Australian-born Marc Leishman says he has always had pretty good perspective when it comes to golf. But it changed when his wife nearly died four weeks ago after suffering toxic shock syndrome, acute respiratory distress syndrome and sepsis.
Any one of the three alone can be fatal.
Audrey Leishman was stricken with all of them at once and told she had a 5 percent chance of surviving before being medically induced into a coma. Slowly, however, she started to recover and even though she isn’t 100 percent, her rehabilitation is ahead of schedule.
Marc Leishman with his wife Audrey and their two children. (Photo – Damian White)
“I think sometimes you get into a mindset where you take (golf) too seriously, like it’s a life and death situation,” Marc Leishman said. “And I’ve just been through a real one of those. So I know that golf isn’t life and death anymore. If I don’t pull a shot off, it doesn’t matter.”
Wednesday at TPC Harding Park he pulled off enough good ones to beat Justin Rose, 3 and 2, in the opening round.
The best of them came on the par-4 10th, where after a poor drive the Aussie knocked a 3-iron out of the rough and through a small gap between two Cypress trees. He went on to bogey the hole, but it was good enough for a halve to keep a 1-up lead.
Leishman followed with birdies on two of next four holes before closing out Rose, who won last week at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, with a par on 16.
“He was very calm out there,” Rose said of Leishman. “I guess that’s the only thing I would say. He wasn’t just playing reckless golf. He played very well.”
A month ago, Leishman thought he might not ever play again. He had come to terms with the possibility of having to give up golf to raise the couple’s two young boys on his own.
Now? Audrey was able to watch from home, texted him after the win and plans to join him on the road next week.
“As close as we were to losing her, it still feels really cool that I can get text messages (from) her,” he said. “It’s just cool to have her around. I hope it stays that way forever.”
* Story thanks to www.pgatour.com
