Day roars in, Leishman 4th at Kapalua
Jason Day on his way to a 66 in Kapalua today. Image: Getty
The good news is that the consistency of quality of Marc Leishman continues to exist. The possibly better news is that Jason Day shows signs of a resurgence.
Leishman finished fourth in the Tournament of Champions of the US PGA Tour's Champions Tournament in Kapalua, Hawaii today, never threatening to win, but still managing his game well.
Starting with four shots behind the third round leader Gary Woodland, the Australian came home with a largely incident-free 71 to 15-under par overall finish.
He collects $ 256,000 dollars and is still in the top three of the season-long points race.
Day roared with a fourth round 66 after an electrifying front nine and ended just outside the top 10.
The American Xander Schauffele, the winner of the Tour Championship 2017, jumped out of the pack and hurt Woodland with an amazing final round of 11-under-par 62 with two eagles – one of a chip-in on the par-five nine and then a 100 meter clamped hole in the par-four 12th hole.
He overtook Woodland with another birdie at the par-four 17th hole and hit a pure three wood to the par-18th to stay ahead of himself. He missed his four-meter putt to Eagle the 72nd hole, but tapped for Birdie and waited for Woodland to finish.
Woodland scored a final of just three meters and had a putt to force a play-off, but it leaked to the right and he got a 54-hole lead, the seventh time he led a final round on tour. and lost.
At only 25 years old, Schauffele is among the top 10 players in the world and may have gone to number 1 at some point. He was just a shot of the Kapalua track record, and remarkably enough his round included a bogey at the first hole as he pulled out of his way to the left.
Eight birdies and and two eagles later, he had his fourth tour victory.