BMW Championship: Marc Leishman struggles in Thursday round
By Tim Letcher
Olympia Fields played really tough in Thursday’s opening round of the BMW Championship. But no player made it look tougher than Marc Leishman.
On a day where the course was clearly the winner at the BMW Championship, most players struggled. But Marc Leishman struggled more than most in the second FedEx Cup Playoff event of 2020.
The Australian did not get off to a bad start on Thursday in Chicago. He parred his first three holes and everything seemed to be going just fine. But on the fourth hole, he pushed his approach shot on the par four to the right, then failed to get up-and-down, suffering his first bogey of the day.
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On the fifth hole, Leishman pulled his approach shot into a greenside bunker. His pitch came up short, then he pitched onto the green and missed a 10-footer for par. At that point, Leishman was 2-over par on his round.
The rest of his front nine was perfectly normal. Leishman actually parred out to shoot a 2-over par 37 on his front side.
However, the back nine was a completely different story. It started bad and go worse for Leishman.
He opened the back side with a bogey on the 10th hole after he found a fairway bunker off the tee. On the 11th hole, he found another way to bogey a hole, with a three-putt.
The 12th hole was a disaster for Leishman. He was in the rough off the tee, in a greenside bunker in two and in the rough in three. He pitched onto the green, the two-putted for a double-bogey six. At that point, he was 6-over par for the day.
Leishman recovered a bit, parring both the 13th and 14th holes. On the par-5 15th hole, Leishman found the rough off the tee, got back into the fairway in two, found the rough with his third shot and got on the green in four. He two-putted for a bogey.
On the par-3 16th hole, Leishman found the rough off the tee, pitched to 38 feet, and again two-putted for bogey. At that point, he was 8-over par.
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Unfortunately for Leishman, the hardest hole on the course remained. And he helped make it seem even harder. He was in the rough for his first two shots, got near the green in three and finally finished with a three-footer for a six. The double bogey left Leishman with a 10-over par score of 80.
Leishman was three shots worse than anyone else in the field on Thursday, finding himself in a distant last place. The good news for him is, even if he gets last, he has enough points to get to East Lake and the Tour Championship next week. That was the only bit of good news for Leishman on this day.