2012 AT&T National Championship Preview: Leaderboard

Leishman: "Hopefully I can be up here a lot more often"

AUSTRALIA finally has a 2012 US PGA Tour winner in Marc Leishman and the young Aussie golfer was back in front of the media on the eve of the AT&T National with his head still spinning.

“Yeah, it’s been a really exciting couple of days. A bit of a whirlwind, really,” Leishman told a media conference at the Congressional Country Club in Maryland.

“To go from Sunday morning when I didn’t think I really had too much of a chance, barring some really, really low round, and then all of a sudden, what, 6:30 on Sunday night I’m a champion on the PGA TOUR. So that was a pretty huge turnaround.”

The 28 year old leads an Australian contingent that includes Adam Scott, Jason Day, Greg Chalmers, Robert Allenby, Nick O’Hern and Rod Pampling.

They will take on a field that includes tournament host Tiger Woods and fellow world top ten player Hunter Mahan on a course that hosted the US Open last year.

Leishman obviously didn’t mind the extra attention his win has attracted and would willingly endure it more often.

“No, it’s been a busy couple of days. I’ve had a little bit of time to reflect a few times, busy with a lot of media stuff back in Australia and here, as well. But it’s been amazing. I mean […] to be able to do this for the first time after winning a TOUR event is amazing, and hopefully I can be up here a lot more often.”

Rory McIlroy won the US Open on the Congressional course last year with a score of 15-under but Leishman was among those who felt the golf course was playing much firmer and would be tougher.

“I don’t think that [low score is] going to happen again,” he said.

Someone used to all the attention is Tiger Woods. He played down his poor US Open weekend performance at the Olympic Club and said overall he had been striking the ball well.

“It was one of those weekends where I just didn’t quite get everything out of my rounds,” Woods said this week. “I was so close on Saturday to getting a good round out of it, and I didn’t. You know, it’s just one of those things where a fraction off on particularly that U.S. Open venue, or a fraction off, balls that land in the fairway don’t stay in the fairway, and I kept hitting the edge of the fairways and going in the rough.”

AT&T National Australian TV Times

The tournament is being broadcast live in Australia on Fox Sport with the usual daily repeats.

Round 1: Friday 29th June 5:00am – 8:00am, 9:30pm – 10:30pm, Fox Sports 1.

Round 2: Saturday 30th June 5:00am – 8:00am, 2:00pm – 3:30pm, Fox Sports 2

Round 3: Sunday 1st July 3:00am – 8:00am, 8:00pm – 10:00pm -Fox Sorts 2

Round 4: Monday 2nd July 3:00am – 8:00am, 3:30pm – 5:00pm, 9:30pm – 11:30pm, Fox Sports 2

AT&T National Learderboard

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