The Gold Coast is famous for fun and end of year
celebrations of many kinds and this year Marc Leishman is looking forward to
finishing his 2016 season at the Australian PGA Championship.

The festival atmosphere created at the Australian PGA
Championship as well as playing in front of a home crowd has Leishman excited
to be teeing off on Thursday.

"It’s a great spot to finish the year off. I’ve got quite a
few friends up here, a lot of people from Warrnambool and Victoria move up here
for a lot of reasons. I’ll have a fair few people out watching. Hopefully I can
make a lot of birdies for them and finish up high on Sunday, close to the top
of the leaderboard," said Leishman.

"It’s really nice to look into the crowd and see some
familiar faces.  Playing in America all
year, you don’t get that, it’s all strangers in the crowd, which you get used
to.  

"Having my family here is important too.  It makes you, I think, more relaxed off the
golf course, which makes the week easier and hopefully I’ll have more energy at
the end of the week to be fresh and hopefully give it a run on Sunday
afternoon."

Arriving on the Gold Coast on Monday fresh from partnering
Adam Scott in the World Cup of Golf, Leishman was happy to see some sunshine.

"I got a shock when I saw that big yellow thing in the
sky.  It was obviously pretty cold down
there, a little wet; really nice to be up here on the Gold Coast and not have
to have a jumper on.

"I’m looking forward to the week, not only the golf course,
but the weather and everything that the Gold Coast has to offer.   It’s a great spot; we’ve got a great venue
here and looking forward to getting into it on Thursday," added
Leishman, who will enjoy even more of the sunshine when he stays on after the
tournament for a family holiday.

"I’m spending a few extra days up here just on holiday with
the kids and wife and my sister and her family is coming up as well, so we’ll
be up here until next weekend enjoying everything that the Gold Coast has to
offer.  

"I have a lot of good memories here.  We took family holidays up here, for probably
a 10 or 12 year span, so I’ve got plenty of good memories and hopefully we’ll
make some more good ones this week."

Before he got down to business with a practice round this
afternoon, Leishman enjoyed some downtime with his children hanging out at the
Orange Crush Cobra Puma Kids Day.

"It’s awesome to see so many kids out here.  My boys are out there and there must be a
little putt-putt thing out there and Harvey, my oldest, he ran up to me and he
was like, "Daddy, daddy, I got the ball in the hole". 

"He was really excited about it and he’s one of those kids."

While Leishman had his first look at the back-9 post media
conference, his caddy, Matt Kelly, had already done some research on the Graham
Marsh re-designed layout.

"I saw the front 9 last time I played here but I’ve heard the
back-9’s a little more severe," added Leishman. 

"My caddy Matty walked around yesterday and he liked it.  He said it’s going to be tough; you’re going
to probably have to play pretty conservative, especially into the greens.

"It will be important to hit fairways and hit good
shots.  If you’re just a little bit off,
you’ll get punished pretty severely.  I’m
excited to get out there and play it."

Marc Leishman will tee off in the first round of the
Australian PGA Championship at 6.30am on Thursday playing with Danny Lee and
John Senden.