Marc Leishman makes perfect use of slope for eagle (Video)
Marc Leishman moved the wrong direction on the leaderboard Saturday, but he came up with a great highlight on Sunday at The Masters.
Marc Leishman turned in solid rounds of 73 and 74 on Thursday and Friday to comfortably make the weekend at The Masters. Saturday is moving day though, and while Justin Rose shot a 67 to move up into a share of the 54-hole lead Leishman moved the other direction with a 78. So, Leishman was headed for an earlier tee time than he wanted for Sunday’s final round.
The par-four seventh hole at Augusta National yielded a rare Masters event on Saturday, as Kevin Chappell holed out from 131 yards for the first eagle recorded on the hole since 2012.
On Sunday Leishman was a little further way than Chappell was the day before, at 149 yards, but he was still in pretty good position to fire at the flag with a well-placed approach shot. Using the notable slope of the greens at Augusta to his full advantage, that’s just what the Australian did.
Masters 2017: Marc Leishman | 7th Hole, Round 4 pic.twitter.com/Cbwaf2xSYS
— Masters Highlights (@MastersMoments) April 9, 2017
That fantastic eagle helped Leishman to a 34 on the front-nine, but after a double-bogey on No. 18 he would finish with a 37 on the back-nine and a one-under 71 for his Sunday round. With a +8 finish for the tournament, Leishman is currently tied for 42nd.
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A nice prize money check is coming for him, but that disappointing third-round 78 on Saturday probably kept Leishman from getting a top-20 finish at The Masters this year. It only takes a hole or two, or an entire round in aggregate, to derail someone’s chances to do something notable at Augusta. Leishman learned that lesson personally this year, and he’ll surely be better for it down the road when he tees it up in The Masters.