Power Rankings: Wells Fargo Championship

It was the easiest difficult decision of Marc Leishman’s life. He had a huge desire to represent Australia in the Olympics five years ago. Doing so would put his wife’s health at risk, however. Audrey Leishman was still recovering from a bout of sepsis in 2015 that, according to doctors, gave her just a 5% chance of survival. Her immune system was still compromised over the next year-and-a-half. She was getting sick almost every other week. So, with the Zika virus wreaking havoc in the lead up to Rio de Janeiro, Marc Leishman knew he couldn’t board a plane to Brazil in good conscience. He couldn’t risk bringing Zika — or any foreign disease, for that matter — home to his wife. Plus, Audrey desperately wanted to add a third child to join sons Harvey and Ollie once she was fit enough to do so. “At that point I was sick all the time. I can’t even remember the amount of antibiotics I had to be on in that first year in particularly,” Audrey says. “It was hard because in that time I was still compromised and all I wanted was to try for another baby. “But the doctors all said I needed to recover and had to stop being sick every other week. Then, the Olympics come up and it is the opportunity of a lifetime for Marc and you don’t ever want to take that away from your partner. “So we talked it all through with each other and my doctors and unfortunately Marc pulling out became a decision that we just had to make.” Leishman called it a “no-brainer” once all the medical advice was presented to him. “It was an easy decision but still a tough one to make because you don’t want to give up any chance to represent your country,” Leishman said. “But at the end of the day there was just no way I was going to put Audrey at any further risk. Plus, we wanted another child one day and Zika was also a threat to that at the time.” The six-time PGA TOUR winner could only shake his head when it became apparent that the COVID-19 pandemic would postpone the 2020 Tokyo Games. What were the odds a virus could end his Olympic dream twice? But while the Games are a year behind – and will be done under health protocols and without spectators – the boy from Warrnambool will in fact become an Olympian, joining good friend Cameron Smith on the Australian team. The two paired to win this year’s Zurich Classic of New Orleans and finished second in the 2018 World Cup of Golf. Leishman had the same childhood dream as many growing up in Australia – to don the green and gold and represent his country. Whether it was in cricket, karate, tiddlywinks or triathlons, didn’t matter. Leishman was 9 years old when he watched Kieran Perkins become a national hero by winning gold in the 1,500-meter freestyle in the 1992 Barcelona Games. But as golf became the most obvious avenue for Leishman’s athletic talents, Leishman’s dreams of Olympic gold faded. Representing his country was always top of mind, however. So, when golf returned to the Olympics, Leishman was excited at the prospect of becoming an Olympian. Now he will be one. “I’m not getting any younger and while I’d like to think I can make the team again in 2024, and maybe even 2028, you never know how often this chance can come around,” Leishman, 37, says. “I’m excited about it. I’m pumped for the chance to play for my country. “It would be huge to win a medal. I’ve grown up wanting to win the majors – I didn’t think of the Olympics past a very young age because I wasn’t good enough at anything else – but to be able to have the chance now is awesome. “Golf in the Olympics is still new but it is already a very big deal. You could see how proud Justin Rose was and is of his gold medal and I’d feel the same way if I won one.” Audrey and the Leishmans’ three kids – daughter Eva was born in July 2017 — are really revved up to watch dad’s gold medal quest. They’ve ordered special Australian shirts and flags for the viewing parties they’ll have together. Harvey, already an accomplished junior golfer, is 9 years old. Unlike his father, however, he won’t have his eye on the 1500-meter freestyle. He will be watching what happens at Kasumigaseki Country Club, where his father will pursue the prize he dreamed about at the same age.

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After 58 measured drives this season, Cameron Champ currently leads the PGA TOUR in driving distance with a 319.9-yard average. In the last week, however, Champ has made some unexpected changes for such a long hitter. Prior to the start of last week’s Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines, Champ switched into Ping’s new Blueprint Forged prototype irons and a Ping G410 Plus driver. In the Ping Blueprint irons, instead of the KBS C-Taper 130X shafts he was previously using, he switched into the softer True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 shafts. According to Ping Tour rep Kenton Oates, the X100 shafts allow him to work the ball more, instead of hitting them “dead straight� with the C-Tapers. Then on Monday during a driver testing session on the range at this week’s Waste Management Phoenix Open, Champ requested a quarter-inch longer Fujikura Pro TS White 63X shaft than he normally plays because it felt “too stiff� in the new G410 Plus head, according to Oates. Also, instead of tipping the shaft an inch-and-a-half as he normally would, Champ requested to have the shaft tipped only an inch. While sitting in on the Monday testing session involving his previous gamer, the Ping G400 Max, against the new Ping G410 (“around 8 degrees� with a flat/heel loft sleeve), I also noticed that Oates switched the 10-gram sliding weight of Champ’s new G410 driver into the heel-ward position. Oates explained this weight shift allowed the ball flight to be more consistently straight, instead of his tendency to miss the ball right. The new settings, coupled with the longer shaft, allowed Champ to contact the center of the club head more often instead of his typical toe-ward miss, according to Oates. Champ missed the cut last week at the Farmers Insurance Open with the new irons and driver, but keep an eye on his performance this week with the new driver tweaks. I caught up with Oates following the driver test for deeper insight. PGATOUR.COM: OK, so where did you end up with Champ’s (G410 Plus) driver settings? OATES: “In his 410 (Plus) driver – there’s 8 settings within the driver – Cameron ended up with the flat-minus. So that’s going to allow the driver to play flat in lie angle and take off a degree of real loft.� PGATOUR.COM: And why is that? Because he misses it? OATES: “That’s not so much for a miss, that’s for launch and spin. His current G400 Max gamer is at 8 degrees of loft, and just the way the heads come in, we needed a reduction of loft from the sleeve to get there. He plays the little-minus (setting) in the G400, which takes off 0.6 (degrees), so it’s basically the same setting that he has in the G400, this one just takes off a little more loft in the 410, and that’s just because of the 8-probe sleeve.� PGATOUR.COM: And then I think you went up in length on the shaft, is that right? OATES: “Yeah, that was his idea. He felt that in his current gamer, he felt like he was getting a little steep and hitting spinny shots to the right, and he felt that’s because the shaft was a little too stiff. So he wanted to, in his head, making it longer would reduce the stiffness. Which it does, and we also took out a half-inch of tipping. We used to, in his 400, we tipped our shafts and inch-and-a-half, and the 410 is tipped an inch, and a quarter-inch longer, and it finishes at 45.25 inches.� PGATOUR.COM: So the guy who hits it farthest on TOUR thought the shaft was too stiff for him? OATES: (laughs) “Yeah. He’s actually, he’s an under spinner. Even though he swings 130 (mph) and down 4 (degrees), he always hits it high-center (on the face). He always hits it above that center of gravity so he gravitates to softer stuff than you might think just because of the way that he loads it and where he hits it on the face.� PGATOUR.COM: What’s he seeing in comparison to his G400 Max in terms of ball speed, launch, spin? OATES: “I think we got him … the launch and spin were identical pretty much, I would put him right between 6 and 8 (degrees), that’s pretty much where he lives. And spin was 2200-2500 (rpm), and those were very similar. He noticed that in the 410, due to all the fitting options that we have, and CGs that we can move and get all that dialed in for him, he was able to strike the center every time, where he was a little bit toe-side on his 400. And I think that just added the consistency. The launch and spin didn’t change that much … every single time we got the same number out of the 410. And then ball speed approximately 1 mph faster. Went from about 195 to 196 (mph). Max was 197 (mph), which… yeah, that’s a big number.� PGATOUR.COM: That was fun to watch. OATES: “He’s fun to watch, isn’t he? It’s effortless.� PGATOUR.COM: He hits it so low, but it stays in the air forever. OATES: “The 2-degree launch that carries 300 yards is impressive.� PGATOUR.COM: He’s got that in the bag? OATES: “Yeah. When he hits his low stinger, he launches it at 2 (degrees) and it carried 291 (yards) I think it was.� PGATOUR.COM: Is that a problem at all? You guys aren’t trying to get him more launch, he likes that window? OATES: “Yeah. If you look at ball data at that ball speed, anything over 10 (degrees of launch) is really hard to control left-or-right bias. Because you saw… normally 7 (degrees) and 2200 (rpm) looks like it’s falling out of the sky. But at 196 (mph) it just hangs out there forever.� PGATOUR.COM: Yeah, it just chills. OATES: (laughs) “It feels like it’s at its apex the whole entire flight.� BUY EQUIPMENT HERE: PGA TOUR Superstore

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The final round of the RBC Canadian Open takes place today from Hamilton Golf & Country Club. Here’s how to follow all the action. HOW TO FOLLOW TELEVISION: Thursday-Friday, 3-6 p.m. ET (Golf Channel). Saturday-Sunday, 1-2:45 p.m. (GC), 3-6 p.m. (CBS). PGA TOUR LIVE: Thursday-Friday, 7 a.m.-6 p.m. (Featured Groups). Saturday-Sunday, 8:30 a.m.-3 p.m. (Featured Groups), 3-6 p.m. (featured holes). International subscribers (via GOLF.tv): Thursday-Friday, 11:00 to 22:00 GMT. Saturday-Sunday, 12:30 to 22:00. RADIO: Thursday-Friday, noon-6 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday, 1-6 p.m. (PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.com). FEATURED GROUPS Bubba Watson/Tyler Duncan Tee time: 8:50 a.m. ET Brooks Koepka/Harold Varner III Tee time: 9:40 a.m. ET Justin Thomas/Roberto Castro Tee time: 12:40 p.m. ET Henrik Stenson/Mackenzie Hughes Tee time: 1:40 p.m. ET MUST READS Kuchar, McIlroy, Simpson share one-shot lead McIlroy tied for lead after bogey-free 64 Hadwin set to chase history Canadian golf on PGA TOUR stronger than ever CALL OF THE DAY

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