Marc Leishman continues to work his way
into form just two weeks out from the year’s second major at Oakmont.

Leishman shared top Australian honours with
John Senden at the Memorial tournament in Ohio, four steady rounds seeing him finish
one spot outside the top-10.

Leishman is known as a player that lifts
for the biggest tournaments and after his berth at Oakmont was confirmed two
weeks ago thanks to his position in the world rankings he will be pleased with
the state of his game.

Scores of 69-71-69-68 suggest all parts of
the Victorian’s game are in order and while Jason Day and Adam Scott will
attract the bulk of the Australian attention in a fortnight Leishman is
undoubtedly one to watch.

One of 10 Australians to tee up at
Muirfield Village Leishman’s good play wasn’t the only encouragement for the
Down Under contingent at one of the PGA TOUR’s most prestigious events.

John Senden, who finished T11 alongside
Leishman, has been out of sorts for much of 2016 but a final round 68 moved him
10 places up the standings.

The Queenslander was at his ball striking
best on Jack Nicklaus’ Muirfield Village layout finding an above average 75 per
cent of both fairways and greens.

Also taking a lot of encouragement out of
the week will be reigning Australian Open champion Matt Jones and 2006 US Open
winner Geoff Ogilvy.

Both Jones and Ogilvy have had difficult
seasons, Jones missing 10 cuts in 18 starts and Ogilvy 11 out of 15.

However, both showed signs of much better
form this week, Jones’ 10-under total good for T20 while Ogilvy’s 8-under and
T33 was his best result of the year and could have been even better but for a
horror final nine holes.

Ogilvy, who also started well at last
week’s event in Texas before fading to miss the cut, made an ugly triple bogey
at the par-3 12^th hole and two other bogies that proved costly but
there was much to like about his play.

Most importantly was a Strokes Gained
putting statistic in the positive which has been Ogilvy’s main issue in recent
years.

With this final year of guaranteed US Open
exemption coming at Oakmont the Victorian will be keen to make a good showing
and based on his play this week that is not beyond the realms of possibility.

While the seasoned campaigners found some
form this week it was also an impressive effort from teenage star Ryan Ruffels.

Playing just his seventh event as a
Professional the 18-year-old wasn’t overwhelmed despite the strong field
gathered in Ohio and was under par for three of the four rounds.

While a final round 73 was disappointing
and dropped him from 30^th to T38, Ruffels has proved in his limited
starts that he is capable of mixing it on the PGA TOUR and will take plenty of
confidence from his play this week.

Like Ogilvy, World Number 1 Jason Day
suffered an inglorious final nine holes and fell out of contention on Sunday.

His troubles began on the final hole
Saturday when an unlucky break saw him make a double bogey on the 18th hole and
he never got any momentum going Sunday.

At 3-over for his final nine holes Day will
be disappointed with his finish but there was a lot to like about his game over
the first three days and he will be confident of his chances at Oakmont.

Rod Pampling was the last of the
Australians to make the cut and finished T61, Aaron Baddeley, Stuart Appleby
and Steven Bowditch failing to qualify for the weekend.