Monday 18 September 2017 01:12, UK
Marc Leishman held off an outstanding final-round charge from Justin Rose before completing a wire-to-wire victory at the BMW Championship in Chicago.
Leishman led by five overnight and looked in complete control until his advantage was suddenly trimmed to two shots when he bogeyed the 13th shortly after Rose had made his sixth birdie of the day at the same hole.
But the Australian got back on track with a birdie at 15 and he then matched Rose's three at the next and, after the Englishman's challenge effectively ended with a bogey at the 17th, Leishman made his 29th birdie of a memorable week at the final hole to close out a 67 and a five-shot victory on 23 under par.
Leishman, who won his second PGA Tour title at the Arnold Palmer Invitational back in March, opened with a sublime pitch-and-putt for an opening birdie although he opened the door for the field with a bogey at the fifth following a wayward drive.
But the 33-year-old responded with a nerveless putt from 25 feet for birdie at the sixth, and he picked up another shot at the eighth to maintain his significant advantage heading to the back nine.
With playing-partner Rickie Fowler unable to build on his birdie-birdie start, Rose suddenly emerged as Leishman's biggest threat when he followed an outward 32 with three birdies in four holes immediately after the turn.
Leishman then three-putted from 70 feet at the 13th and missed a great chance to repair the damage on the par-five next, but he atoned with a perfect 30-foot putt for birdie at 15 which he backed up with another from inside 10 feet at the 16th which restored his commanding lead for the final two holes.
Rose then dropped his first shot since the first round when he pulled his tee shot left of the green at 17 and was unable to get up and down, and a par at the last added up to a 65 and earned him the briefest of clubhouse leads on 18 under.
The Englishman had to settle for a share of second when Fowler rebounded from a bogey at 13 as he reeled off three consecutive birdies from the 13th which salvaged a four-under 67.
But Leishman rounded off a dominant week in appropriate style as he plotted his way cautiously up the 72nd hole and found the centre of the cup with a 20-foot birdie putt from the rear fringe, sealing his third career title and lifting him to fourth place in the FedExCup standings ahead of next week's season finale at the Tour Championship.
"I feel awesome about this, it's a long week when you lead every day," said Leishman. "It takes energy out of you. I was pretty tired last night and didn't sleep very well. That five-shot lead, it's just enough that you shouldn't get beat but not quite enough that you are out of reach.
"So I'm really happy, especially with Rosie making a run at me late there on the back-nine to hold him off. Ended up winning by five shots but it was really a lot closer than that. When the pressure got put on by Rosie I reacted with birdies.
"I didn't get too worried, I just tried to keep doing my own thing, give myself chances and managed to roll a couple in there at the end which was nice, walking up the last there with a bit of a buffer."
Leishman's compatriot Jason Day endured a rollercoaster back-nine as he claimed outright fourth on 16 under after an entertaining 69 left him one ahead of Jon Rahm and Matt Kuchar.
Day parred the first seven holes and then carded three consecutive birdies before finding water from the tee at the short 11th and running up a double-bogey five, although he came within inches of holing his second to the 12th to set up a tap-in for birdie.
The former world No 1 then took six at the 14th after a wild approach, birdied the next two, and closed with another bogey-six at the last as he attempted to keep pace with Fowler and playing-partner Rose.
Rahm held onto to the all-important fifth place in the FedExCup standings ahead of Fowler after the Spaniard birdied four of the last five holes to return a 67, while Jordan Spieth retained top spot following a flawless six-birdie 65 which earned him a tie for seventh on 13 under.
Masters champion Sergio Garcia recorded a solid 69 - his fourth sub-70 score of the tournament - to book his place in the 30-man field at East Lake next week, but Rory McIlroy will not be defending his title in Atlanta after closing with a lacklustre 71 which left him outside the top 50 on two under par.
