“I’VE COME INTO A LOT OF THESE EVENTS NOW IN GOOD FORM AND BEEN LUCKY ENOUGH TO PUT MYSELF IN A HANDY POSITION A COUPLE OF TIMES, BUT IT HASN’T GONE MY WAY YET.”
– MARC LEISHMAN.
It took almost seven years, but Marc Leishman finally ripped off the Band-Aid.
Like so many sportspeople before him who’ve experienced an agonising moment that separated them from the realisation of a childhood dream, that return visit is often too much to confront.
“I’ve let it go”; “It never really bothered me that much”; “I prefer to keep my focus forward” – all familiar refrains when next they face the inevitable question.
But Leishman, as well balanced – and schooled – in real life as any elite athlete, seemingly had his potentially haunting moment safely in the vault.
It was at the end of the windswept 2015 edition of the Open Championship at St. Andrews that the giant Victorian suffered the cruellest twist of his major championship career.
He’d put behind him the thought of not even playing at the home of golf after the near-death experience of his wife Audrey just days before the Masters earlier that year. And he even led with just a handful of holes to play before being joined by
