MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 8, 2022

Marc Leishman

Quick Quotes

Q. Leish, tell us how tough it is out there today. It started out pretty cold, and now on the back nine it got really windy.

MARC LEISHMAN: Yeah, it's really tough. Putting's difficult. I mean, everything's difficult, to be honest. It was just a frustrating day for me. I played really well. I mean, I don't know what the longest putt I made was but couldn't have been longer than three feet. A bit of work to do on that.

I feel like I'm putting good, but it's one of those first two days, I guess. It's been two days of holing nothing. So disappointed, but hopefully I can get it rolling on the weekend.

Q. It just looks like to us that you're rolling the edges. They look like they're going in, but they're just holding their lines there?

MARC LEISHMAN: Yeah, I'm used to them breaking a little bit more. You play a little bit less, and I don't know, very frustrating on the greens. But it's going to be frustrating for everyone. That's the way I've got to look at it.

I've played well enough to make it to the weekend. Hopefully I can do something silly on the weekend and shoot a couple of real low ones and see what happens.

Q. Is that all you've got to say? The conditions here this weekend are going to be right up Marc Leishman's alley.

MARC LEISHMAN: Yeah, I mean today should have been up my alley. It was, but as I say, the putts weren't dropping. We'll try and sort that out this afternoon and get a clear head. You know how it goes when you're not making putts. You feel like you're never going to make another one again.

Hopefully I can be here in a different frame of mind tomorrow afternoon talking to you and talking about how good my 63 was.

Q. Every club golfer back in Australia finally sees one of the best players in the world go through what they go through. It's frustrating, isn't it?

MARC LEISHMAN: Every day it happens. Even when you shoot a good score, you have periods of three or four holes where things are going south and you feel like you're not going to hit another good shot for the rest of the day, and you chip it in, and you're away again. So that was a nice chip-in.

Q. Run us through that chip-in. The tee shot way right, and then you hit --

MARC LEISHMAN: Yeah, I tried to hit a little cutting 3-iron just to get it in the front bunkers and couldn't cut it quite enough. It was actually quite a tough chip. It was into the wind, which was the good thing, but it was uphill, then it was going to run away if it went past. So I had a little zipper in there and was lucky enough for it to go in for the only birdie of the day.

Q. Is that the shot your dad taught you?

MARC LEISHMAN: Dad will claim he taught me that one. That was from many years of practice on the chipping green.

Q. When the wind is up and down like today, how much of it is just luck and catching a break and not catching a bad break? Is that part of it?

MARC LEISHMAN: It can be. I mean, you're not looking at where you are. I guess experience in the wind is helpful, knowing where to look for the gusts. Sometimes it's not where you are, it's where your ball's going to be and where the wind's coming from, if you can see a gust coming that's 400 yards away.

Q. Were there specific places today where you felt like that helped? Where you felt like your experience taught you I need to be looking at that spot or thinking about that one there versus here?

MARC LEISHMAN: I think experience helps on a few holes here with wind, but if you hit it out of the middle of the club, the wind doesn't affect the ball too much. The balls are so good now that, even if you do get a gust, it's still going to be all right. A poorly struck shot will get smashed by the wind.

I think the guys that are striking it the best are going to come out ahead today, I think. Yeah, they'll be all right. It's strong, 20, 30 miles an hour, but like I say, the technology in the golf balls now, like the ball I'm using is amazing in the wind.

Yeah, you can use a ball that's good for one thing or another, and I love playing in the wind, so I've got a ball that performs in the wind.

Q. How does 10 degrees difference, if that's what we get tomorrow, make a difference out here? Temperature.

MARC LEISHMAN: It's going to be hotter or colder?

Q. Colder.

MARC LEISHMAN: Yeah, need a few extra layers. I'm going to be out early too. So I'll be in the coldest part of the day, but hopefully the wind will be down and I can still shoot a score. You've got to get a good warmup, layer up, and make sure you're ready for it, prepared for it.

Q. Are you as amazed by Tiger as the rest of us, just that he's here and performing at a high level?

MARC LEISHMAN: Yeah, it's impressive, very impressive. Coming up where he came from, what, 14, 15 months ago. Yes, it's only day one, but all the signs are there that he's going to hang around, and these conditions would be right up his alley. Yeah, I think everyone's very impressed.

Q. When you look ahead, like how dangerous could he be at the Old Course? Obviously an easier walk and so much about shaping shots and all that sort of thing.

MARC LEISHMAN: Yeah, he's dangerous everywhere, wherever he tees it up. Same there, like you've got a lot of uneven lies that you hit from and you have some awkward ones. But I wouldn't put anything past him. He's that sort of guy that, if I was to say I don't think he'll contend ever again -- which I did not say that, by the way. I said, if I was to say that, he would go out there and win a lot, I bet, and there's a lot of people that would probably agree with me and don't want to fire him up.

Q. His ability to just rise to the occasion and just keep dragging himself back time after time, I mean, what is it that makes Tiger Woods, Tiger Woods? What is that X factor that he has?

MARC LEISHMAN: It's up top in his brain. Everyone's brain is wired differently, and he's got that determination and the work ethic. It's both. If he puts his mind to it, you wouldn't put anything past him.

Yeah, I love playing with him. I like speaking to him. If I happen to get back into contention, I hope he plays well, but not too well.