2022 Sony Open: Top 10 power rankings at Waialae

Marc Leishman is both a horse for the course at Waialae, as well as a player continuing solid form at the end of 2021. The Aussie is set to make his 13th start at the Sony Open, only missing the event once in 2012 since debuting in 2009.

Big Leish is still seeking his first win here in Honolulu, but he’s done about everything else on the island. He’s 12-for-12 making the cut with three top-fives, one more top-10 and six more top-30s. Not bad!

In the past three years, Leishman’s finished T-3rd (67-64-68-64), T-28th (68-70-71-67) and T-4th (66-65-65-65).

“I mean, everything. You got to strike the ball really well. And putt. Putting is key,” Leishman was transcribed by ASAP Sports in 2020. “You got to judge wind. I think, yeah, hitting fairways and the ball striking is really important. If you can hit a lot of greens and not put too much pressure on your putting, I think that’s very important.”

In 2021, Leish closed in 5-under 30 on Sunday to vault up the leaderboard. He ended the tournament without a double bogey or worse on the card, and was fourth in strokes gained approach (6.080). Despite hitting just 50% fairways for the week (T-99th), he hit 60 of 72 greens (83.33%), good for T-6th in that category.

Leishman played some of his best golf late last year with a T-4th at the Fortinet Championship and T-3rd at the Shriners Children’s Open. Mix in a T-19th at the Hewlett Packard Houston Open and he’s off to a splendid start to his 2021-22 season.

For what it’s worth, Leish also finished T-3rd at the QBE Shootout alongside countryman Jason Day. Leishman got off to a good start to 2022 with a T-10th at the Sentry Tournament of Champions last week at Kapalua.

He’ll take scores of 69-67-65-68 (-23) any week, but Cameron Smith (and Jon Rahm and Matt Jones) were on another level. The 38-year-old Leishman was top 10 in the field in SG putting  (2.829, 9th) and  SG approach (2.116, 10th).