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DEUTSCHE BANK CHAMPIONSHIP

August 28, 2014

Geoff Ogilvy

NORTON, MASSACHUSETTS

JOHN BUSH: We'd like to welcome Geoff Ogilvy into the interview room. Currently No. 100 in the FedExCup standings. Geoff, a little bit of work to do this week. If we can get your mindset coming into the Deutsche Bank Championship.

GEOFF OGILVY: I'm here thinking this is kind of a bit of bonus for me. When I missed the cut last week, I was pretty sure that I was gone. So I flew home and was mentally starting my vacation. But then it became apparent with about a few hours to go in the Barclays I had to chance to finish in the top 100. I haven't had amazing success here, but I quite like it. You can't get to Atlanta without getting here. I guess I'm here, if I can have a really good week, and move the right direction in the points, you never know what might happen. Nice to be here.

Q. 4 top-10s at the Deutsche Bank Championship, what is it about this course that suits your game?
GEOFF OGILVY: I don't know, it's got a bit of space off the tee, I guess, which has traditionally been nice to me. It are suits a guy that can keep the ball in the air a long time. Not that I hit it long, but I hit it quite high, and that suits around here, I think. I've always liked the greens. Bentgrass greens is what you putt on in Melbourne when you grow up. I couldn't put a specific finger on why I like it. I liked it -- I played nicely, I think the first year, before -- when it was the first year, and then Gil changed it a little bit and I've liked it more ever since. I can't put my finger on it, but it's just a place I'm comfortable at, I guess.

Q. With the way it all played out last week, were you paying attention to what other guys were doing, or were you told that you're going to have to go to Boston?
GEOFF OGILVY: I didn't watch, I don't really watch much golf. But when I missed the cut, I was projected 102 or something, I just -- I didn't -- I'm not much of a statistician, I just assumed there was no way. Because there were too many guys behind me or near behind me, obviously to make the cut, they were going to make points, and I was projected at 102. I figured when I was going home I was going home. I didn't pay any attention Saturday at all. And Sunday I just kind of looked at the app on my phone in the morning, I'm projected 99 after a few groups teed off. That was kind of odd. I looked at it from time to time during the day. I didn't watch it. I had no idea how I would get in and how I would fall out. I learned those stories afterward. With about two hours to go, I got a message from somebody saying the Tour stat numbers guy is saying that you pretty much can't miss. So well done, you're going kind of thing. But I wasn't watching. And I didn't know which players were going to affect what and who had to do anything, I just kind of knew I was right there.

Q. When you say it's nice to be here, do you feel you're playing with housemates, a little?
GEOFF OGILVY: I was playing with housemates, really, two weeks before Reno, I wasn't -- this was going to be four weeks off, you know? So a little bit. I mean it's a bonus, especially Ridgewood, I've never made a cut at Ridgewood. I didn't go there expecting to play early, but it's never been my happiest hunting ground. It's a bonus. It doesn't really matter, I can't finish any worse than 100 in the FedExCup this year.

Q. Secondly, Stuart had a middling year, frankly, and had one good week. And he's probably headed to Atlanta. How much of an inspiration, might be too strong of a word, but how much is that a reminder to you?
GEOFF OGILVY: These first two or three, especially the first two, I think -- well, each one is slightly less -- the first three, the Barclays is the most volatile, more points, it's still volatile, and probably less moving around at the BMW. But effectively a top two or three in these first two is like winning a normal tournament, because it gets you to Atlanta, gets you in the Masters, gets you in the U.S. Open. Stuart's second last week isn't a win, he doesn't get a trophy or anything, but effectively it carries almost the same benefits as winning a tournament, which it kind of should. If you call them playoffs, this is the important one. It should carry more weight than a normal tournament. So I'm not saying I would specifically be inspired by Stuart, but we all have a pretty good idea that a good week in these things changes your whole setup, really. I think I finished second or third -- third, I think, when Rosie won at Cog Hill, and I went from 50 something and I made it to Atlanta, with one good week at the BMW. And again, that changes everything. So you're pretty aware that as long as you're playing in these things, I can still win the FedExCup sitting here right now. I mean I'm sure I'm the longest shot there is in the field, statistically, but everyone still can. You've just got to get to that last one. So I'm still in it.

Q. Is there any difficulty with potentially unplugging mentally for that 48-hour stretch after the missed cut until you knew you were in this week, in terms of switching it to off-season mode and then all of a sudden you've got to get back in and prepare for this week?
GEOFF OGILVY: I guess we'll find out. I threw all the balls, all my gloves, almost everything out of my bag. Had a light golf bag to take home from the Barclays, so I had to refill that yesterday. I guess we'll find out. It's been a perfect week for a Friday start for me. There's been an extra day to get around. I didn't travel until Tuesday, so I had three full days at home. I think if we'd started -- if I'd started straight away, it would have been difficult for me, probably. But I've known since Sunday. So I've known for five days by the time I tee up. So I'm back in tournament mode now, played a Pro Am, feels like a real tournament, I'm back into it. The long week has helped in that respect.

Q. What would this stretch have been like for you to be home, had you been home for four weeks, and knowing important golf is being played and you're not part of it, would you just detach from it?
GEOFF OGILVY: I probably wouldn't have watched much. I would have detached from it and done the family stuff. Mentally I'd already decided or accepted that that was probably my fate this year, I was going to have a bit of a break, and reset. Everything after that has been a bit of a bonus, but quite actually looking forward to having a big chunk of time off and stuff. The clubs would have stayed in the club locker for a month and I would have dropped the kids off at school and picked them up and done all that sort of stuff. And had a couple of beers, maybe, watched football on TV. So I just get -- hopefully I can start that program in three weeks' time.

Q. When you said a minute ago on a couple of occasions that a second or third place and all of a sudden it changes your whole season or the fact that you're still playing, you can still win the FedExCup. You must like that idea. But I wondered if you'd had a season like Rory, if you would like that idea? In other words, what Stuart did by having a pretty ordinary year and having one good week, does that seem right to you that someone could cash in that much with a second place finish?
GEOFF OGILVY: Yes and no. It depends what you want these things to be. These things are bigger than normal tournaments only really because of that. If you want these tournaments to be bigger than normal tournaments than just the normal Tour event it has to carry some sort of weight like that, I think. I'm sure if you ask the guy who wins the FedExCup at the end of the year, if it happens to not be Rory, would he rather have that year or Rory's, I'm sure he would say he'd rather have Rory's. He's still going to be the Player of the Year, I assume. You take two majors over winning the FedExCup, take one major over winning the FedExCup, I think. It is a little -- I think it does throw a few guys off, if a guy comes from way back and has a top two or three and all of a sudden he's in all the majors next year and stuff. I think that sits wrong with most guys in a way. But I think it sits right in a way, too. If you want these to be big, they have to carry weight. And that's really one of the only ways you can do that is to make them -- make golf go up the rankings or it doesn't work. If you want the season to climax, if you like, and to come down to qualify for this, and the best guy these four weeks wins it all, it kind of achieves that. If you want the old model of whatever played best consistently over the year, then this is not a good model for that. I guess you have to find the happy middle ground that everybody is happy with. As long as Augusta is happy with it and all the people who the exemptions carry to. I'm sure the Tour is happy with the best players making Atlanta, as long as the people where those exemptions go and those players, if they're happy with the players who turn up and get to their tournaments because of the way it's set up then it's fine and it works.

Q. Are you happy that Augusta is happy with it?
GEOFF OGILVY: Am I happy that Augusta is happy with it? We always like Augusta to be happy with stuff.

Q. The last thing, because there's a lot of people who still have a hard time separating the majors from the FedExCup. The Major Championship awards 50 more points than winning Firestone or something like that. Would there be any problem just because of the majors, and frankly THE PLAYERS Championship, since it's the Tour's event, giving them a thousand points or giving them the same as a playoff event just because it's a major, would that screw it up?
GEOFF OGILVY: I like the idea but there's already a big separation gap and advantage from the guys who are in those tournaments to the guys who are not in those tournaments. You start doing that, you start separating the haves and have nots even more, then you give the guys who are not in those tournaments at the start of the year zero chance to compete for the FedExCup, which I think isn't the point. I like the idea of it. But if you had the same points as last week in April, like the whole thing just goes -- Jimmy Walker winning three times, and Bubba has passed him by a mile. Is that right? It suits that they're at the end of the season and you can hype up the points, and you have four weeks in a row. You'd rather win a major than here. I mean everyone knows that. But the amount of bonuses and benefits and money and exemptions and life changing stuff, Hall of Fame, all sorts -- everything that comes with that, you're already going to be top-30 on the money list, already. Do you need any more? There's enough reward. As I said, Rory is still going to have a better year than the guy that wins the FedExCup if he doesn't win it.

JOHN BUSH: Geoff Ogilvy, thanks.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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