Aussie Leishman comes up short of record, but that’s OK

Leishman was in sensational form on the greens, needing only 25 putts in his third round, and he caught fire in the middle part of his round with birdies coming at eight holes from the fourth to the 15th.

His perspective changed by his wife’s life-threatening illness, Leishman surged up the leaderboard Sunday at the British Open with the best major round of his career.

Leishman’s unblemished round was just one shy of the best effort in 155 years of Open championships, a record jointly held by eight players including countryman Greg Norman, who fired a 63 when he lifted the Claret Jug for the first time at Turnberry in 1986.

Third at last week’s Scottish Open, Pepperell was flying high and had the course record in his sights standing on the 17 tee after sinking another excellent putt for birdie on 16.

Leishman said he first thought a chance at 62 was possible after he birdied the 13th hole to get to 7-under on the day and 8-under for the tournament.

The 43-year-old, who has missed six consecutive cuts at the British Open, only crept into the final two rounds with a birdie on the 18th hole of his second round to reach level par. And the 18th was there for the taking until his wedge shot rolled back into the Valley of Sin, leading to another par.

“I’d say probably (hole) 13 or 14, that’s when it started to enter my mind”, Leishman said. Given the emotional journey he has been on the last three months – his wife, Audrey, almost dying from toxic shock syndrome in April – Leishman’s approach to pretty much everything is to look on the bright side.

“I don’t get annoyed about little things that I can not really help”. “I feel like I’ve always had a pretty good outlook on life, but now it takes a lot more to worry me”. When you hit a bad shot there’s no real point getting frustrated about it. At the time it was just, “right, you’re going to have to give it away, stay home with the boys and be a dad”, and I was alright with that.

Even more important: He set the new target, at 9-under 207, one shot behind overnight leader Dustin Johnson.

Leishman is having another strong Open, tying for fifth at Royal Liverpool a year ago.