By Tony Webeck

He has happy memories both on and off the golf course and now Marc Leishman is primed to leave TPC Potomac at Avenal Farm as the champion of the Wells Fargo Championship.

A seven-strong Aussie contingent are in action on the PGA TOUR this week including former champion Jason Day, his 2018 triumph the last time the former world No.1 tasted victory on tour.

Leishman was tied for 13th that week and in 2017 he registered a top-five finish at the former Quicken Loans National played at the venue, one of only 26 players in the field this week who played both previous iterations at TPC Potomac.

Speaking with Australian Golf Digest on the eve of the opening round and immediately following a nine-hole pro-am round of five-under 30, the 38-year-old explained why he gelled so well with the Maryland layout. 

“I was so close in 2017; I could have picked up so many shots in the final round and that event felt like the one that got away a little bit,” said Leishman, who would visit the Australian embassy in Washington on previous visits.

“I love the golf course; you have to think your way around here especially on the greens. You have to think about where you want to miss it and where you want to putt from to avoid three-putting.

“You’re going to have bogeys arounds here but you can’t lose your cool.”

The DP World Tour returns to mainland Europe this week for the Betfred British Masters, a tournament whose roll call of winners includes two of Australia’s greatest names.

Graham Marsh was the champion in 1979 followed by Greg Norman going back-to-back in 1981-82, West Australian Jason Scrivener leading the Aussie charge in 2022 at The Belfry.

Fresh from his momentous victory at the Huntsville Championship Harrison Endycott is backing up at the Korn Ferry Tour’s Simmons Bank Open in Tennessee, the tournament victory that propelled Cam Davis toward the PGA Tour in 2018.

Seven Australians are contesting the 41st Maekyung Open in Korea while Stephen Leaney and Kristalle Blum have been added to the fields for the Champions Tour’s Mitsubishi Electric Classic and Ladies European Tour’s Madrid Ladies Open respectively.

Fox Sports has coverage of the PGA TOUR, DP World Tour, Asian Tour, Ladies European Tour and Champions Tour across the weekend starting from 2pm on Thursday.

All TV times are listed below.

Round 1 tee times AEST

PGA TOUR Wells Fargo Championship TPC Potomac at Avenal Farm, Potomac, Maryland 9.01pm*             Aaron Baddeley, Brian Stuard, Max McGreevy 9.45pm*             Marc Leishman, Abraham Ancer, Corey Conners 9.56pm Matt Jones, Seamus Power, K.H. Lee 10.40pm             Danny Lee, David Lingmerth, Nicholas Thompson 11.02pm*           Brett Drewitt, Adam Svensson, Turk Pettit 2.54am Jason Day, Max Homa, Rickie Fowler 3.16am*             Cam Davis, Stewart Cink, Richy Werenski 3.27am*             Cameron Percy, Jhonattan Vegas, Harry Higgs

Defending champion: Rory McIlroy Past Aussie winners: Jason Day (2018) Top Aussie prediction: Marc Leishman TV schedule: Live 4am-8am Friday, Saturday; Live 3am-8am Sunday, Monday on Fox Sports 503

DP World Tour Betfred British Masters hosted by Danny Willett The Belfry, Sutton Coldfield, England 5.40pm*             Wade Ormsby, Romain Langasque, Joost Luiten 10.30pm             Zach Murray, Chase Hanna, Ricardo Gouveia 11pm    Ryan Fox, Jack Singh Barr, Thomas Bjorn 11.50pm             Jason Scrivener, Johannes Veerman, Robert Rock 12.10pm*           Maverick Antcliff, Sebastian Heisele, Haydn Porteous

Defending champion: Richard Bland Past Aussie winners: Graham Marsh (1979), Greg Norman, 1981, 1982), Robert Allenby (1996) Top Aussie prediction: Jason Scrivener TV schedule: Live 10.30pm-3.30am Thursday; Live 11.30pm-3.30am Friday; Live 10.15pm-2.30am Saturday; Live 10pm-2.30am Sunday on Fox Sports 503

Korn Ferry Tour Simmons Bank Open for the Snedeker Foundation The Grove, College Grove, Tennessee 9.57pm*             Curtis Luck, Kris Ventura, Chris Baker 3.16am*             Rhein Gibson, Nicholas Lindheim, Cody Gribble 4am      Harrison Endycott, Kyle Reifers, George Cunningham 4.55am*             Ryan Ruffels, Michael Johnson, Chip McDaniel 5.06am*             Nick Voke, Kevin Yu, Will Dickson

Defending champion: Austin Smotherman (2020) Past Aussie winners: Cam Davis (2018) Top Aussie prediction: Curtis Luck

Asian Tour The 41st GS Caltex Maekyung Open Namseoul Country Club, Korea 8.14am Kevin Yuan, Minsu Kim, Euijin Lee 8.14am*             Junseok Lee, Gaganjeet Bhullar, Kyungnam Kang 9.31am*             Travis Smyth, Sanghun Shin, Seunghyun Pi (a) 12.41pm             Will Heffernan, Doyeob Mun, Minkyu Kim 12.41pm*           Scott Strange, Seukhyun Baek, Joonhyeong Jeon 1.03pm*             Cory Crawford, Woohyun Kim, Yoon Chung 2.31pm Wonjoon Lee, Jinjae Byun, Karandeep Kochhar

Defending champion: Hur In-hoi Past Aussie winners: Mike Clayton (1984) Top Aussie prediction: Travis Smyth TV schedule: Live 2pm-6pm Thursday, Friday on Fox Sports 503; Live 1pm-5pm Saturday on Fox Sports 506; Live 1pm-5pm Sunday on Fox Sports 503

Ladies European Tour Madrid Ladies Open Jarama-RACE Golf Club, Madrid, Spain 10.05pm*           Kristalle Blum, Anna Magnusson, Rosie Davies

Defending champion: Inaugural event Past Aussie winners: Nil Top Aussie prediction: Kristalle Blum TV schedule: Live 9pm Saturday, Sunday on Fox Sports 505

PGA TOUR Latinoamerica Quito Open Quito Tenis y Golf Club, Quito, Ecuador 10.40pm             Charlie Hillier, José Toledo, Alan Wagner 11.10pm             Denzel Ieremia, David Pastore, Jesus Montenegro

Defending champion: Connor Godsey (2020) Past Aussie winners: Nil Top Australasian prediction: Denzel Ieremia

Champions Tour Mitsubishi Electric Classic TPC Sugarloaf, Duluth, Georgia Australasians in the field: Robert Allenby, Stuart Appleby, Stephen Leaney, Rod Pampling, John Senden

Defending champion: Dicky Pride (2020) Past Aussie winners: Nil Top Aussie prediction: Rod Pampling TV schedule: Live 2am-4am Saturday; Live 5am-8am Sunday on Fox Sports 505; 10am Monday on Fox Sports 503