THE 153RD OPEN

July 20, 2025

Marc Leishman

Mixed Zone

Q. How would you summarise that?

MARC LEISHMAN: Some days you have it, and some days you don't. Today I didn't. Disappointing day. Yeah, you have days like that sometimes, and obviously you don't want them to be on Sunday of a British Open. Yeah, we'd like to have had a better score but didn't.

Q. It's probably too soon, but do you know what you can take out of this week? What would you sort of pat yourself on the back for? What could you have done better?

MARC LEISHMAN: I didn't start very well any round. Like today I had to get off to a good start and didn't, and sort of everything seemed a little bit out of reach and just struggled after that.

My ball striking was decent. I missed a few drives right. I've had a few driver issues this year just with them breaking. Not me breaking them, but them breaking. I had one break on the way over here, and I finally found one which is good. I'll take that as a positive this week. I found a driver that I love, just couldn't string enough good holes together, I guess.

It seemed like every time I'd have a birdie today, I'd follow it up with a bogey or worse. So yeah, disappointing day, but take the good with the bad. Onwards and upwards from here.

Q. This is your first time in three years playing a major, then two majors. Did it give you a nice examination of where your game is at and any lessons to take into next year?

MARC LEISHMAN: I think I knew where my game was at. It's been pretty good. I've been playing some really good golf. The last two months the results haven't quite been there. The game's still there. The week before the one in Miami or a couple of weeks before that, I kind of played like I did this week and just didn't have a good result. I know it's close, which is good.

Hopefully I can have a really good finish to the year and play my way back in for next year.

Q. Are you getting a taste for playing in these majors?

MARC LEISHMAN: Yeah, happy to be back. Obviously if everything works out and we can get in them, I'd love to play them. If not, I'm not going to stress over it or anything. Yes, I really want to be here, but happy with my decisions.

Q. I was looking at stats a little bit earlier. On the par-3s and 4s you had a great week. It was the par-5s where you probably lost some ground. Did you feel that?

MARC LEISHMAN: Yeah, definitely. Today -- well, every day really. You hit the nail on the head, I think. Just drove in a few too many fairway bunkers. There was a few holes where I took them on purposely, knowing that if I hit an iron, there's still going to be one in play. If I was going to take it on, I thought I might as well take it on with driver. A few of them didn't come off.

Obviously the fairway bunkers are not very good around here. Probably hit it in a few too many of these. Yeah, par-5s needed a bit of improvement this week. Apart from that, I thought it was pretty decent.

Q. I know you like coming back to Australia each year and you're desperate to win one of these two majors, but it feels like this year could be a really good opportunity. It's going to be a huge summer of golf?

MARC LEISHMAN: I hope so. It's going to be Royal Melbourne and Royal Queensland, two courses that I've played well at before. I've spent a lot of time on Royal Melbourne and had some good results the last few years at Royal Queensland. Hopefully this is the year.

That's the funny thing about golf, you can have a great week and play some really, really good golf, and if somebody plays better than you, you don't win. So hopefully it can be my year, and I'll do everything I can to see if I can make that happen.

Q. Teeing it up next week, Leish, how low key is the prep after a major? Do you really take it easy and just get ready the last day or so before the tournament?

MARC LEISHMAN: No, preparation will be normal. We'll be on the course Wednesday and Thursday. So Monday, Tuesday, I'll be off. Yeah, it's an important week next week. I want to try and have a good week while my game feels good. Obviously the result didn't quite show it this week, but I feel like it's close to another big week. Hopefully, if it's not next week, it's one of the few weeks after that.

Yeah, I'll be working hard next week.

Q. You looking forward to playing the entire tournament next week?

MARC LEISHMAN: Yeah, last year I played the first round and straight into surgery, had my appendix taken out. That was a rough one. I guess better than it not having come out and it blowing up. (Laughter).

Q. How do you take your foot off the gas and let your hair down the next couple days? Do have a Guinness?

MARC LEISHMAN: Yes. (Laughter). Yes, I will. We're actually going to Dublin tomorrow. My family fly out Tuesday out of Dublin, so we'll go to Dublin tomorrow morning. Probably do a little tour of Dublin with the kids and do another tour of Dublin later in the nighttime, us boys.

Q. At Temple Bar.

MARC LEISHMAN: We'll have a good day tomorrow in Dublin. It's been a really good week this week. I've really enjoyed it. It's a great town, great golf course. The feeling around this event, it's probably my favourite event in the world. Happy to be back, looking forward to the next couple of days off, and into it again.