Marc Leishman's appearance in the Open Championship is in doubt
Marc Leishman, the winner of last week’s Travelers Championship, may miss the opportunity of teeing off at the Open Championship this year because of the Immigration issues in the United States.
Leishman recently received a green signal to participate in the third major event of the year, at the Royal Lytham & St Annes Golf Club, after he recorded the first PGA Tour victory of his career on Sunday, June 24, 2012.
In the meantime, he also has applied for the permanent residency visa for the United States, as he married Audrey, who is a green card holder.
Therefore, he cannot leave the country until showing the prior consent, according to the US immigration law.
Moreover, getting the advance parole can also take more than two months. So, he does not have many chances to get permission to move to the England in the near future. The only chance that he has is to get the green card on time, as he applied for it five
months ago.
"I definitely don't want to miss the British so hopefully it will all come through in time but we haven't even had our interview yet so I'm not sure it's going to happen," Leishman said.
"The British is probably my favourite golf tournament of the year. I love playing links golf and I love everything about the UK so it would be good to go over and have a crack at it".
"It wasn't looking real good but my lawyers have just confirmed advanced parole has been lodged,” he added. “... so fingers crossed it arrives before the British and, if I qualify, I can go".
Meanwhile, he is headed for the Congressional Country Club, in Bethesda, in order to participate in the AT&T National.
Leishman is confident to continue his form on the tour and add some more Australian wins in the 2012 golf season.
Jason Day, Adam Scott, Greg Chalmers, Robert Allenby, Nick O'Hern and Rod Pampling are the other Australians who have confirmed to participate in the Invitation-only event this year.
Earlier, Day’s appearance was in doubt, as his wife is expecting their first child in the near future.
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