Leishman, Kennedy and Fraser make for big Aussie golf weekend

Marc Leishman

In one of the bigger weekends for Australian golf, a trio of our home-grown heroes have made headlines on three different tours around the world.

Sydney’s Brad Kennedy was the first Aussie off the rank, carding a a final-round six-under 66 at the Gateway to the Open Mizuno Open to claim his maiden Japan Golf Tour victory. Kennedy finished on 17 under, three strokes ahead of Japan’s Toshinori Muto and Toru Taniguchi.

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On the PGA Tour, Victorian Marc Leishman fired a brilliant 8-under 62 at The Travelers Championship to claim his first PGA Tour victory, in Cromwell, Connecticut. Leishman’s 14-under 266 total was just enough to edge Masters Champion Bubba Watson, as well as tournament leader Charley Hoffman, who carded a double-bogey on the 17th hole to drop him from contention. Leishman became the fifth player in seven years to break through with their first tour win at River Highlands.

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Finally, on the European Tour, Victoria’s Marcus Fraser tried to make it three wins for the Aussies over the weekend, finishing T1 in regulation with an 11-under 271 at the BMW International, at the Golf Club Gut Laerchenhof in Cologne, Germany. Fraser then battled in a four-hole sudden-death playoff against England’s Danny Willett, who had finished with a +1 73 for the day.

After each scoring Par-Bogey-Par on the first three playoff holes (they repeated the 18th hole), Willett won on the fourth extra play-off hole courtesy of a brilliant chip from the rough behind the green (to set up a tap-in par), while Fraser struggled with a three-putt bogey.

“Pretty gutted,” said Fraser via Twitter. “But a couple of beers will fix that,” he added.

Fraser started off the tournament with a solid 64, but a second round +2 74 put him back in the pack. Strong finishing rounds of 68 and 71 brought him into the lead, before losing in the playoff.

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