Leishman sparkles on day one at augusta Australia's marc leishman shook off a
few months of poor form to be a surprise joint leader in the first round of the
masters at augusta national. Leishman fired a sixunderpar 66 with seven birdies
and a bogey to sit on top of the leaderboard with spain's sergio garcia while
longhitting american dustin johnson was third at fiveunder late in the round.
Adam scott was the next best australian with a 69 leaving him well within
striking range as was jason day who, like world no.1 Tiger Woods shot 70, while
the other Australian John Senden had an even par 72. In his last six starts on
the us tour 29yearold leishman had missed three cuts and not finished higher
than a tie for 38th. But, having finally almost shaken a viral infection, the
victorian showcased his true talent and, while keenly aware it was still early
in the event, he was not ruling out the possibility of making history as the
first australian to win a masters green jacket. 'There's a lot of golf left, and
a lot of hurdles to clear but if I can keep playing the way I'm playing, keep
holing the crucial par putts and just putting the way I have been, there's no
reason why not, ' he said. 'But there's a lot of good players obviously and a
lot of holes left. 'Obviously that's the goal.I've just got to try and execute
it and see how we go.' Leishman hoped those back in his hometown warrnambool
would be pleased. 'They'll probably be a bit shocked after my last month or two
but it's probably exciting for them, ' he said. 'It's exciting for me.It's
exciting to have this cheap cocktail dresses for a country
town like warrnambool.Hopefully they'll all be excited and up early tomorrow to
watch it.' Leishman opened with a nervous bogey but birdied the third hole to
get back square with par before making a huge move around the turn and deep on
the back nine. He birdied the parfive eighth before gaining another shot with
birdie on the difficult 10th hole. He then went on a blitz with four consecutive
birdies from hole cocktailesonline 13 through 16. He
dropped an eightfoot birdie on the 13th, fired in a precision approach on the
14th to inside threefeet where the subsequent birdie tied him for the lead. He
then claimed sole possession with a neat little chip shot to close on the 15th
and put the hammer down with a bomb of a birdie from, according to the man
himself, 'a different zip code', across the 16th green.In reality it was about
35 feet. A clutch sixfoot par save after finding the bunker on the 17th allowed
him to maintain his momentum and he cleverly made a twoputt par on the last to
sign for his 66. 'It was a good day obviously, ' Leishman said.'I got off to a
bit of a shaky start, a few nerves early but got those out of the way with a
birdie at three and then we're away. 'I hit some good shots, made some
reasonably easy pars, and I think that's what gave me the confidence to go on
from there.' Fellow australian john senden traded his six birdies with six
bogeys to shoot an even par 72 to be tied 35th while chinese 14yearold amateur
tianlang guan shot an astonishingly respectable 73 to be tied 46th in his
masters debut, beating the likes of defending champion bubba watson(75).
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