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WYNDHAM CHAMPIONSHIP

August 20, 2017

Geoff Ogilvy

Greensboro, North Carolina

Q. You and I talked yesterday and all week you came in here knowing you were right on that 125 cut line. Can you explain the feelings, the pressure of knowing that you have to have a good week here or your job security might be gone?
GEOFF OGILVY: It took me by surprise a little bit. The last couple of months I've been teetering around the edge thinking I don't have many more chances, I won't be in the situation. I'm really not that stressed about it.

I didn't realize how much I wanted it until I turned up this week and felt how I felt on the first tee. It was true feelings that I haven't had in 15, 20 weeks. It was a very difficult thing to do and I guess what the situation proved to be is how much I wanted to still be here.

Q. You are a virtual lock. Not allowed to say an official lock. Take a look this scorecard. Talking through what is going through your mind here after the double on 11, make birdie on 15 and what happened.
GEOFF OGILVY: The front-9, I had a great putt on the 1st, good up and down on 2 and 4. 6-under after 9. Generally thinking if I can do that again I have a chance to win this tournament.

Kind of a little bit of the pressure of getting to 125 kind of went away and I was thinking about a really high finish. Tricky hole on 11. 15, settled the ship a little bit. 17, I didn't have a really bad shot but caught the edge of the bunker and right underneath the lip where even bogey would have been a good score.

Made 18 a little bit more stressful, more stressful that I wanted it after a week like this. Hit two good shots and I could kind of dribble it down the hole and hope it went in. Trying to hole it but I was pretty sure if I finished at 11 I was good.

Q. You know, just the last couple weeks you came to realize how much you wanted --
GEOFF OGILVY: Didn't realize how much I wanted it until Thursday morning here, to be honest. I guess I was trying with psychology on myself for trying to take some stress out of the situation by saying oh, well, I finish 126 I'll get plenty of starts, I'm sure, getting invites and that's probably true, right? I can play a reasonable season.

This way I get in the -- I get in The Players Championship. I can set my schedule a little bit. I'm playing -- I played too well this year and I turned a few reasonable finishes into slightly poor finishes, 20s into 25s.

D.C. I should have finished -- probably could have won the tournament put I bogeyed the last two holes and turned a 3rd into a 13, stuff like that.

70 good holes and at some point you got to do something silly and you lose a lot of points when you're at that end of the field. Not a very good Sunday. I felt like I played well enough that I should have gotten to next week, you know. It would have been pretty disappointing if I didn't.

Game is turning around. I've hit the ball really nicely most of the year, probably statistically probably doesn't show but it's -- I feel like I'm capable of having really good long stretches of good ball-striking.

Q. Deeply satisfying despite making the stressful putt on last hole maybe?
GEOFF OGILVY: 17 was kind of weird. I hit it in the rough. It was fine. Wasn't a bad shot in the rough. You have to go left of that pin and if it was two feet further right it would have been a 20-foot putt. It wasn't. Was almost not seeing the top of the ball right underneath the lip. I couldn't go to the green. I had to play it away from the green.

I had to play it to a shot -- I hit a great shot to get it to a hard up and down. So, it was just one of those bad timings, bad lies. I wasn't overly concerned at that point.

The double on 11 was more frustrating because that kind of took me out of potentially winning the tournament. I was feeling it, the front-9 I was bummed, really bummed.

The one on 10, a bit above the hole. Anyway, the shot on 12, close on 13. I had a good putt on 14, had two great shots on 15. It was a very stressless way to play a stressless round. Does that make sense?

First couple holes I was in some pretty afterward shots, 2nd, 3rd and 4th. Great up and down on 3 from the green. Great up and down on 4. After that I felt like I was putting at birdie from a good spot except on 11 and 17.

Hit a great shot on the last. Just made 18 just a little bit more stressful and until that point -- I wasn't mad, I wasn't -- I didn't freak out.

I was just like -- tend to -- I was 12th or something with a chance to make a couple of birdies I would have had a Top 10, right, and getting into -- starting to like lock-up Boston and stuff.

But then, all of a sudden, on 18 I'm like find a way to make 4. Get out of here, 4 is going to be enough. Hit two great shots.

I had one of those nice putts you like when if you only need -- you know two putts is going to be good enough, it was a perfect one because I could touch it and dribble it down the hole. Didn't break like I thought.

Look, if I wasn't on the 125, I probably would have turned the front-9 into a low 60 round, it felt like I was playing that well. There's a level of tension and stress in your body that's on a different level when you're in that position.

I haven't felt that since Q-School. Even to be fair, Q-School, when I did Q-School here I had nothing to lose because I already had my card in Europe. I loved playing in Europe. I was just coming over here just to see, this is going to be a better deal if I can play here but, if not, I won't, I'll play in Europe. It wasn't a job or no job situation. I already had a job. It was just somewhere else.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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