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BMW CHAMPIONSHIPSeptember 16, 2017Marc LeishmanCarmel, Indiana AMANDA HERRINGTON: Familiar face here in the Media Center this week at the BMW Championship. After Round 3, Marc Leishman with a five shot lead heading into the final round. Marc, excellent play as you continue to put the pedal down. MARC LEISHMAN: Yeah. Feeling great. Game is still in a good spot. The course changed quite a lot today compared to the first two days, firmed up a lot and greens sped up so that was good to see and nice to keep making birdies like I have been all week. Obviously not as many today but the conditions were quite a bit different. Really happy with the round. Q. It did look like it was playing quite a bit tougher today. Can you compare today to your 62, you obviously had it going there? MARC LEISHMAN: Yeah. The 62 was obviously pretty nice but, you know, today was almost as satisfying going into a Saturday with a lead to play the way I did, gave myself a lot of chances. Probably didn't putt quite as well as earlier in the week but still made a lot of putts. Yeah, it's a different golf course, different situation but I wouldn't say it was quite as good but almost as satisfying as what Thursday was. Q. Was it just the wind picked up or the greens were faster you said? MARC LEISHMAN: Greens were a lot firmer and quite a bit faster and then there was a little bit of wind but not a whole lot. I enjoy playing in the wind anyway. More-so, the firmness of the golf course. A few shiny parts on some greens and those wedge shots were a bit harder, get a wedge on to the ball because of the firmness. Made everything more difficult. Q. You said the other day you come into every tournament feeling like an a underdog. Do you feel like the Chicago crowd, the atmosphere was crazy today? They want to hoist an underdog up on their shoulders and get you across the line. MARC LEISHMAN: Yeah, I played well here before. They're definitely behind me, which is good, behind Jason as well. It was a pretty good vibe in that group. Jas had it going there for awhile. It's nice to have a crowd behind you, yeah, definitely. Q. What's the biggest challenge in going wire to wire? MARC LEISHMAN: Putting four good rounds together. A lot of tournaments you put three rounds together. May not be in a row. Very easy to throw a mediocre round in there. Tomorrow I got to try not to do that. After what happened at the Dell I got extra determination to finish this one off and my game is in a better spot. I feel like this course sets up for me a little better than it did at Dell. Hopefully I can just play well, do the right things and not worry about the result too much, as hard as that will be. Q. Quick follow, you said yesterday the challenge was to follow a low round with a low round. Does that give you more confidence tomorrow that you've already overcome what is a tough hurdle? MARC LEISHMAN: Yeah. My game is holding out well. I'm hitting some really good iron shots which is important, give myself a lot of opportunities. So, yeah, I guess it does but put three together now and now I need to concentrate on tomorrow and, silly as that sounds, but I can't worry about what happened a week ago or what I did yesterday or the day before that. I'll just go and try to do my job and hopefully I can do it well and that's good enough. Q. Marc, when did you last have a five shot lead going into the final round and when you go to the tee tomorrow is it a one shot lead in your mind, two shot, three shot, four shot, five shot? MARC LEISHMAN: I've had it a few times, actually. The round where I shot 60, my first pro win I had a big lead going into the last day; won a tournament on the Korean Tour where I had a big lead, Web.com, which I've had a big lead. I've done it a few times. What was the second part of your question, sir? Q. One shot, two shot, three shot, four, five shot lead? MARC LEISHMAN: Well, I mean I feel like if I go out there feeling like I'm even with everyone else and trying to do as good as I can, I've got to try and hit every shot as good as I can, not worry about the lead. You know, I don't want to get defensive, I don't want to be out there trying not to make bogies, I want to be out there trying to make birdies and that's more conducive to good golf rather than trying to be defensive. So, I won't change my game plan. If I get -- if I have a big lead going to the last, possibly, but, you know, I'll worry about that when and if the time comes. Q. How much did you think during the off week about what happened in Boston and what's one thing that you wish you would have done better that you're going to try to do tomorrow? MARC LEISHMAN: I did think about it. Generally I said to my wife if I have a bad round just give me ten minutes and I'll be all right. That one probably took a day (laughter). It stung a bit. What would I do better? I would like the tee shot on 10 again where I pulled it left. Apart from that, I felt like I hit decent shots, just didn't play well enough. Felt like I made good decisions, didn't execute. Tomorrow I need to execute. Q. Why did it sting so much? MARC LEISHMAN: Going into the back-9 with a lead even though you got Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas on your tail, when you're leading it's hard to get overtaken on the back-9. That's a pretty disappointing feeling and one that, you know, be doing my very best tomorrow not to happen again. Q. Do you think looking back here, Marc, but do you think it stung not only because you lost a two shot lead on the back but because of the guys chasing you? In other words, given their pedigree and what they've accomplished was a chance to get a real feather that you let go? Is that any part of it? MARC LEISHMAN: I think it was more-so the two shot lead. Everyone out here is a great player and got great players chasing me tomorrow. So, obviously Rickie and Jas are up there, Rosie, a few further back but there's -- there's some great players. I think maybe that was a small part of it. Would have been a nice way to lead into particularly the Presidents Cup, you know, having that win because really looking forward to that this year and it would have been nice to get that for a lot of reasons but that was probably one of them. Q. A couple times now Jim Mackay said on television he thinks you're the most underrated player in the game. How do you react to that? MARC LEISHMAN: I'll take it as a compliment. I don't know. Q. Do you feel like you're underrated or feel like you still got to prove something? MARC LEISHMAN: I think my good stuff is really good. I just have to do it more often. I think if I do it more often that will change. I kind of like that I can go wherever I want and no one knows who I am and that's pretty cool. I've been out for dinner with Rickie and Jas and lot of the guys, Scotty, and everyone knows who they are. It's kind of nice to fly under the radar. Hopefully I can start putting more rounds on the board. That will probably change but, you know, I need to start lifting more trophies before that. I'll take it as a compliment, yeah. Don't know what else to say. Q. When you talked yesterday about you're not the kind of guy that gets nervous except for that one moment at Cog Hill, apparently on the first tree, where do you think that comes from? MARC LEISHMAN: I'm pretty relaxed. I'm an easy going, relaxed person. You know, I've been through a lot off the golf course, you know, the stuff with Audrey, and I feel like that kind of makes golf, not less important, but it's easy to put things into perspective, I guess. It's a game of golf. It's a golf tournament. It's not a life or death situation. Obviously it's our living and we want to do really, really well but, at the end of the day, you know, we're making a living and putting food on the table and all that. I feel like seeing not only her but other people in that hospital ward when she was really sick, that really putts things into perspective and even little things like today saw a volunteer get run over by a golf cart, fell over, hit the back of his head and was out cold, unconscious. I hope he's okay. But just little things like that being I feel like I can segregate golf and life, I do that pretty well. Q. What was your heart rate like on the back-9 at Augusta in '13? MARC LEISHMAN: It was pretty good, yeah. There's only one shot I would like to have again, that second shot on 15. But, yeah, I don't know. I think I got in the moment pretty well. I've never -- even the last round at The Open, at St. Andrews, that was very close to when Audrey was taken. Yeah, no nerves there. I don't know. I'm not sure what it is. Hope it stays like that. Q. Leish, just talking on that perspective, can you just elaborate on the ribbons and the hat this week and how special it would be to get a win during this week? MARC LEISHMAN: Yes. It's Sepsis Awareness Month, September, and that's what took Audrey ill to begin with and we're just trying to get an awareness out there. I think there's 250,000 just people from the United States die of sepsis every year and a lot of people don't know what sepsis is. I didn't know what it was when Audrey got sick. I Goggled it. I'm like oh, that's not good. So, just, you know, it's worth Goggling the symptoms just so you know because every hour that goes by that you don't go to the hospital if you do have enough sepsis, your mortality rate goes up by 7 percent. If you can catch it early, it's antibodies, probably in the hospital for a day and see you later. If you don't catch it early enough there's probably going to be a funeral not too far down the road. Yeah, we're just trying to raise awareness, just so people know what the symptoms are because if you catch it early it's very treatable but if you don't, it's fatal most of the time. AMANDA HERRINGTON: Your foundation? MARC LEISHMAN: The Begin Again Foundation. We help families who have gone through troubled times with sepsis, toxic shot syndrome, all the things Audrey had. That's a nice little thing we got going that's growing and I think we've helped about 700 families so far just in the last year and a half. It's nice to be out there, to help people who really need it to be in a position to help and do something. Pretty passionate about it and hoping that people learn the symptoms. Q. I may have the story wrong but going way back, did you work the graveyard shift in a factory in order to pay your tournament entry fees and lasted one night? MARC LEISHMAN: It lasted a week. I was operating a laser cutter so it was from 11:00 p.m. till 8:00 a.m. So, yeah, I had a magnet on a long stick. When it got jammed I would do that. Really I don't wish that I never did -- I'm glad I did it because it really taught me the value of a dollar and I mean I still really want to put that with my kids and I feel it's really important to know that, that you know that hard work -- yeah. Q. What were you cutting and how old were you? MARC LEISHMAN: Sheets of metal, probably as long as this table and twice as wide, about that thick (indicating) and laser that came down and cut all sorts of things. Just cut shapes. Could lose a limb pretty easily if you're not careful. That wasn't too good for my golf so that lasted a week and possibly two weeks. Q. You were how old? MARC LEISHMAN: I was like probably 18 or 19. I just moved to Melbourne from my hometown. Needed to try to earn some money to afford to play golf. That was what I did. Q. How much did they pay you? MARC LEISHMAN: Probably like 10, 12 bucks an hour, something like that. It was hard work and hard work staying awake (laughter). But, yeah, really I guess it motivated me to want to play really good golf. I didn't want to do that the rest of my life. Q. Marc, is there anything that can happen tomorrow or at the Presidents Cup that can top welcoming a daughter this year after all you guys have been through? MARC LEISHMAN: Well, I mean I guess you got to put them in two baskets, off the course and on the course. That's the best thing that can happen to you, bringing a child into the world with no complications at all. That's the best. Off the course I feel like some really good things that can happen the next few weeks and tomorrow hopefully will be the start of it. Hopefully Tour Championship and Presidents Cup. To win the Presidents Cup would be massive, that would be a highlight of my career, the whole team's career. Lot of hard work and obviously the Americans have got an awesome team and we'll have to play great. That's certainly something for us to all work towards. AMANDA HERRINGTON: All right. Doug? Q. This is brutally unfair, I apologize, but if you could only win one cup, which one would you take, the FedEx or the Presidents? MARC LEISHMAN: That is a stitch up. AMANDA HERRINGTON: You don't have to answer that. MARC LEISHMAN: I won't answer that. It's a lose-lose situation. If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. Is that a good thing to say? AMANDA HERRINGTON: That's a great thing to say with that. MARC LEISHMAN: I'll take both. AMANDA HERRINGTON: With that, we will let you go and get some rest for tomorrow. Thank you again. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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