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BMW CHAMPIONSHIP

September 15, 2017

Marc Leishman

Carmel, Indiana

AMANDA HERRINGTON: We'd like to welcome Marc Leishman into the Interview Room after the 2nd Round at the BMW Championship. Birdied half your holes this week en route to a 3 shot lead heading into the weekend. Just some general comments.

MARC LEISHMAN: Yeah. Hopefully I can keep that going, birdieing half the holes. Happy with the first two days, obviously. Made lots of birdies. Game feels in a really good spot in all aspects and then, you know, it's nice to be out there. The weather is perfect and been a fun two days.

AMANDA HERRINGTON: We'll ask with questions.

Q. Marc, 16-under through 36 holes, it's not the first time a really low score has come through here. Does it make this course a pushover for you guys? It looks hardly visually but apparently it doesn't.
MARC LEISHMAN: It's not a pushover. I think it's a good course in the respect if you're hitting really good golf shots and making putts you can go really low but if you're a little bit off and you're playing from the rough, spraying it a little bit, there's numbers to be had.

I think it punishes bad shots and if you are hitting it good there's a lot of opportunities to make birdies and eagles.

So, probably a reasonable spread I'm guessing between the low score and the high score, just for that fact. I haven't really looked at the leaderboard but I'm assuming there's a few guys over par.

Q. Marc, what did you take away from that 70 at Dell? It's been your only round not in the 60s in these two tournaments?
MARC LEISHMAN: Took away a fair bit of disappointment being the last round and obviously shot 30 on the front-9 that day and 40 on the back. So, that did leave a sour taste in my mouth but it didn't feel like a bad round.

That back-9 is quite tough and when the wind is blowing and a little bit of pressure, it really changes things. You know, I tried to take the positives out of that day, you know, thought about it a bit on the week off and get here with a clear head and ready to go.

Q. Marc, on the back-9 was it the course or was it -- did you get ahead of yourself? I mean it's hard to hold a lead out here. To what do you attribute that?
MARC LEISHMAN: I didn't get ahead of myself. When you got Jordan Spieth and Dustin Johnson nipping at your heels it's pretty easy not to get ahead of yourself.

The course was playing tough and I didn't play as well as I would have liked. So, the combination of those two things on a PGA TOUR course is not a very good one. Generally doesn't lead to too many good things.

So, like I said, try to take all the positives out of that, learn from the bad stuff I did and hopefully use that, if not just this week, but the rest of my career.

Q. Marc, you're paired tomorrow with Jason Day. Have you played much golf with him and, if so, how do you think it's going to go today.
MARC LEISHMAN: We played a fair bit of golf together. He won here a few years ago. He obviously likes the course and playing really well. We've played, yeah, a decent amount together.

Get along together really well. It will be different looking over and not seeing Swatton on the bag but I'm sure we'll have a good day out there and hopefully we can both play well and make a lot of birdies and drag each other along.

It's funny how golf works. The guy you're playing with is not playing great, generally, you don't play great, either. It will be good if we can both play good golf.

Q. Marc, how has the Chicago fan base been to you this week? Have they been supportive since you've been in the driver's seat all week or do you feel kind of like an underdog?
MARC LEISHMAN: Very supportive. Generally I do feel like an underdog everywhere I go but this week has been a little bit different. Been really supportive. Not just this year, but played a lot of golf here in Chicago, long time ago now but played really well here in 2009 was my first time playing with Tiger Woods and that's probably one of the most memorable days I ever had, to be honest, on a golf course.

I've got a lot of good memories here and the crowds are great and hoping I can continue to make birdies, give them something to cheer about and come back next year as a crowd favorite.

Q. Marc, can you recall anything specific from that round with Tiger in '09, what struck you?
MARC LEISHMAN: I remember being really, really nervous on the first tee, which I'm not generally a nervous person but that was a new thing for me. I remember that shot he played on 9. You see it replayed played on the Golf Channel, drove it right, hit it behind the tree. Makeable eagle putt. And he's behind the tree and we both end up making birdies.

Actually quite a lot that day, probably three, four holes which is not normal for me. I don't tend to remember rounds of golf too often.

Q. Do you remember yesterday?
MARC LEISHMAN: What happened yesterday? Yeah, yesterday was a good day. Shots I have to really think back about -- and I've never been one to really hold on to memories of that too much.

Q. I don't know if you've addressed this already but going 62, 64, have you ever had an occasion where you started low and followed up reasonable low close to it?
MARC LEISHMAN: Actually my first pro win back in Australia I shot 60 in the 1st Round and then I think I ended up winning by 10 or 11 shots. I can't remember exactly what I shot but it was below 65.

I have done it but not on a course like this. It was a shorter course but it's nice knowing that I've played with a lead and come out on top. It's a good challenge for me, I think.

Today it's hard to backup a really low round and I really took that as a challenge today to not take it for granted that you're just going to make birdies. You still have to earn every birdie. I think when you do get ahead of yourself that's when bad stuff can happen.

Q. Why is it hard?
MARC LEISHMAN: I think because you're thinking about the day before and what happened and maybe compare the scores, you know. If you're 6-under after 9, then the next day you're only 2-under, it's like possibly disappointed on the back-9, you know. Could be like that.

Yeah, I'm not really sure. Just tends to be a hard thing to do but something I've done okay at.

Q. When you see yourself and Jason up there at the top of the leaderboard, do you sort of have to fight a couple weeks ahead to the Presidents Cup and thinking hey, after all this USA, USA stuff we're looking a little better now?
MARC LEISHMAN: It will be, you know, obviously very different in two weeks but, you know, we're both really competitive people and we'll be trying to definitely beat each over the next couple of days but, you know, when it comes to the event, the Presidents Cup, we'll hopefully work together and try and win a trophy there.

Yeah, I don't think it will be hard to put two weeks aside.

Q. What I was getting at, are you encouraged to see some of the Internationals getting into some serious form here?
MARC LEISHMAN: Yes, very encouraged. Feel like we've got a good team and, you know, if we can start playing really well leading up to it is definitely not going to hurt our chances.

Q. Can you explain what you mean by you feel like an underdog most every week?
MARC LEISHMAN: I don't know. I guess I just fly under the radar a lot. Not too many talk about me and the lead-up, I kind of like. I don't know. I guess less in the last year or two but, you know, especially before that it was people would be -- even in the crowd people would be, "Who is this bloke?"

So, I don't really get that anymore but -- yes, in that way, not amongst the players or that, the guys that are there every week but certainly in the crowds and all that.

Q. What do you have to do to change that? How many more times do you have to win?
MARC LEISHMAN: Win more often. I've only won twice on Tour. I need to contend more, need to win more trophies. I think just playing well early in the week will help that and, you know, hopefully I can add to that in the next couple of days and have a big finish.

Q. Have you ever heard anyone say, "Who is that bloke" in Australia?
MARC LEISHMAN: To me? Yeah. Yeah.

Q. That's not a good sign.
MARC LEISHMAN: It's not, no. I don't know. Just fly under the radar, I guess.

AMANDA HERRINGTON: All right. Any last questions for Marc? Great. Thank you for joining us today.

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