got a chance to take out the FedExCup. So, I think the way they have done the points this year is good. You could jump a lot when it was five times the points, this is pretty right, I think. I think the players enjoy it. Particularly the players who have done what Sean O'Hair did or jumped right up, what I did in 2009, so hopefully I can do that again and I'll like the FedExCup even more.

Q. How much if any added stress was what was happening potentially to Virginia Beach last week as the storm is bearing down on that area, and you're away trying to stay alive in this playoff?
MARC LEISHMAN: Not at all. I wasn't too worried about it. We just built a new house and it's fairly sturdy, so I knew it wasn't going to be going anywhere. We're far enough away from the ocean and there's no big trees around our house like really close that can fall on it. So, yeah.

Q. You didn't want it to be tested?
MARC LEISHMAN: Not really, but I think if it was, I think it would stand the test. My builder did a good job and no, to be honest, I wasn't even really thinking about it at all. I looked at the weather forecast a couple of times and saw the eye of the storm was pretty much straight over Virginia Beach. So it was nice to be out of town for that one.

JOHN BUSH: All right, thank you, sir.

MARC LEISHMAN: Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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