Leishman completes Aussie double as big guns come up short
Farmers Insurance Open report: What happened at Torrey Pines?
Marc Leishman closed out his fifth PGA Tour victory with a brilliant birdie at the 72nd hole to beat Jon Rahm by one shot on 15-under.
Leishman was the second Australian of the day to secure a title on the main tours as Lucas Herbert claimed the Dubai Desert Classic on the European Tour.
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The pair claimed victories on Australia Day and the double-Aussie win is quite a significant feat. The last time that an Australian won on both the PGA Tour and the European Tour in the same week was back in 2002 when Adam Scott captured the Scottish PGA Championship while Craig Parry won the WGC Invitational.
🏆 @MarcLeish's birdie on 18 helped lift him to his fifth PGA TOUR victory, and @TigerWoods was there to congratulate him. pic.twitter.com/OTJhU2q1yo
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) January 27, 2020
Leishman began Sunday four shots behind the leaders and, despite only hitting three fairways in his final round, was able to control the tournament for most of the day.
The 36-year-old relied heavily upon his putter on his way to a closing seven-under 65 and finished with +4.778 Strokes Gained Putting.
-3 thru 4. 👏@MarcLeish is tied for the lead @FarmersInsOpen. 🇦🇺#QuickHits pic.twitter.com/XF3Z1ahDiv
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) January 26, 2020
After 15 holes Leishman had reached what would turn out to be the winning score and had a multiple-shot cushion but Rahm rallied late and had a long eagle putt at the last, identical to the one he holed here in 2017, to force a play-off but it was a whisker away.
The Spaniard sat on top of the leaderboard after 54 holes but two bogeys and a double-bogey in his first five holes left an uphill task.
After a double bogey on No. 3, Jon Rahm drops to -9.
He trails Marc Leishman by two. pic.twitter.com/WeZoVco36K
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) January 26, 2020
Leishman’s final hole was played in a throughly professional manner as he chose to lay up on the par-5 18th rather than go for the green in pursuit of an eagle. He pitched close to the pin and finished off for a short-range birdie.
Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy both enjoyed good first appearances of 2020. Woods finished in a tie for 9th while McIlroy came up just three short of Leishman in finishing tied 3rd.
Farmers Insurance Open report: Anything else?
On Sunday we witnessed a bizarre hole-out from the fairway which didn’t actually count.
Tiger Woods’ approach shot found the green, took a couple of bounces and landed in the hole, but it didn’t stay there for long.
Here’s the full story and why it didn’t count.
Farmers Insurance Open leaderboard
-15 Marc Leishman
-14 Jon Rahm
-12 Rory McIlroy, Brandt Snedeker
-11 Tom Hoge
-10 Bubba Watson, Patrick Reed, Tony Finau
Full leaderboard (external site)
Joe Hughes
Tour editor covering men's golf, women's golf and anything else that involves the word golf, really. The talk is far better than the game, but the work has begun to change that.
