A trip to Australia wouldn’t be complete without meeting some of the locals and while on the Gold Coast for the Australian PGA Championship, Sergio and Angela Garcia got up close to some Australian wildlife.

Climbing up the SkyPoint Australia is not for the fainthearted! Mike Weir getting the adrenaline going ahead of the Australian PGA Championship #AusPGA

Jordan Zunic spoke with the media after his stellar round 1 performance at the 2017 Australian PGA Championship.

Adam Bland spoke with the media after his impressive round 1 performance at the 2017 Australian PGA Championship.

When on the Gold Coast… Jonas Blixt learning about the difference between a Schoolie and a Toolie from Queenslander Cameron Smith at the Australian PGA Championship!

Some lucky kids got the chance to walk alongside some of the world’s greatest golfers as a ‘Caddy Kid’ in the 2017 Australian PGA Championship Pro-Am

Adam Bland speaks with the media after another impressive round at the 2017 Australian PGA Championship.

Marc Leishman speaks with the media after a brilliant 7-under par round at the 2017 Australian PGA Championship.

An early alarm and dreary weather couldn’t keep the fans away or the birdies off Sergio Garcia’s scorecard in the opening round of the Australian PGA Championship.

Teeing off at 6.10am was a first for Garcia and he was pleased to see plenty of fans there to greet him, Adam Scott and Wade Ormsby as they teed off the 10th.

“I’ve never teed off at 6:10 in a tournament. I think probably the earliest I’ve teed off is 6:50, maybe 7:00.  So that was interesting,” said Garcia.

“I think it was probably ‑‑ I want to say it was the closest I’ve had a dinner and a breakfast ever. Yeah, I woke up at 4:00am this morning, had a bit of breakfast and then I got to the putting green probably just after 5:00am.

“I got to the 10th and I was impressed how many people were there at 6:10am in the morning. I was expecting people to kind of come throughout.

“I thought there were going to be like 10 or 12 people at the first on the 10th tee and there were probably I would say at least 200 or 300 people there already at 6:10am, so that was really, really nice to see.”

Competing on the RACV Royal Pines Resort for the first time, Garcia made his first birdie on the 11^th hole before adding a further four to his card.

Garcia was pleased to fire a bogey free 5-under 67 despite feeling like his best golf had eluded him today.

“I played pretty solid. I wouldn’t say that it was amazing but it was good,” added Garcia.

“The most positive thing for me would be to go a bogey free round, which I didn’t realise until we got done.”

It was a challenging day with the rain but the course held up well according to the World Number 11.

“Other than when it started pouring and obviously they were filled with water, the greens held up great.  As soon as it stopped raining, they drained very, very nicely,” said Garcia.

“The fairways did quite well but they were a little bit wetter. We did have two or three mud balls here and there obviously after the big rains.

“The bunkers, you didn’t see any potholes in the bunkers so that was nice to see. You know, so the course did as well as you can expect under the conditions.”

While the weather was damp the mood of the marquee group wasn’t with Garcia playing alongside fellow Masters winner Adam Scott and recent European Tour winner Wade Ormsby who both had 1-under in the opening round.

“It was nice to play with Scotty and with Wade, we had a great time.  Other than a couple of times where it poured down on us, it was a fun day.”

The afternoon field is now on course.

Marc Leishman was last night named the 2017 Greg Norman Medal recipient ahead of the Australian PGA Championship held at RACV Royal Pines Resort from 30 November – 3 December.

The coveted award has capped off a career year for Leishman who won the BMW Championship and Arnold Palmer Invitational on the PGA TOUR.

He said the prospect of being named the Greg Norman Medal winner played a big part in his decision to tee it up on the Gold Coast this week rather than Tiger Woods’ Hero World Challenge event.

That and a nudge from wife Audrey sealed the deal.

“With my form I thought I had a pretty good chance of winning it, I just wanted to be there if I was to win,” Leishman said.

“It’s something that hopefully I will get another chance to win it and hopefully I will win it again, but I think if I hadn’t had come back and won it and wasn’t there to accept the award, I would have regretted it. I try and avoid having any regrets.

“My wife was pushing me out the door pretty much. She’s like, "You’ve really got to go."  To not come back to Australia for a year is hard. We’ve got family in America and all that and of course we want to come back, but sometimes you’ve got to put your family first.

“But when you’ve got the support of your wife to do it, that was a big thing along with obviously the medal.”

The accolades off the course are certainly appreciated by Leishman but come his tee time on Thursday, his eyes are well and truly focused on the Kirkwood Cup, something he’d love to etch his name into.

“You grow up and these are the tournaments that you watch as a kid and you see your idols playing them and winning them and you want to win them, I’m no different.

“I’ve seen my friends win them now and I would love to hoist the Kirkwood Cup up on Sunday, but you’ve got to play really good golf and just hope that someone else doesn’t play better than you.”

Leishman said he certainly didn’t ear mark the BMW and Arnold Palmer Invitational as tournaments he would set out to win, but rather focusing on the small things and taking the results as they come.

The next step for the Warrnambool local is to now win an elusive Major.

“Goal‑wise, I don’t really set like result goals. I try and just do everything right and let the results take care of themselves. That’s what I did this year and it worked pretty well, so I’ll try and do the same.

“Having said that, to contend in a Major and hopefully win a Major would be the main goal.  A lot of things have to go right to do that. There’s only four Majors every year,” added Leishman.

“You’ve got to play well on the right week.  So if I can just keep playing the way I have been, play well more consistently, I feel like that gives me my best chance to try and contend and win Majors.”

It’s the logical next step in Leishman’s career who said he’s used to climbing steadily through his career.

“I think my whole career’s been baby steps. I started out on the Von Nida Tour (now the ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia) here and worked my way to Korea and then onto the Web.com Tour and the PGA TOUR and won the Travelers and worked up to a European Tour event and Bay Hill and a playoff (FedEx Cup) event, so I feel like the next step is to try and win a Major.

“So I’ll do everything I can to try and do that, try and keep the balance really good in life and golf and I feel that gives me my best chance.”

Marc Leishman tees off for round one of the Australian PGA Championship at 11:10am alongside defending champion Harold Varner III and Matt Jones.

For full tee times visit pga.org.au.

General admission to the Australian PGA Championship is $25* when purchased at the gate or via Ticketmaster with children, 16 and under, granted free admission when attending with a paying adult. 

Since Sergio Garcia, Adam Scott and Marc Leishman were announced to play the Australian PGA Championship, Saturday and Sunday tickets to the Lexus Marquee on the Soniq Million Dollar Hole and the Kirkwood Club have sold out. Fans who want to join in the festival atmosphere are encouraged to book tickets from Thursday to Friday quickly due to unprecedented demand.

Limited corporate hospitality options are still available, please visit pgachampionship.com.au.