Coming into the final round at LIV Golf Miami, Marc Lesihman was a bit of an afterthought on a leaderboard packed with major winners and star power.
The final group was made up of Bryson DeChambeau, the reigning U.S. Open champion who held a two-shot lead, Sergio Garcia, the 2017 Masters winner, and Phil Mickelson, a six-time major winner and one of the greatest players in the history of the game.
Playing in the penultimate grouping with Leishman was Jon Rahm, another multi-major champion, and Patrick Reed, himself a Masters Champion.
But it was Leishman who emerged from the pack on Sunday after he opened with a birdie and added three more by the 12th hole on a challenging layout at Doral’s Blue Monster course. That got Leishman to six under for the tournament, where he finished after six pars to close for a 68 and his first LIV Golf title.
“It was an unbelievable leaderboard. I saw all the guys right behind me and I knew the holes I had to finish off on. Played probably some of my best golf I’ve ever played today,” Leishman said. “To win out here, you’re playing against top fields every week, so yeah, still just letting it sink in.”
It’s Leishman’s first victory since the last of his six PGA Tour titles in 2021. It also caught him by surprise after his last start at LIV Singapore saw him finish T51.
“Coming off Singapore a couple weeks ago, where I think I beat three people, confidence wasn’t overly high,” Leishman said. “But I knew things were looking pretty good. I was playing good golf and showed that today.”
DeChambeau started the day with a two-shot lead, but quickly fell back with a bogey at the par-5 1st and a double when his tee shot found the water on the par-3 4th. Mickelson got himself in the conversation with a birdie on No. 1, but lost steam after his ball kicked off the flag stick and into the water at No. 7.
“Hitting the pin and going in the water? Yeah, it was unfortunate,” Mickelson said. “I don’t know what to say. Obviously, I hit the chip a little high on the flag, like it was going to be 12, 15 feet long, but certainly water wasn’t in play.”
Rahm seemed destined to head into Masters week on a high with three birdies in the first eight holes, but two back nine bogeys and a quadruple bogey-8 at the 17th left him with a disappointing T9.
Garcia and Charl Schwartzel were really the only two players to mount a charge over the final nine holes, with Schwartzel firing a 66, tied for the round of the week, to finish solo second, while Garcia needed a birdie to tie on the 18th hole but left with a bogey after he missed his tee shot to the right.
“Unfortunately, on 18, a cart bothered me right on my backswing on the tee shot,” Garcia said. “It wasn’t a great tee shot. But then I had an opening there with a 3-iron, and then I just needed three or four more feet, and it would have been great. But that’s what it is.”
