Marc Leishman secures dominant BMW Championship victory despite spirited Justin Rose fightback

Australian secures five-shot victory after leading the way since Thursday

Monday 18 September 2017 10:07 BST
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Marc Leishman celebrates winning the BMW Championship at the Conway Farms Golf Club
Marc Leishman celebrates winning the BMW Championship at the Conway Farms Golf Club

Australia's Marc Leishman secured a wire-to-wire victory to take the BMW Championship by five strokes with a composed 67 in the final round at the Conway Farms Golf Club.

He held off a spirited late challenge from Englishman Justin Rose, who produced a fantastic 65 with seven birdies and one bogey to finish on 18 under par alongside American Rickie Fowler, while fellow Australian Jason Day was two shots further back.

The 33-year-old started the day at 19 under par but immediately improved his score with a birdie on the opening hole after chipping to three feet.

Leishman dropped a shot on the fifth but regained it at the par-three next with a putt from 24 feet before gaining another birdie at the eighth following an excellent bunker shot to go to the turn at 21 under.

The Warrnambool-born golfer dropped a shot at the 13th to give Rose a glimmer of hope as the lead was cut to two shots but Leishman responded with back-to-back gains on the 15th and 16th before a 20-foot birdie putt from the fringe on the last secured his second win of the season after taking the Arnold Palmer Invitational title in March.

Leishman began the tournament in seventh place in the FedEx Cup standings but his success means he has moved up to fourth ahead of the Tour Championship finale at East Lake Golf Club next week, where the overall leader will take away 10million US dollars.

Leishman led from start to finish to clinch a famous victory

Speaking of his victory, Leishman told Sky Sports: "Unbelievable. There were a couple ups-and-downs during the day. Rosey made a real good run at me towards the end. It was nice to roll in that birdie on 18 so just an exciting day."

In the battle to get into the top 30 in the FedEx Cup rankings and make it to next week's final event, Masters winner Sergio Garcia moved up from 34th to 25th, with Tony Finau, Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay also moving into a precious spot.

Major winners Louis Oosthuizen and Henrik Stenson dropped out of the top 30 along with Americans Brendan Steele and Bill Haas.

Open champion Jordan Spieth will head to Atlanta next week leading the standings after finishing in a tie for seventh.

PA

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