SONY OPEN IN HAWAII

January 12, 2022

Marc Leishman

Waialae Country Club

Press Conference

JOHN BUSH: We'd like to welcome Marc Leishman into the interview room here at the Sony Open in Hawai'i. Most recently you finished tied for fourth in this event and just a stellar record here. But yet, you haven't won yet. I know that's high on your list of what you'd really like to get accomplished this week. If we can get some comments being back on a golf course that you love.

MARC LEISHMAN: I like how you said, yet. I'm hoping the same thing. Yeah, I love playing here at the Sony Open. Just the whole atmosphere of the place. It's relaxed. Normally a bit of wind. I enjoy the golf course. I think if you play well, you can go really low but if you're a little bit off, it can get you. Got a good record here but we all start at zero on Thursday morning and you have to earn your finishes and earn your good results and hopefully I can earn another good one this week.

JOHN BUSH: Talk about Cam's win last week but also just a phenomenal performance but all of the Australians. Comment about that and how proud you were of him.

MARC LEISHMAN: It was amazing. Obviously to help him get into the tournament was good. Yeah, just to see all the Aussie guys at the top, kind of felt a bit bad for Jonesy shooting 32-under and finishing third. But you know, it was just some unbelievable golf from everyone last week. I mean, I felt like I played really well. Maybe left a few shots on the greens. But 23-under, to sneak in for a Top-10, it was just really good golf by everyone.

To see all the Aussies in the top 10 was pretty cool and hopefully we can continue that trend this week.

JOHN BUSH: Now talk about the transition from the Plantation Course to Waialae which say totally different golf course.

MARC LEISHMAN: Sure. Go from the hardest walk on Tour to probably the easiest to be honest. A lot of huge hills. You need oxygen on a few of those tees. Here, it's a good reprieve. You can -- still got to play good golf but you can I guess enjoy the walk a bit more here rather than hiking up all the hills.

Q. Plantation, wide open fairways, and here driving is a premium. How do you transition or is the mentality the same when you get up to the tee box?

MARC LEISHMAN: The mentality is pretty similar. The way guy about my golf is I have to pick a really small target kind of like a sniper, aim small, miss small. So I did that there last week. There's just a bit more margin for error.

Here you can till miss it in certain places. You just have to know where you can miss and where you can't miss it. Generally one side of the hole, even if you're in the rough, is okay. It's just a matter of, yeah, knowing those places but it's still the same, same mindset. You're still trying to hit a good shot at your target and go up, find it and hit it again. Just making putts is key around this place.

Q. Cameron talked about how this course reminds him of growing up and course back home. Does this remind you of any course back home or bring any of those feelings?

MARC LEISHMAN: We grew up in different parts of the country. I guess this is the grasses that Cam grew up on. Fairly similar climate. I grew up in the cold area of Australia. I'm more southern California-ish, those sort of grasses.

It reminds me of Queensland, but I grew up a few states away. But I still love the relaxed atmosphere. I feel like it does feel like you're a bit at home just because everyone is so relaxed here.

Q. Is that why so many pros love starting their year off in Hawai'i? Last week, you won, so there's something to that but coming here and starting your calendar year off in Hawai'i?

MARC LEISHMAN: Yeah, I feel like you can ease into it a little bit. Obviously we are all very competitive and we all want to win, and we play really hard.

But I think off the golf course here, it's a little different feeling and you can finish golf, go to the pool, go to the beach. My family always comes here, so I can enjoy my time with them. But yeah, when we're on the golf course, we're playing hard still.

Q. Kind of building on that just for a moment, you go through the off-season, you get some time off and now you get back. Obviously you want to be peeking at majors but does any part of you maybe accelerate some things to try to get some early wins here? Is that part of the mentality coming into this Hawai'i stretch?

MARC LEISHMAN: Yeah, I mean, you want to get off to a good start. You spoke about peaking for majors, and definitely trying to do that, but I still haven't quite worked out how to peak for certain events.

You know, I'm just trying to do as much as I can to play well on the week. This week it's the Sony Open. So I feel like every week is an opportunity to improve your game and potentially win an event if you play well and things -- you know, you get the rub of the green.

Q. You talk about 23-under to sneak into the top 10. All kinds of crazy low scores last week. What do you make of just how low everyone was going last week, and is that maybe something we could see continue here on Tour?

MARC LEISHMAN: I don't know. It was kind of a perfect storm last week. You know, no wind, soft conditions. I mean, the greens have not long been redone there and they are perfect. I mean, you don't get better surfaces.

And you know, you still have to make the putts but I think guys just played well last week. You know, if you had a bit of wind, might have been 10 or 15 shots difference. So if the wind stays up here this week, yeah, I think there will be some low scores, but I certainly don't think it will be close to 30-under.

Q. When you're in that kind of a situation, it's got to feel like you can't miss a shot. I mean, at a certain point, everything has to be perfect. Is that something that you're thinking about when you're on the course, especially when you're seeing the leaders end up at 34-under par?

MARC LEISHMAN: Yeah, it does put pressure on your game. I think particularly the putter, because you're always trying to hit it close to the pin, but you know, if the leader is at 15-under, you know, you can shoot 4-under a day and potentially win the tournament.

There you were shooting 4-under a day and going backwards. I think it just a little bit more pressure on the putter. You know, you had a 10- or 15-footer, and you felt like you had to make it.

It's good. The guys are getting better, and it makes you want to improve. I've certainly got things I'd like to improve in my game, and you know, there's always room for improvement, and hopefully I can do that and play good this week.

Q. Just on the near misses, did you pinpoint something specific that if you did better you might have got it done? Or there's always luck attached to winning, right, one or two shots here or there?

MARC LEISHMAN: It's just playing well on the right week. You know, there's probably a few putts last year that I felt like I could have made that I didn't. I think it was Sunday. I had two left-handed chip-outs. I think it was Sunday. Harvey reminded me of that on Tuesday. I forgot about it.

But then got to the fifth hole and remembered chipping out left handed, and 8, as well. There's those two, if they get a little bit of luck, you can get it on the green and make par, and I'm not sure how many I lost by but there's your two or three shots there.

I mean, you've just got to do the right things and hope that a few putts that might have the chance to lip-out, lip-in, or if you have a blinder of a week, they are the ones that you hope that no one else goes crazy as well.