Sport

World Cup of Golf: Aussies struggle to climb the leaderboard

The frustrated Australian pairing of Adam Scott and Marc Leishman have all but given up hope of resurrecting the defence of their title at the World Cup of Golf at Kingston Heath.

Despite shooting a two-under round of 70 on Saturday – including three birdies and a disastrous bogey on the fourth – the Aussies remain well back in the field heading into the final round at four-under.

With the format returning to foursomes – where partners alternate shots – Scott and Leishman have failed to establish any rhythm as a duo.

"We just haven't got any momentum going, we haven't had a hot nine holes to get us in the tournament. We might have let it too late, but a hot day tomorrow can go a long way. If Denmark don't win we're not actually that far behind," Scott said after the round.

Their brightest moment came on the par-three sixth, where Leishman drained a 30-footer after Scott's safe tee-shot landed pin-high.

Then, on the seventh, Scott produced a miraculous approach shot from the right trap to give Leishman his second consecutive birdie putt, but he was unable to reproduce his magic.

Advertisement

The tournament returns to the more traditional fourball format for Sunday's final round and both Australians are trying to remain positive.

"It's definitely a lot easier to be aggressive in the fourball when you've got your partner on the fairway or on the green already," Leishman said.

"That's what we will be concentrating on more [on Sunday], to try to get two birdie putts on every hole and hopefully one of us will make it and we go to the next and do it again."After being just three shots off the lead going into the third round of last week's Australian Open at Royal Sydney, Scott hasn't looked himself since last Saturday and his struggles were evident during the third round at Kingston Heath.

Leishman was forced to take a drop after Scott's wayward drive on the short par-four fourth hole, and his wedge-play was well down from his usual standards.

At times he cut a frustrated figure, often remaining at the spot he played his shot from when his approach missed the green.

"Yeah, there's nothing going [right]. It's a grind," Scott said.

"It's not easy and if you're not 100 per cent on during foursomes days then you can make an arse of yourself out there and shoot 80 no problems. So I'm just out there working hard.

"I think we're just both a little disappointed that nothing's going for us out there. The support has been great but the couple of chances we've had we haven't taken them and it's just a grind."

While Leishman has been the better performed of the two, he admits the team hasn't played the way they wanted to.

But the Victorian says there's no reason there's not a round of 59 or 60 left on the course; similar to what the Danish team was able to do on Friday.

"Coming here we both wanted to be right up there on Sunday afternoon and it doesn't look like it's going to happen," Leishman said.

"Having said that, we can hopefully have a super low one and get things going. Fourball like Denmark showed you can shoot 12-under."

Advertisement

0 comments