Marc Leishman spent his time after Ripper GC’s $20m LIV team championship win cutting captain Cam Smith’s grass

Marc Leishman’s lawn obsession is well known but he’s taken it to new levels, installing a turf cricket pitch, with a clay base, for his kids at his home in Virginia Beach. The six-time PGA tour winner shares his obsession with Ripper GC captain Cam Smith. Such is the focus on keeping their pristine surfaces that even after winning the $20m LIV team championship this year, the duo were “cutting and rolling” the green at the skipper’s home in Jacksonville in the hours before the Mad Monday celebrations that capped their phenomenal year. Leishman said British Open winner Smith “might love his grass more than I do”, but there was method to their madness, preparing the area for a chipping competition that formed part of their celebrations, toasting team wins in Adelaide and then finally Dallas for the all-Australian quartet. But while both men froth over the quality of their pristine lawns, which most public golf courses would be envious of, it’s the cricket wicket, which Leishman installed from scratch after getting the idea while digging a drainage trench, that he’s now proud of. Ensuring his three boys, all born in America, can play cricket, Leishman rolled out the rock-hard wicket for backyard games in between hitting balls into his own putting green. He keeps a video on his phone of a cricket ball bouncing into the rock hard, albeit patchy, pitch, which is coming in to its own. The lawn work is therapy for Leishman, who laughed out loud when asked about cutting Smith’s grass before the party and chipping competition, the winner of which escaped fellow Ripper GC member Lucas Herbert, such was the level of partying done. “Yeah, he’s got a green at home and yeah, I cut it,” Leishman said, standing next to the putting green at Kingston Heath where he’ll be shooting for a maiden Australian Open this week. “We were both cutting it. Cam was out there early actually. He’s like, ‘Leish want to run over it?’ and I was into it. “We double cut it, or Cam cut it, then I cut it, and then he rolled it. OK, he loves it. He might love his grass more than I do.” Herbert said the “prestige” of the comp, in which players teamed up with their caddies, demanded the early morning attention. “These boys wanted to have the green and the surrounds rolling as best they could,” he said. In the end, Leishman and his caddie, Matt Kelly, took it out, a victory that would have nothing on an Australian Open triumph this week.