The Australian shot a one-under 71 on Friday (Saturday AEDT) at Trump National Doral to sit joint-eighth and trail leader Patrick Reed (67), who had a double bogey on his closing hole, by four strokes.
Leishman birdied the sixth hole, his first, and then reeled off nine straight pars before bogeying the par-4 16th.
An eagle on the first, after chipping in from a bunker, and birdie on the third got the 41-year-old Victorian to three under, before he double-bogeyed the fifth.
Reed began his round on the 10th and reached seven under at the par-5 eighth. But at the par-3 ninth, he missed the green wide left and compounded the mistake by putting his second shot into a bunker.
He holds a two-stroke lead over fellow Americans Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson, who all shot three-under 69s.
"I mean, the first 17 (holes) were great," Reed said.
"I hit the ball pretty well off the tee, hit some quality iron shots and made some putts, and I think that's what you have to do around this place.
"It was just an unfortunate finish, but at the end of the day, it's still a solid round of golf."
Former British Open winner Cameron Smith had a one-over 73, while fellow Aussies Matt Jones (74) Lucas Herbert (77) were also over the card.
In LIV Golf's first US event of 2025, it was fitting that the top four players are all past major champions, three of them with at least one green jacket to their name with the Masters a week away.
Reed won the Masters in 2018, Mickelson has captured three green jackets and Dustin Johnson won the 2020 edition.
Johnson had a three-birdie run from 14 to 16 late in his round to get to three under, while DeChambeau was steady with four birdies and just one bogey.
DeChambeau's Crushers GC, also hold a narrow two-shot lead in the team competition. The four-man team of DeChambeau, Charles Howell III, Englishman Paul Casey and India's Anirban Lahiri combined to go two under, with Johnson's 4Aces GC sitting second at even par.
"There's a reason we won here (at the LIV Team Championship) in 2023," DeChambeau said.
"They like this golf course. They like a tough, challenging golf course where you can strategically play and let everybody kind of mess up on their own, and we just plot along and make a couple birdies where we can and move along when it's a really brutal hole."
The all-Australian Ripper GC team of Leishman, Smith, Jones and Herbert are fourth, nine shots behind the leaders.
With Reuters.
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