Australia Day Double Delight
It was a European, PGA Tour double for the Australians as Marc Leishman joined fellow Aussie Lucas Herbert in victory this week. Herbert gained his maiden European Tour victory in dramatic fashion, overcoming South African Christiaan Bezuidenhout on the second hole of a sudden-death playoff. Leishman sealed the Aussie clean sweep in fine fashion with a superb round of 65 on Sunday seeing him claim a one-shot victory over Jon Rahm. Before this week, Leishman had recorded two runner-up finishes at the spectacular Torrey Pines course, so victory came as no surprise. The dominance of Australian players around the world continues, with Leishman joining Cameron Smith as a winner on the PGA Tour in 2020. Both players have committed to donating significant funds to the Australian bushfire relief campaign and hopefully, these wins will give a small lift to the country in what’s been an extremely difficult time of late. The European Tour heads to Saudi Arabia this week, in the final leg of the desert swing. World number one Brooks Koepka headlines the event and is joined by fellow American Dustin Johnson and it would be no surprise to see the big-hitting duo at the top of the leaderboard on a course that lends itself to power players. The PGA Tour travels to Scottsdale Arizona for the Waste Management Phoenix Open where Rickie Fowler will look to defend his title. The event is famous for the par-three 16th hole, where the grandstands surround from tee to green, creating an atmosphere unlike any other in golf. A strong field assembles this week, led by Jon Rahm and Justin Thomas who will no doubt be at the business end of the leaderboard come Sunday evening. However, our tip of the week is the big-hitting Bubba Watson. Coming off a tied 6th finish last week, the Florida resident comes to the venue where he’s had plenty of success at in the past - most recently a 4th place finish last year. We expect to see another big performance this week.
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