Article by Staff and Wire Reports of Global Golf Post

Marc Leishman won his fourth PGA Tour title, tying the tournament record set by Justin Thomas three years ago.

Level with Gary Woodland and Shubhankar Sharma to start the final round, Leishman birdied four of the first five holes to separate himself. Leishman said he had been concerned early in the week when he was struggling with his driver on a course that demands accuracy off the tee.

“I got here and I thought I was going to have to call Callaway and get them to leave some more golf balls in my locker, I was hitting my driver a bit sideways,” Leishman said.

The win was Leishman’s first since the 2017 BMW Championship and gives him a jump start on the new PGA Tour season.

“It is definitely very important to get off to a good start,” he said. “You don’t want to get to the Masters next year and trying to get into that (top) 125 or 100 or whatever it is.”

“Having success early in the season, I think it just makes you think about winning more and you can take a few more risks, which sometimes you need to do to win. I guess sometimes early in the season if you’re one or two back, you don’t want to do anything silly because you don’t want to go from second back to 12th or whatever. But once you’ve got a good early start, you can really just think about winning and that’s exciting for next week and the rest of the year.”

For Sharma, trying to win his first PGA Tour event, closing with an even-par 72 to tie for 10th place was a disappointment.

“It pushes me to keep playing well,” said Sharma, a 22-year-old from India who will play the CJ Cup @ Nine Bridges and the WGC-HSBC Championship the next two weeks. “I feel like I have it in me to win out there on the PGA Tour and I’ve given myself two opportunities. (My) game is in a decent place now.”

Driver: Callaway Rogue (9 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Speeder 757 Evolution IV X-Flex

Fairway Woods: Callaway Rogue Sub Zero (15 and 18 degrees)
Shafts: Fujikura Motore Speeder Tour Spec VC 9.2X

Irons: Callaway X-Forged 2018 (3-9 irons)
Shafts: Nippon N.S. Pro Modus3 130X

Wedges: Callaway Mack Daddy 4 (48 and 54 degrees), Titleist Vokey SM7 (58 degrees)
Shafts: Nippon N.S. Pro Modus3 130X

Putter: Odyssey Versa #1 Wide (Red)

Golf Ball: Callaway Chrome Soft X

Republished with permission from Global Golf Post