Published July 17, 2008 on October 16, 2018

Marc Plans on Unleishing His Potential at CJ Cup @ Nine Bridges

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Australian Marc Leishman has a simple aim at THE CJ CUP @ NINE BRIDGES starting on Thursday – improve by one rung from last year’s outing in the inaugural tournament.

Twelve months ago, Leishman came up just short with a playoff loss to American Justin Thomas but having claimed a fourth PGA TOUR title at the CIMB Classic in Malaysia on Sunday, he is in the mood to extend his winning form.

“I’m excited to be back in Korea, I have a lot of good memories here. It’s going to be a good week. Hopefully, I can play well again and go one better than last year,” said Leishman.

“The course is amazing. I think the fairways are firmer than they were last year, they’re a little shorter. The greens are perfect again. Looks like they’ve changed a few bunkers. I’m excited to get out there on Thursday and get into it. Hopefully, it’s going to be an exciting week and we can give all the Korean fans a good show.”

His affinity to South Korea isn’t confined to his near miss at last year’s CJ CUP @ NINE BRIDGES. Over a decade ago, he cut his professional teeth on the Korean circuit where he embraced the culture and made good friends, many of whom he has remained in close contact.

“The KPGA (Tour) was a very good experience. It was the first tour I had ever been on and I was very excited to be up here. I met a lot of friends, a lot of Korean golfers that I’m still friends with now.  It taught me a lot playing on the Korean Tour.

“Traveling in a foreign country by myself, that teaches you things very quickly. I’ve got a lot of good memories from 2006 when I played,” said Leishman, who moved up to second place on the FedExCup points standings after his Malaysian victory.

Leishman was thrilled his wife Audrey and oldest son Harvey had woken up early Sunday in the U.S. to watch the live broadcast of his five-shot victory. “That was good. I probably wouldn’t have even thought to wake him up at 2 a.m., but that was really good of Audrey. I know how excited he was to have me in the lead,” said the 34-year-old father of three.

“I spoke to him Sunday morning and all he could talk about was how I should win because I was already leading, so it was a little bit of extra pressure, but maybe a little bit of extra determination as well. That was cool to see that picture of him in bed with Audrey and just that smile on his face. That would bring a smile to anyone’s face seeing a kid that happy.”

Korea’s Sungjae Im, who grew up on Jeju island, intends to make another strong impression on the PGA TOUR following his fourth-place finish at the Safeway Open two weeks ago. The 20-year-old won the Web.com Tour money list recently following two victories to secure his PGA TOUR card.

“There is no cut off here and you can play for four days. You can go through the first two rounds without worrying about the cut. The purse money is quite big and there are many FedExCup points to be won. So the stakes are high. If you play well you can go into the season with an advantage,” said Im.

Defending champion and 2017 FedExCup winner Justin Thomas will defend his title this week against the likes of Brooks Koepka, winner of two major championships this season, and 12-time PGA TOUR champion Jason Day, who finished T11 at The CJ Cup @ Nine Bridges last year, Billy Horschel, Brandt Snedeker, Xander Schauffele and Adam Scott. Thomas finished T5 in Malaysia last week.

Featuring a 78-man field, The CJ Cup @ Nine Bridges will provide Jeju Special Self-Governing Province with an opportunity to promote the beauty of Jeju Island to the world through the TOUR’s television broadcasts, which has a potential reach of over one billion homes in 226 countries. CJ Corporation signed a 10-year agreement with the PGA TOUR in 2016 to stage the lucrative tournament which prize fund on offer is amongst the highest on the PGA TOUR. SBS, the PGA TOUR’s partner in Korea for over 10 years, will be the host broadcaster of the event.