MARC Leishman rued missing the chance to make Open history at St Andrews - but then immediately put his golf back into its context.

The Australian threatened to shoot the first 62 in a major championship on Sunday as he collected eight birdies in the first 15 holes of his third round to shoot up the leaderboard.

With scoring conditions good, two more birdies over the last three would have set a new major benchmark, but he could only make pars and settled for a bogey-free 64.

He admitted there was some disappointment but, after what he has been through this year, it mattered little.

Three months ago Leishman nearly lost his wife as she fell seriously ill with toxic shock syndrome, a rare but life-threatening bacterial infection during which she was put into an induced coma. She is now recovering but Leishman, a 31-year-old father of two young children, feared the worst.

He said: "I don't think about what happened but it has definitely changed my whole perspective on life. I feel like I've always had a pretty good outlook on life, but now it just takes a lot more to worry me.