Rozner: Likable Leishman was already a winner

Marc Leishman may not be very well known to the outside world, but he sure is well liked within the golfing community.

And it's easy to see why.

The affable Australian skated home with the BMW Championship at Conway Farms on Sunday, finishing a wire-to-wire victory, all while looking like he was off for a stroll in the woods.

Trees, however, were not an issue for Leishman this week, nor was the rough, or the sand, or the water or anything else.

Especially the field.

The best of the best of the top 70 could not compete with Leishman, who finished 23-under and 5 shots the best, just where he started Sunday morning.

And he hardly appeared to break a sweat.

Maybe it's his perspective.

"I'm an easygoing, relaxed person," said the 33-year-old Leishman. "I've been through a lot off the golf course - the stuff with Audrey - and I feel like that kind of makes golf, not less important, but easy to put into perspective.

"It's a game. It's a golf tournament. It's not life or death.

"Obviously, it's our living and we want to do really, really well, but at the end of the day, we're making a living and putting food on the table."

In late March 2015, his wife, Audrey, drove herself to emergency room when she had trouble breathing. Doctors immediately determined she was in acute respiratory distress.

Leishman returned from Masters prep to find his wife in an induced coma, as toxic shock began to shut down her organs. Given only a 5 percent chance to live, by mid-April she was home recovering and Leishman returned to work, striking a small, white ball.

"I feel like seeing not only her, but other people in that hospital ward when she was really sick, it really puts things into perspective," Leishman said. "I feel like I can segregate golf and life. I do that pretty well."

Wearing a ribbon on his hat for Sepsis Awareness Month, Leishman took full advantage of his hour in the spotlight to call attention to a sickness that nearly took his wife's life.

"There's 250,000 people from the United States that die of sepsis every year and a lot of people don't know what sepsis is," Leishman said of the life-threatening illness that arises when infection causes the body to attack its own organs. "I didn't know what it was when Audrey got sick. I Googled it. I'm like, 'Oh, that's not good.'

"Every hour that goes by that you don't go to the hospital, if you do have enough sepsis, your mortality rate goes up by 7 percent. If you can catch it early, you're probably in the hospital for a day and see you later.

"If you don't catch it early enough, there's probably going to be a funeral not too far down the road."

Leishman and his wife started the Begin Again Foundation, which helps families affected by sepsis and toxic shock, which Leishman felt was a completely necessary way to give back.

"I think we've helped about 700 families just in the last year," Leishman said. "It's nice to be out there, to help people who really need it, to be in a position to do something.

"Pretty passionate about it and hope that people learn the symptoms."

He flies under the radar on a tour filled with recognizable stars, he helps others, has a fist bump for the youngsters under the ropes and remembers where he came from.

He's not the typical country club to college to the PGA Tour story.

When he was 18 he worked the graveyard shift at a factory in Melbourne for a week to earn the money needed for a tournament entry fee.

"Really, I don't wish that I never did it," Leishman said. "I'm glad I did it because it taught me the value of a dollar, and I really want to (instill that in) my kids, and I feel it's really important to know that.

"It was hard work, but it motivated me to want to play really good golf. I didn't want to do that the rest of my life."

With his third career victory Sunday, Leishman now has a chance to win the FedEx Cup in Atlanta next week, and then it's the Presidents Cup the week after at Liberty National overlooking Manhattan.

After winning the BMW, you would think Marc Leishman had it pretty good, and then his wife and three kids mobbed him on the 18th green to celebrate.

And you realize he already had it pretty good.

brozner@dailyherald.com

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