Masters, wedding make April memorable for Leishman

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In the next month, Marc Leishman will play at Augusta National for the first time and get married.

ORLANDO -- Marc Leishman has two not-to-be-forgotten dates marked on his calendar in April.

The first is the Masters Tournament, where Leishman makes his debut after advancing to the finale of last year's PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup. The second -- but even more important -- is his wedding on April 24.

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Leishman, who is playing in the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard this week, has already played a practice round at Augusta National. He went up last Monday with Geoff Ogilvy and Michael Sim and came away in awe of his surroundings.

The experience, Leishman said, was "unbelievable. He even made an ace on the third hole of the Par 3 Course -- unfortunatel about three weeks too early to get the coveted crystal available in the competition on Wednesday of Masters week.

"You go from watching it on TV and imagining how good it's going to be and dreaming that you're going to get there one day," Leishman said. "And to be there, playing and actually preparing for the Masters is just awesome.

"It's still sort of hard to believe that I was there. We played on a perfect day. You couldn't have asked for anything better. It's going to be a lot of fun in the tournament."

While there might be some nerves on the first tee at Augusta Nationalwhen he tees off in the first round on Thursday, Leishman is certainly not jittery about marrying Audrey Hills in Virginia Beach where the two will make their home.

"I'm actually looking forward to it," Leishman said with a smile. "I know she's the right person so I'm not nervous at all."

The Aussie knows he belongs on the PGA TOUR, too, after last year's Rookie of the Year campaign. Leishman posted three top-10 finishes, including a tie for second at the BMW Championship, and amassed a nice $1.7 million nest egg.

He's already added another runner-up finish in 2010 at the Farmers Insurance Open. Leishman has three other top-20s this year, as well, but he's hardly satisfied with his performance.

"There's still a lot of work to be done," Leishman said. "The results just don't come. In ways it's been easier because I've played some of the courses before and know where to hit it and where not to hit it.

"I guess it's harder in other ways, though, because of the expectations. You are expected to do better than your first year out, but I like that (challenge)."

And no one's expectations are higher than his own, either.

Fellow Aussies John Senden, Nathan Green and Aaron Baddeley helped him learn the ropes last year, and Leishman said he has more of a comfort zone in 2010. He's figured out the logistics of this singularly vagabond life, and he's made friends, too.

Leishman has big goals on the golf course, too.

"I'd like to have a win at some stage this year," he said. "That's the only thing I didn't tick last year --is having a win. (I want to be) playing well more often. Last year I had a few good finishes and a lot of not-so-good finishes.

"My goal at the start of the year was to try to turn the 40th and 50th place finishes to 20th. And turn the missed cuts into making the cut and the top-10s into twos or threes or wins. I've got to try and make the most of my opportunities."

Toward that end, Leishman has been working hard on his short game.

"It's so important," he said. "It brings so much confidence into the rest of your game if your short game is good because you know if you miss the green you have a good chance of getting up and down no matter where you are."

And an extra boost of confidence never hurts.