PGA Tour: Marc Leishman Speaks Following Opening Round of Sony Open in Hawaii

PGA Tour professional and Australian Marc Leishman speaks with the media following his opening round at the Sony Open in Hawaii about the tough conditions and also the situation in his home country of Australia.

Q. Marc, nicely played out there. Got off to a good start on the back nine and the winds got the best of you as you made the turn to the front nine. How challenging and how tough was it out there today?
MARC LEISHMAN: Yeah, that was pretty brutal. It was as good as I’ve played for a while and really, really happy with 2-under. Like you say, got off to a really good start. A lot of crosswinds. You know, 2 you’re normally hitting 3-iron, 9-iron in; today I hit driver, 5-iron, so some different holes, different to what we’re used to.

I feel like I handled it pretty well, so very happy to be under par.

Q. When you have conditions like this, what is the most important thing you have to do?
MARC LEISHMAN: I mean, everything. You got to strike the ball really well. And putt. Putting is key. You got to judge wind. I think, yeah, hitting fairways and the ball striking is really important. If you can hit a lot of greens and not put too much pressure on your putting, I think that’s very important.

Marc Leishman talks Australia

Q. I know that you’re playing a game today, but obviously a lot more things on your mind with what’s happening back in Australia with all the wildfires and what the PGA TOUR and your fellow PGA TOUR members have done. What does it mean to you to know that the PGA TOUR and the other players have your support?
MARC LEISHMAN: Yeah, it’s amazing. You know, it’s a crisis they’re going through at the moment back home, and. Yeah, playing in this is nothing compared to what they’re dealing with. They’re out fighting fires in this, but obviously fighting flames that are 50 foot high or higher, so they’re risking their lives. The support of the players is amazing. I hope to make a lot more birdies as the week goes on to donate a lot of money and support people.

Q. Is there a message that maybe a lot of people don’t know that you really would like to share with people out there about what’s going on?
MARC LEISHMAN: I think it’s pretty self-explanatory. Any fire is bad no matter the size, but this is a — it’s like on a huge, huge scale, so the whole country is in dire straits really. We don’t know when they’re going to stop and there is a lot of people suffering.

So if we can donate some money, help them out, that’s what this — a lot of crises that need items or whatever, but this they need money. They need to rebuild houses. So, yeah, just hoping I can play good and donate a lot.

January 9, 2020

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports