Marc Leishman has always gone about his golf with an air of calm, finding he can move on from a poor shot, hole or round with relative ease.
That’s particularly been the case with the much-loved Australian golfer since 2015 — a year in which his wife, Audrey, found herself in the grips of a horrid health battle that almost claimed her life.
Leishman, speaking to Wide World of Sports as he prepares to round out his year with a series of tournaments on Australian soil, explained how Audrey’s fight against sepsis and various complications 10 years ago had altered his perspective as a golfer.
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Marc Leishman with his wife, Audrey, and their two sons, Harvey and Oliver, in 2017. Getty
“I’ve always been a pretty relaxed person, but I was probably more relaxed on the golf course after that, just knowing that no matter how you play, that doesn’t dictate what type of person you are, or what type of dad or husband you are,” the 42-year-old said.
“It was easier to let things go after that, and obviously that perspective doesn’t stay the same forever, but it certainly helps me after a bad day on the golf course to let it go a little bit quicker.
“I’ve always said to Audrey just give me 10 minutes and I’ll be fine … I certainly don’t hold onto things for too long and I think that helped me with that.”
In March of 2015, Audrey, 31 at the time, began to experience shortness of breath and body aches.
Then her nose started to bleed.
She was admitted to hospital with signs of gastroenteritis and pneumonia, then told she’d developed an extreme case of sepsis, known as toxic shock syndrome.
Sepsis, a condition in which the body responds improperly to infection, causes organs to dysfunction.
She was also diagnosed with acute respiratory distress syndrome — a type of lung failure caused by a build-up of fluid and low blood-oxygen levels.
Marc Leishman with his wife, Audrey, and their daughter, Eva, during the Par 3 Contest ahead of the Masters at Augusta National in 2022. Getty
She was hooked up to a ventilator and spent five days in a coma.
Her chance of survival? Five per cent.
Remarkably, however, she pulled through, and eventually returned to full health.
“The first half of the year was difficult,” Leishman recalled.
“It was kind of a year of two halves. Obviously it’s pretty devastating when your wife goes through something like that.
“And then she survives and your perspective on life just completely changes and you’re bouncing around … It went from a pretty bleak time to a pretty good time in our life.”
Determined to help other survivors of sepsis and their families, the Leishmans launched the Begin Again Foundation in 2015.
Audrey Leishman during her fight against sepsis and acute respiratory distress syndrome in 2015. Supplied
Ten years on, they’ve dished out millions of dollars to those impacted by the life-threatening disease and done a mountain of work to raise awareness of symptoms.
“Looking back on it, Audrey said a lot of things happen for a reason and she feels like she got sick because she was in a position to be able to help people, and she’s been able to do that,” Leishman said.
“So it’s been probably a blessing in disguise, I’d say.”
Leishman’s wife is American. They live in Virginia Beach, a city on the east coast of the United States, and have three kids: Harvey, Oliver and Eva.
“It’s great to obviously be able to help people,” Leishman added.
“It’s a good position that me and my family are in that we make a good living and we’re all happy and healthy and we can help other people.
“Obviously it helps that the people we help are very grateful, but it feels good to do good things.
Marc Leishman lines up a putt at the LIV Golf Indianapolis tournament in August. Getty
“Our foundation has helped thousands of people over the 10 years that we’ve had it and we’ve given away millions of dollars to help people who really need it.”
They’ve increased awareness of the symptoms of sepsis through social media, flyers in hospitals and fundraisers.
“That’s a big part of what we do, is getting the symptoms of sepsis out there so people know what to look for and they don’t end up getting terribly sick, because it’s treatable if it’s diagnosed early with antibiotics,” Leishman said.
“I think every hour that goes by your chance of dying goes up by eight per cent, so if you go to bed, a lot of the time you don’t wake up.
“We’ve had several people tell us that their daughter was feeling this way and rather than send them to bed they sent them to the ER and they had sepsis — just little things like that can be life-changing.”
Leishman is a six-time PGA Tour winner and a member of the Ripper GC team that plays on the LIV Golf circuit, along with fellow Australians Cameron Smith, Lucas Herbert and Matt Jones.
They won the 2024 LIV Golf team championship title in Dallas.
Cameron Smith, Marc Leishman, Lucas Herbert and Matt Jones of Ripper GC celebrate winning the 2024 LIV Golf team championship title in Dallas. Getty
Leishman will cap off this year with the Australian PGA Championship at Royal Queensland, the Australian Open at Royal Melbourne, the Cathedral Invitational in country Victoria and the Victorian PGA Championship at Moonah Links on the Mornington Peninsula.
He will hit the fairways with his son Harvey, a talented junior golfer, in the Victorian Amateur Challenge at the Victorian PGA Championship.
The Cathedral Invitational, a 36-hole tournament in Victoria’s north-east to be held across December 9-10, is set to return after a one-year hiatus.
“It’s a pretty special place up there,” Leishman said of the par-72 course backdropped by the rolling hills of the Cathedral Ranges.
“The golf course is unbelievable — the setting and the layout, the wildlife that’s around it.
“You’re always seeing kangaroos and see the odd koala and wombats and all sorts of Australian animals, which is really cool.”
Marc Leishman playing in the 2023 Cathedral Invitational. Getty
Season five of LIV Golf will get under way in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, in February.
It was confirmed this month that the tournament would move from 54 holes to 72 in 2026, as LIV Golf bosses lobby to be included in the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR) — the points system used to determine eligibility for the majors and the Olympics.
“I didn’t go to LIV for the world ranking points,” Leishman said.
“I think the points will be quite low. Obviously everyone’s slipped down the world rankings so much that I think the strength of field will be quite low, so it’s going to take some time to get the points that we probably deserve.
“But it’s certainly not at the front of my mind, the world ranking points.”
