Crooked Stick, Carmel, IN … Marc Leishman is hoping a nagging back injury will not hinder his hopes of finishing top-four in this week’s BMW Championship at the Crooked Stick GC to the north of Indianapolis.

Leishman qualified for the PGA Tour’s penultimate event right ‘on the bubble’ in 70^th place.

That’s the good news!

The tough news for the 32-year old Warrnambool-born Lieshman is that he needs to finish top-four to be in the top-30 on the money list that qualify for the season-ending Tour Championship.

Leishman revealed he’s been carrying the back injury for some time and with the help of treatment and the work of his trainer, along with pain-killers he’s fighting his way through the pain barrier.

“I’ve got two bulging discs and one herniated disc in my lower lumber spine,” said Leishman.

“They just flare up every now and the. It can be doing silly things like hopping into a car or just twisting and sitting, that can do it.

“Luckily, this year it’s been pretty good. In the first two Play-Off events it was painful.”

Leishman first experience the pain at last year’s PGA Championship and won by fellow Aussie, Jason Day and when he said his back ‘first popped’.

“So I’ve been getting 30 minute treatments before and after each round.  Generally once in the morning and it will soften up as the day goes on, but it’s just we’re golfers and it’s wear and tear.

“Probably every golfer’s not had something wrong with their back.  Mine just happened to flare up at a bad time in the Play-Offs and hopefully we can manage it like we have been and I can roll a few more putts in and we can be talking about getting to Atlanta instead of talk about my back.”

Leishman’s contested the Tour Championship just once in his PGA Tour career and that was in his maiden season in 2008 when he finished T2nd in the BMW Championship and went onto Atlanta for an eventual share of 28^th place.

“The good thing about the FedEx Cup Play-Offs is that everyone here this week can do what Billy Horschel did a couple of years ago and that’s win, win and all of a sudden you got the FedExCup in your hands,” said Leishman.

“And if you look at playoffs in other sports, it’s cut throat like it’s generally sudden death, seven game series or five game series or whatever it is, and if you lose, you go home. This is a little bit less cut throat, but I still like it how if you — you can just sneak in and win and all of a sudden you got a chance to take out the FedExCup.

“So the way they have done the points this year is good. You could jump a lot when it was five times the points, this is pretty right, I think. I think the players enjoy it. Particularly the players who have done what Sean O’Hair did or jumped right up, what I did in 2009, so hopefully I can do that again and I’ll like the FedExCup even more.”

However, if Leishman does make it through to Atlanta for the PGA season finale that is by no means the end of his year.

“I am looking to play the CIMB Classic in Malaysia (October 20^th to 23^rd) and hopefully the WGC – HSBC Champions (October 27^th to 30^th),” he said.

“I’m also going to play the RSM Classic at Sea Island and then take the family back to Australia for the Australian Open (November 17^th to 20^th) and the Australian PGA (December 1^st to 4^th).”

It will likely see Leishman not defend his Nedbank Challenge title being staged from November 10^th to 13^th, and now part of the European Tour’s Final Four series.

“It’s just that over the last few years I have got to the Sony Open in January and been too far back in the field having had so much golf in the off season.

“So I want to get 2017 proper off to a better start and not have as much catching up to do”.