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
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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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