SAN FRANCISCO — The Australian Marc Leishman’s task was taller than the towering Monterey cypress trees at T.P.C. Harding Park, the site of this week’s World Golf Championships match play event. On Wednesday, Leishman, ranked 60th in the world, squared off against the Englishman Justin Rose, the one-time United States Open champion, in the first match of round-robin play.
The format, in which players exchange shots like punches until someone is eventually knocked out, rewards an aggressive, go-for-broke mind-set, which Leishman did not possess before his wife, Audrey, nearly died this month after a series of infections tore through her body like a tornado.