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ISPS HANDA PERTH INTERNATIONALOctober 21, 2014Geoff OgilvyPERTH, WESTERN AUSTRALIA THE MODERATOR: Have you seen the course at all yet? GEOFF OGILVY: I haven't actually, so I'm pretty excited. Haven't been here since ‑‑ I don't know. We played Australian MenÂ’s Amateur Championship here. Kim Felton won. I can't remember what year that was. '90 something. '98 maybe? THE MODERATOR: We can check that for you. GEOFF OGILVY: And I haven't played here since I was an amateur anyway. I'm pretty excited. I've always liked Karrinup. It's been changed a little bit, improved a little bit I think since I was last year. So, yeah, pretty excited. Q. Speaking of those improvements, it's your business partner Mark Clayton that has done the improvements. GEOFF OGILVY: Yeah. Q. Has he given you any inside word on how the course sets up and what to expect? GEOFF OGILVY: He told me how he thinks I should play the course, so I guess he'll take credit if I play well. No, I've been pretty aware, I was pretty aware when he was doing it what he was doing here. I knew the course quite well before I came here and have seen all the pictures of before and afters and stuff. Ever since all that ‑ which was '06, '07 kind of thing it was done again maybe ‑ I've been looking forward to coming back. This is, what, the third year this tournament has been on? This is the first year it's actually really worked where well for me. The tour over there is ‑‑ yeah, my exemption was not quite as good I guess the last couple years. This year, as soon as I won in Reno, this was ‑‑ it wasn't penciled in, in it was slotted in, because I wanted to come back. So, yeah, been looking forward to it for a while. THE MODERATOR: Questions. Q. (No microphone.) GEOFF OGILVY: It was. Last couple years weren't great for whatever reason. Golf is a strange game. I was playing really well most of the year; just didn't make any putts. I was trending the right direction but wasn't really showing anything like in the results. I took three weeks off in the middle of the year because I had a gut full of feeling like I wasn't getting out of it what I was putting into it. Came back and played really well, won Reno, and then a few weeks later I finished second, which is almost more important. I mean, it's more fun to win. It's better obviously, but second in those FedEx playoff events, got me to the last one, top 30, which is probably one of the best exemptions in the sport except for winning the major. Probably the top 30 on the PGA TOUR for the next 12 months, you pretty much get into everything you want. So, yeah, those two weeks at the end of the year turned an average year into a really good one. So it's nice. Been a couple years whereI ‑‑ I mean, I got so used to having that good exemption and playing anywhere I wanted and picking and choosing, and then you kind of fall out of for a couple years and see it from the other side and see how important and how much easier that makes life. So it's nice to get it back for sure. Q. The break mid‑season, you feel reinvigorated? GEOFF OGILVY: Oh, yeah, incredible. I mean, mentally I was ready to kind of, in the middle of the year, just write this year off. Just take as much time off as you can and start like two weeks ago at the Fry's, which was the first tournament. Just take two months off, recharge. I knew I was playing well, so just refresh and get ready, and just go bang for the next season. But, yeah, kind ofthat goal got kind of fast‑tracked because I won Reno after a few weeks off. (Discussion held off the record.            Once you do that the confidence all comes back. No question that taking the time off in the middle of the year helped immensely. You just you can't underestimate how valuable taking a week or two off is.            Doing this is such a grind that you've got to really, really, really want to be there. If you take a few weeks off you get pretty itchy to go play golf again.            That can be the difference. Q. Did you hit any balls in that time off? GEOFF OGILVY: I went and played nine holes I think before I went to Canada. I went three weeks without touching a golf club. Didn't unzip my clubs at all. I played nine holes with a different set of clubs before I went to Canada. Hit the ball really well and missed putts again in Canada. I finished kind of middle of the field. Then Reno I just played really, really well. So, no, I didn't ‑‑ I hadn't done that for years, so I don't think you can do that all the time. I don't think you can take three weeks off all the time. But I had come off six months of playing and practicing most days. I think I just needed a reset. Three weeks off, came back, and it all felt great again. I guess a learning experience. Maybe I don't get quite as jaded again and maybe have the odd extra week off that I wouldn't normally do. Don't be afraid to not touch a club for a week and come back. Could make a big difference. Q. (No microphone.) GEOFF OGILVY: Well, it was everything three years ago, and then‑‑ or two years ago ‑‑ and then gradually the ball‑striking came around. Actually since about April or May I think I hit it better than I ever had. The putting was the stubborn one that took a while. That's the one where your confidence comes from, and you can't score properly when you're not putting well. I was always a pretty decent putter, I guess. Maybe I took putting for granted a little bit because I never really found it too difficult. I was never the best putter out here, but I was always pretty decent. I must've used or tried 20 or 30 different putters this year, which is crazy. I used basically the same putter for my whole life. Well, a different version of the exact same putter for my whole life. I was trying the heavy ones and counterbalance and mallets. I'd have five or six different putters in a week, which is searching, like anyone who has played on tour. Everyone searches every now and then. But it was a situation I wasn't used to. I think perhaps ‑‑ I went to Scotty Cameron. He told me that it was a couple things that I used to do that I wasn't doing. I watched video for a while ago. It was more about perspective and how I was looking at it. That showed me that I wasn't really doing much wrong. I just need to kind of wait for them to go in. I think just doing that changed my whole mindset about it. As I say, I started waiting for them to go in as opposed to trying to force them in. Then they go in and you whole one or two and then it seems easy again. Wasn't through amazingly long hours on the putting green. It was more just a mental reset. Yeah, you can't do it without putting well. I started putting well, and that changed everything. Q. Going back to the three weeks off, what did you get up to? GEOFF OGILVY: Um, well, we live in Arizona, but we spend the U.S. summer in San Diego, because it's about's ‑‑ it's kind of like (indiscernible) in February in Arizona in June and July. It's 110, 115 on their scale, which is pretty hot, 50 degrees. So we get out of there and take the kids and just go to the beach every day. Surfing a little bit. Taking the kids to a beach, just whatever anyone would do on a beach holiday, that's what we were doing. We've got a pretty good setup over there, so that was pretty nice. Go to the beach, play with the kids. Just normal chill out stuff. Everything but golf. Then all of a sudden I found myself‑‑ it took a while. It took two and a half weeks, but after about two and a half weeks I was pretty desperate to get back. I missed it. I guess that's the whole point. You got to stop playing until you miss it. I missed it after a couple weeks. I was actually excited to get on an airplane and go play a tournament, which is an odd feeling. Yeah, just normal hang out and beach stuff really. Q. Do you think you'll start scheduling something like that every year? GEOFF OGILVY: Yeah, I think‑‑ well, if you look at the schedules of all the best almost in history, really they have never overplayed. The best never overplay. I know that tournament sponsors don't want to hear that. Nobody wants to hear that. You've got to space out your big tournaments anyway for sure. You just can't back up tournament after tournament after tournament. You just get jaded I guess is the word.  You just kind of get over it. That's the magic of the great exemption, because you can do that. When you're playing for your job you basically have to play every tournament you get in, which is probably not perfect for playing well all the time. So I'll probably look at the schedule and not be ‑‑ I'll be not afraid to take three weeks off anyway; whereas before I always thought you would lose the plot. When I was 19, 20, 21, when I was a kid, you take three weeks off and you do lose the plot because you haven't got enough golf under your belt. But I think when you have played for as long as I have, three weeks is no time at all. You don't forget how to play golf in three weeks if you've been playing for 20 something years. I will definitely approach the schedule not being afraid to take a few weeks off. It's always kind of play your way into form. You've got play before big tournaments. But I'm not convinced that that's true for me now. I don't know if I'll set that sort of break into every year, but I won't be afraid to have that sort of thing in there. Q. (No microphone.) GEOFF OGILVY: It's probably not great from on Australian Tour perspective. I'm not convinced that it's great for U.S. Tour perspective either. But it's not really my decision, that one. They're in the most amazing position that they have a tour that ends, what was that, five, six weeks ago, and they have so many‑‑ well, so many people that want to sponsor tournaments for$7, $8, $9, $10 million, let's just add three more months to the tour and play more. It's an incredible position. Basically 12 months a year there is ‑‑ 40 times a year there is $6 or $7 million dollars to play for. That's incredible, isn't it? So it's hard to say that's a bad thing. There are so much more kind of official money to play for and world ranking points. But it is probably going to dilute everything else, because you can't play everywhere and you can't play every week. When you have‑‑ I don't know how many we've got playing in the U.S.? 15? There are probably only the top two, Jason, Adam, a few guys that can afford to take a few months off and go down to Australia and play whenever they want. Most guys have to play right now. It's such an incredibly dense run of golf up through the playoffs, and then a week or to two and then you start again. And then all of a sudden, Oh, are you going to go play in Australia this year? I say, Well, I would love to, but I want to play this other stuff as well. You got to weigh up coming home and doing the best thing for your career, like playing for $7 million on the main tour, which would be over there, or just to come back here and just to play here because you want to almost. It's a difficult decision. It's going to be tougher for us. I don't think it's great for these tournaments, no, down here. Q. Is there a date between, say, now and February where, okay, that mainly attract two or three of the known players out of America? GEOFF OGILVY: It's pretty hard. Look, to be fair, the Australian Open this year is going to have the top two players in the world. Not many tournaments this year outside of the majors and the world golf champions have had that. And Jordan Speith, who I assume is still coming. Incredibly good player. Top 10 for a lot of the year. Q. (No microphone.) GEOFF OGILVY: Yeah. That's going to be‑‑ so I think we can do it every now and then. I don't know. I think in time‑‑ see, it's always been at this part of the year or November/December time where you have a chance to get the guys. So many of the top 10 in the world now are like Race to Dubai guys. They do both. The European Tour schedule after this week is like ‑‑ there are four weeks of events starting next week. So you're losing all of them for the later tournaments. I guess Rory is coming. Anyway, it might turn out that the west coast in the U.S., which has traditionally been the start, looks like it might become the one that everyone says, I'm not going to play on the west coast. The weather is cold. Match play is not there anymore. So might be our big chance to get big players maybe January/February time. Maybe. There is so much golf on at this time of year. And big stuff, too. Like the end of the European Tour and all the Silly Season stuff like Sun City and the Shark Shootout, plus just the regular U.S. tour events right now. Probably two great events to play in every week at this point; whereas at the start of the year maybe not. You got to compete with Dubai and all that, but the Americans are not going there. You might have a chance in January/February. Time will tell. No one knows what's going to happen with where people play and stuff, because 12 months a year, so one has ever had to make that choice. We all finished a couple, six weeks ago, then we all played a couple Silly Season events and said, I'll see you in Hawaii or see you on the Phoenix or whatever, somewhere in January, February. But now, that FedExCup is so important and such a big deal and so much money and so much at stake that guys just don't want to get too far behind. They're all going to play a lot now at the end of the calendar year, which is going to make it tough for us to get big players. And it's going to be tough to get Australian players, too. I guess we just have to do the best we can. But as I say, the Australian Open this year, this has got a pretty good field, don't you think? The Australian Open is an amazing field potentially, especially top of it. I think we've done pretty well. Tiger came back '08 or '09. Ever since then it feels like worldwide we've progressed. We actually moved the needle a little bit. People are interested in what happens in Australia this week like in the Masters or the Australian Open. Anywhere Rory goes or Adam or Jason goes‑ or Speith goes really‑ I mean, people notice that. Last few years I think we've done pretty well. We can always improve. Q. (No microphone.) GEOFF OGILVY: I feel pretty good about it. I've just come off the biggest‑‑ I mean, if I just praised the value of having a break. I've come off five or six weeks off since whenever we played in Atlanta. I didn't touch a club for four weeks again. But I've been playing all week last week back in Scottsdale. It felt really, really good. So we'll see. Golf is an odd game. If you think you're going to play well usually you don't. Just got to wait and see what happens. I like how I'm playing. Hopefully I can get in the mix on Sunday and see what happens. Q. Having not seen the course for a few years, between now and Thursday when you get a chance to get out there, what are the things you look for and need to check out? GEOFF OGILVY: I think, strangely enough, like the strategy of the golf course is quite easy to work out really. I think it's the pace of the greens, how far the ball is going ‑ which believe it or not varies a lot around the world ‑ getting used to the sand in the bunkers. That kind of stuff I think. That's often work in progress even like during the week.  You can play as many practice rounds as you want and get out there on Thursday morning and just seems different. We do this every week, play a new course every week. It's probably acquired skill learning a golf course. I don't think anyone starts off great at it. I think you play golf forever ‑‑ see, Lindsay is probably better than me because he's been at it a lot longer than me. See, it's just one of those things that you gradually get better and better at. So just try to gets a feel. It's a feel for the conditions more than of the actual golf course. Speed of greens and all that stuff. We'll see. Hopefully I've got it understand control by Thursday. Q. Do you head to Malaysia after? GEOFF OGILVY: I go back to the U.S. actually on Monday and come back in a couple weeks and do the Masters and the Open. It was kind of‑‑ it was either the Open or the Masters or it was those two, the Malaysia/Shanghai kind of run. If I would've done that it would have been just too many. So I chose Australia over those two. I mean, they're big money things, but it's a long week because it's so hot. Shanghai is a WGC, so kind of a shame about that, but I would rather play at home. Q. (No microphone.) GEOFF OGILVY: That was fun. Had more fun kicking the footy actually. Surprised I didn't do a hamstring. Fun hitting balls. I did that once in the MCG and it's great fun. Got to hit tons this morning. It was slamming into the seats. That's good fun. I think we got Jason kicking the proper drop punt. He was trying to do the NFL spiral thing. It was good fun. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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