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WGC ACCENTURE MATCH PLAY CHAMPIONSHIP

February 26, 2006

Geoff Ogilvy

CARLSBAD, CALIFORNIA

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Geoff Ogilvy, congratulations on winning the WGC Accenture Match Play Championship, to become the first Australian player to win a World Golf Championship event. Great week for you, six wins.

GEOFF OGILVY: Yeah, I didn't know what to think starting the week. It's the kind of tournament you can play well and be going home after 12 or 13 holes or you can play poorly and stay in it. You just have to take it one day at a time. I dodged a lot of bullets earlier in the week. The first four matches I played went extra holes and the last two rounds I played pretty well and got them done early, which is nice.

Q. Is there any feeling, given the way your week went that destiny was on your side or your luck had run out on you?

GEOFF OGILVY: I never thought about it. It appears that way now, I guess. But I never thought about it. Each one of those extra hole matches I felt pretty fortunate to get through. I think every single time in those first four games I think my opponent had a putt to knock me out of the tournament, and no one made one, which is pretty fortunate. I could have been going home after 19 holes and that would be had, you know.

So I guess it appears that way. Something was on my side this week, keeping their putts out of the hole and making mine go in the hole. But I guess you can say that any time you play a tournament.

Q. You were playing a guy that has won a major and won The PLAYERS Championship, obviously a few years older. Were you thinking about playing Davis or playing your own game?

GEOFF OGILVY: Not really. It probably helps to play a player you respect more, I guess, because you know he's not going to go away. I guess the danger is sometimes to get complacent, if you get a bit of a lead. Whereas if I had a bit of a lead today, I knew he was going to come back and make birdies; because he's Davis Love, he's just going to do that.

So I never gave up, 4 up with four to play, I never thought, now, I'm looking pretty good here with 4 up and four to play, but I still thought about my third round match and thought it can go the other way, here, very quick. He could hit a couple of good shots and I can hit a couple of bad shots and it can turn around in a heartbeat; especially with a player like him, he's not going to give up. But really you just play again, it's just playing one shot at a time, one hole at a time.

Q. I wanted to ask you about 6 because it looked like there was a time there when momentum might have been swinging back toward Davis. He makes the nice par on 5, you miss, then you had to wait, had to wait all day pretty much. I wonder if you can talk about having to wait on that and if that affected your decision to hit iron off the tee or was it that you were 3 up and I'm going to hit iron?

GEOFF OGILVY: No, it wasn't to do with the match. It was coming into the wind, I didn't think I could get it on the green, and if I couldn't, I didn't think it was the right play. I hit 4 iron and have a hundred yards. I ended up not hitting a very good wedge shot. From 100 yards away I should do just as well as I do out of a bunker pretty much, or close to it. The green sits nice, it's a pretty easy wedge shot.

In the morning I went for the green because there was less wind. In the afternoon it picked up a little bit. I knew he was going to go for the green. It's almost a disadvantage to hit off that tee first, it's the only golf hole that it's a disadvantage to hit first, when you're playing a golfer you know can go for the green. I didn't really think about it.

I made a par. I might have hit driver and made a birdie and halved the hole or hit driver and made a bogey and lost the hole anyway. Not really, it was just the play of the hole.

Q. Did the pace bother you, the fact that you guys waited quite a bit?

GEOFF OGILVY: It was quite slow; we waited for most of it, yeah.

Q. What did you say to Mark walking up 10 fairway?

GEOFF OGILVY: I just asked him why they weren't like 15 minutes in front of us in the tee time and not five or ten minutes, just to have a bit of a separation. I know all the TV and all the volunteers and everything want to be on one spot on the golf course, which makes sense. But they could have made it a hole in between us. Me and Davis play quite fast; we probably would have caught them anyway. No big deal. I've never been one of four people on a golf course and waiting (laughter).

Q. What did he say?

GEOFF OGILVY: Who?

Q. Mark Russell.

GEOFF OGILVY: It was because of all the infrastructure and everything needs to be all in one spot. It's a bit of a mess if it's all spread out. And it makes sense.

It was just we played quite fast. We obviously played just a hair faster. It wasn't relentless waiting, but it was enough to be waiting. We were obviously playing each hole faster than the other two guys and we were catching them every hole.

Q. They could have put them off 25 minutes early and it wouldn't make any difference.

GEOFF OGILVY: I would think so. But we may have caught them anyway after four holes. If we have a couple of good holes we might catch them anyway, and you've got volunteers and cameras spread out over three holes, and that may not be what they wanted.

Q. Did you want to play through?

GEOFF OGILVY: We asked the question.

Q. Did you ask?

GEOFF OGILVY: We asked the question on the 8th. Because I was messing around and Zach had done something in the water, I don't know what he did, it looked like he was playing a left handed shot and it went and there was all sorts of they stood around for five minutes, and actually Davis asked the question, hey, Mark, can we go, can we just go in front of them? Because we shouldn't be waiting.

It was fine. We still probably played 16 holes in three and a half hours, so it wasn't bad.

Q. Jeff, what are the critical points in the match in your mind as far as where you gained

GEOFF OGILVY: I guess the obvious one is 11 this afternoon. I guess 6 is a reasonable one, because 6 or 5 and 6 this afternoon kind of I was in decent shape after four holes, I hit a good shot in 5, and he made a great up and down to halve the hole, which happens in match play. He got a bit of momentum. And I hit a couple of poor shots. On the front nine I played quite poorly.

And the best shot I hit all week or one of the best shots on 11. I hit 4 to 220 to like six feet before he gets to hit it. It's always hard to follow a guy that hits it close. I don't know what goes on in his head, but he knows he has to make eagle or assumes he does. I would think that. If I miss the green, then he probably hits it close.

It's so funny that it's so affected by the previous shot so many times in match play, it's incredible. You wouldn't think we would be affected by other people's shots, but I know I am. That really turned it for me. And I won that hole. And then I hit a great shot up 12, birdie there. And then 3 up with five or six 3 with six to play. I felt pretty good about it then.

Q. Iron on 12?

GEOFF OGILVY: 5 iron.

Q. You said that because it was Davis Love you weren't going to let it get away. But when you got down that stretch and now you're 4 up, did you let it creep in at all of what this is going to mean, I'm going to win this?

GEOFF OGILVY: Kind of not really. I was pretty good, actually. Me and Mike Weir on Friday, probably because of that match, it was pretty easy to because I had firsthand experience of a match with 4 up, four to play going awry. And I obviously didn't want to be on the side of that. So I made sure I didn't think about it. So making sure you don't think about it is actually thinking about it, isn't it, in a roundabout way, but I tried my best not to think about it.

Q. How did you make your home base Arizona where so many guys go to Florida?

GEOFF OGILVY: Coming from outside this country, there's probably three or four realistic choices, like Texas, California, Arizona, Florida, really, probably are the obvious choices. And there was quite a lot of Australians in Florida. Particularly Australians go to Florida, as most golfers don't like where they live, they go to Florida. But I had some friends already who were a year in front of me or two years in front of me who had gone over before me to play the Tour who had gone to Scottsdale. I had friends that went there.

I went there to see what this place was like. I actually didn't rent a place, just stayed with someone and then bought a place straight away, and thought it was fantastic.

Q. There are guys you play with McCord and guys like that, so enough people to play with when you're home?

GEOFF OGILVY: It's fantastic. I remember a golf course called Whisper Rock, which is loaded with Tour pros and national players, and probably one of the lower handicap places in the world; you can get a good game anytime. There's McCord and Mayfair and Andrew Magee. We could get great games anytime.

The guys in Florida have the same deal, have the same sort of stuff. But it's pretty nice to be amongst to be able to go out and play with three or four Tour players when you want to go out and hit. It's really nice.

Q. How exhausting is this week, the four extra matches, 36 holes yesterday, 36 holes today? Is it more mentally exhausting than physically?

GEOFF OGILVY: I guess it's what it feels like when you win I was tired on the back nine. So maybe I'm just by body my brain is telling me I'm not tired. But I'm pretty tired. It's a long deal.

To follow three days of golf, and extra holes three days and to play 36, 36, that's a lot more than we normally play in pressure situations, I guess. Match play puts you under the punch pretty much the whole time. I guess mental fatigue is going to come in, especially with a six hour drive.

Q. 14 on the first round and then on 9 in the afternoon matches, I was wondering when one of those sequences was bigger lifts for you?

GEOFF OGILVY: 14 was a nice lift. It was just a bonus at the time. I mean, I guess it swung the momentum the momentum was going his way a little bit at that time. And it was just a bonus. He missed one, short one all day, and I think I missed one short one. It's going to happen. It's going to happen on greens like this; when you play this many golf holes you're going to miss some short ones. It was a bonus.

9 he did let me off a little bit. I had already hit an atrocious shot into the green. 30 yards short of the green in a very bad spot. He was in a decent spot. He missed it on the side of the green he really couldn't miss it on. He let me off there. That was a bit of bonus on 9. I really probably should have gone on the 10th tee to all square.

Q. You've been a pro for I think six years, seven years. What's the difference? What have you learned? Now, obviously having your biggest win, what have you learned? Why can you do this now that maybe you couldn't have done it five or six years ago?

GEOFF OGILVY: I guess just part of the learning curve and experience. I never you think you've got it worked out five or six years ago and people tell you you just lack experience and stuff, and you don't really realize that until you look back. Like everybody looking back on their life and realize they wish what they knew then what they know now. I guess it's just maturity in a person and learning about my golf swing more, learning about my putting more and learning how to improve it.

For a long time I didn't know how to practice it, I think. I would practice and get nothing out of it or almost deteriorate at times. And wouldn't know how to take a proper week off. There's a million different things that have gone into it, just little learning experiences that have made me a better player every year.

Q. As a follow up to that, looking forward, now, where do you hope to go now? Where do you see Geoff Ogilvy going?

GEOFF OGILVY: I still hope to go where I've always hoped to go. It hasn't really changed. This is the thing that's just awesome; I've always hoped to contend in major championships and win major championships. I think anyone who plays golf at our level, that's their goal; I hope that's their goal. That doesn't change because of today.

Maybe it makes me feel better about my chances to do that after today. I've always knew I had it in me, I guess I just I'm just a slow learner, I guess. You know what I mean? But yeah, I guess the best thing it will do is give me confidence. I've made some pretty good plays this week, made a lot of putts when I needed to make them and made some good shots when I needed to make them. You can only gain confidence from that.

Q. Aside from the money, what's the biggest part of winning this week and what does this win mean to you?

GEOFF OGILVY: I don't know, the list is pretty long when you win a golf tournament like this. It's a pretty good exemption. I get to go back to Maui, which Julie is excited about. Maybe I have to stop answering questions to the Australian press about why I didn't win this match. There's a lot of good things about it. I can go up in the World Ranking probably I don't know where it will go, but hopefully pretty solid leads on the top 50. I've been hovering around that annoying area for quite a while. I've been dropping in and out, in and out, in and out. It's a tough area to sit. And I've been on the wrong side of the exemption a lot of times.

Q. Top 30.

GEOFF OGILVY: Top 50 Money List and top 30. Twice I was in the wrong end of it, about twice in a month.

Q. This puts you top 30, though.

GEOFF OGILVY: In the world?

Q. In the World Ranking.

GEOFF OGILVY: That's nice. So which, again, which is I hadn't actually locked up in a spot in the U.S. Open. My World Ranking will be good enough to get me in the U.S. Open. Now I've got all four majors. I can plan my year out really well. I can pretty much play the next two or three years, you know what I mean, which is so much nicer when you're outside the top 50, you go week to week, what am I going to play? Am I going to play this week or that week? I have to play this week to get into that one. But if you're playing it, you're adding another one to your World Ranking.

There's a lot that goes into it when you're getting your World Ranking up. It's a Catch 22. You have to play more, and if you play less you've got every chance to go up. But again, you have to play. You get pretty good at working out the system when you're sitting around that 50th spot, and how do I get up there. So I might not have to do that, at least for a while, which is good.

Q. We've talked a lot about your escapes early in the week. How do you look at the week in terms of how well you did play throughout the week? It's not like you're posting scores. Did you play out of your mind well? Is this the way that you've played a lot of times? And if match play equalizes things, how do you look at the way

GEOFF OGILVY: I didn't play out of my mind well. I played well. I've played better before. I putted really well. I could probably I probably missed one putt that there's probably one putt that I could go back that I'm annoyed that I missed, and that's this afternoon on 7. That's the only one this week that I was that annoyed me that I missed. Every other putt that I wanted to make I made pretty much that I needed to make.

I drove the ball on and off I didn't hit a lot of fairways. I probably hit 50 percent of my fairways, which is fair. I'm probably not a whole lot better than that. And I hit some good iron shots, but I hit some bad ones, as well.

Purely from a golf standpoint, I've probably played better at golf tournaments but I got it done. I hit shots when I needed to hit them this week, which is probably better than I normally do. So in some aspects they were good, and some weren't.

Q. This may be an absurdly stupid question, but looking back, which was a harder tournament to win, this week or last year in Tucson?

GEOFF OGILVY: Tucson, probably. This is see, Tucson you're coming down the last few holes and there's five guys that can beat you. There's all sorts of stuff going on. You don't know what is happening. Tucson you have to keep making birdies, keep making birdies.

This week I had to win six times. I had to beat the guy I was playing that day. You turn up the next day and try to beat the guy. There's only one guy to beat each day. This was hard. I was pretty tired today, I guess. But it's different, it keeps you in the present a little bit, the format, because it has to. You have only one guy to beat, and if you don't you're going home, so you better get it done, you know what I mean?

Q. If you can, look back at the ten times these guys had putts on you to win. Which was the one that you thought was it, time to check out?

GEOFF OGILVY: Nick O'Hern had a putt on the 2nd hole, which was the 20th, from about six or seven feet.

Q. Five feet, six inches.

GEOFF OGILVY: SHOTLink, that was brilliant. Nick doesn't miss putts like that, I didn't think. The previous five or six holes, I mean I feel like I outplayed Nick on the last six holes and he kept making putt after putt on top of me. I had to hit a bomb to go down to the next hole. I had my hat in my hand. I thought it was all over.

He hit a good shot into 2 about five feet, six inches. I had my hat in my hand, I was ready had he missed. And that was the one I thought. All the others were 12 footers or 18 footers or not that easy of putts. But Nick O'Hern is probably if he's not the best putter in the world, probably very close, which is can why he's always in contention everywhere he plays. I thought I was done there.

Q. Just looking back at today's match, were you a bit surprised maybe from a guy like Davis that he wasn't stuffing a lot of irons, number one? And number two, apart from the putt that he made on when you were 4 up with four to play, which went in quite authoritarian, all his putts seemed to be maybe not on the run so to speak, does that turn knowing that, do you then have a bit of a cushion? Do you feel like he's struggling in his game and it's a bit easier for me?

GEOFF OGILVY: Not really, because he's Davis Love, and if he hits a bad shot, the odds go up that the next one is going to be good, because he probably hits 95 out of 100 shots good. He hits three bad ones, he's only got three to go. Every time he hit a bad shot I was surprised more than anything. He hit a bad one, we all hit bad ones and go on with it. I didn't really cast any hope, oh, he's hitting it bad today or he's not putting very well today, oh, I've got a chance here. That would make me get complacent, and if you get complacent, you're done for.

Q. If he isn't stuffing it in tight, then you don't really need to stuff it in tight?

GEOFF OGILVY: There's that psychology, too. There's a lot of putts made in match play that wouldn't be made unless they had to be made. Like you hit one to 20 feet, and you might have three putted. But if the first guy holes it, the second guy holes it. And he's probably only 5 percent from 20 feet, but in that situation he's probably 60 percent. Match play does funny stuff.

It's so much it's unbelievable how it can turn on one shot, the whole feel of everything can turn on one shot, it can all go wrong, and it can go in close, if you have the first shot into the green, all of a sudden it would make the guy hit a bad shot. Or you can miss the green with a 5 iron and he can come in with a 6 iron, whereas he might not have hit it close.

It's amazing that it doesn't really change it, but the swing, the feel it feels like it can change just on any shot, especially shots into the green. You know what I mean?

Q. You're looking forward to the last week in February next year?

GEOFF OGILVY: Oh, wow, what a week for me this one has been.

Q. I mean the two wins during the same week.

GEOFF OGILVY: I get to kind of have a I couldn't go defend in Tucson because of here this week, now I kind of do go back to defend in Tucson for two different tournaments in a way, which is kind of ironic. That probably never happened before.

Q. You were probably hoping after you won in Tucson last year you'd never be back in Tucson again, right?

GEOFF OGILVY: I was hoping they'd be playing this golf tournament there, yeah.

Q. When McCord goes on the air and says this guy should win four times a year, which I think he said, are you, like, shut up, it's not that easy, or do you take that as a vote of confidence?

GEOFF OGILVY: I take it as a vote of confidence because I play with him a lot. McCord does say a lot without using his head (laughter). He talks a lot. It's just because he can't beat me when we play at home, I guess. He's a great player, and we play quite a lot, we have great fun times. But I think he's just ribbing me a little bit. It makes me feel good, to be honest with you.

Q. You just said you're sick of answering the question.

GEOFF OGILVY: No, no, I'm happy that I may have to answer it less (laughter).

Q. Geoff, when you've talked about the learning curve and maturing, how much has controlling your emotions been a part of that in the last three or four years?

GEOFF OGILVY: Yeah, a big part of it. I wasn't very good at it before, you know.

Q. Rumor has it.

GEOFF OGILVY: Not really the anger stuff, because I don't think anger really affects you that much. I mean, Tiger is probably as angry as anyone out here, you know. But the negativity in there is pretty impressive negativity sometimes. It was probably pretty embarrassing what I said to myself. If you talked to anybody else like I talked to me, you wouldn't be friends with them (laughter).

Q. You got down on yourself; is that what you mean?

GEOFF OGILVY: Yeah, just call yourself useless and what are you doing out here and all sorts of stuff. And I was hopeless. And I'm still not the best out here, but I'm getting a lot better. For a long time I thought it was temper, but it really isn't temper. Tiger gets as angry as anyone, and everyone in this room probably thinks he's the best mentally out here in history and he gets angry. It can't be the anger thing. He keeps it under control and it doesn't affect his next shot. He never sits in here and tells you he plays bad, even if he does play bad, he just won't admit it.

And that's probably his strongest attribute, because it never it never affects him. You know what I mean? So I've been trying my best to be a bit more positive about it.

Q. Did you say anything nice to yourself today?

GEOFF OGILVY: All day. It's silly, it works. If you hit a good shot you tell yourself you hit a good shot. Before if I hit a good shot, oh, that was a bit off the toe (laughter). That's what a lot of guys do; you can hear other guys whisper under their breath about it.

But I'm trying more and more to do that sort of stuff. It's really quite elementary when you think about it, if you just pat yourself on the back and don't get too despondent when you hit a bad one. It's not rocket science, but it can have an effect. When you play week after week, it affects everything about you. It took a long time for me to work it out. And I'm probably a five out of ten, and I was a two, so I've got a long way to go.

Q. A lot has been made about your great putting; you said you missed one little putt all week. But your chipping and bunker play is probably outstanding. Have you always done that good on the short game or you just had a great week?

GEOFF OGILVY: I'm kind of in and out. My bunker play is pretty reliable. Most years I'm right up there on the stats probably for the year. I've always liked bunker play, and growing up in Melbourne you've got to be able to play out of the bunkers, because you don't survive in Melbourne if you're not a good bunker player, because it's probably the hardest bunker play in the world. You become a good bunker player or you don't become a good bunker player. Sometimes I'm a spastic and sometimes I'm really good.

This week I'm really good. I've been working on it quite hard. My action was, I had a little bit of my action was restricting certain shots, I couldn't hit because of my action. I've been working on it two or three years, and it's getting better.

Q. Does your caddie get a bigger percentage this week since he had to carry the bag six rounds instead of four?

GEOFF OGILVY: No, it's the same deal. I think he'll be pretty happy with the deal he gets.

Q. Can you talk about Squirrel? What's he like to have on the bag? Is he as quiet as he seems?

GEOFF OGILVY: If he's not the best caddie in the world, he's right up there. He's caddied for a lot of good players, won some good tournaments. He's the same on the first tee on Thursday as he is on the 16th hole this afternoon. He is brilliant. If you ask all the caddies, he's fantastic, they can't say enough about him.

Q. Does that help calm you down?

GEOFF OGILVY: What calms me down, to know the guy, he's not going to tell you something that's not right, you know what I mean. He's not going to give you the wrong club. He's not going to give you the wrong yardage. He's got an understanding of golf that he's got a better understanding of golf than I do. A better understanding than most, I think.

I think other guys might disagree. But I think he's got an unbelievable perception for how the golf course is playing and how far the ball is going. So, you know, so that gives me a lot of confidence in what he says. I very rarely go against him. If he tells me it's probably a 5 instead of a 6, I'll hit a 5 most of the time.

Q. How did you guys hook up and how long has he been on the bag?

GEOFF OGILVY: In Europe, I went over to Europe with a caddie, we went our separate ways after about eight or nine months. And he was without a job and I was without a caddie and we started on a week by week basis, and that was when I was playing in Europe. So that was 2000, or late '99, maybe seven years.

Q. A couple of years ago what might have you said to yourself after No. 9 and what did you say to yourself today?

GEOFF OGILVY: I would have said how could you dash all that into the ground? What sort of golf is that. Something derogatory.

Q. What did you do, instead, when you came off? What did you do

GEOFF OGILVY: I just said, when he missed the green, I thought, if I get this up and down I can win the hole, because he was in pretty bad shape. I just said hit a good shot, which I didn't. I said, hit this on the green and you can win this hole, because I was over where he was this morning, in the morning, and it's not a very good spot, especially with all the grass all matted down. He could have had an awful lie there, which I'm sure he did. Just something along that lines, like just hit it close. If you hit it close, then all of a sudden he's got a tough chip shot, which I didn't do. I hit it in the bunker and he hit it to 15 feet.

I said, hole this; if I hole this, I can still win the hole, and that will really annoy him. In match play there's always a positive until the hole is lost, I think.

Q. Is it a gradual process in kind of realizing that you need to get out of the negativity, or was there something kind of

GEOFF OGILVY: It was pretty gradual, a gradual recognition that the great players don't berate themselves constantly. They probably pat themselves on the back more than might be polite sometimes, but it's what you kind of have to do, you know what I mean? Just be positive about it. It wasn't a light bulb going off, it was a gradual recognition of, hey, every time you walk off the golf course and you finished 12th or 15th, you look back, two shots better would have made a lot of money and finished 4th or had a top 10.

And you look at how many shots you threw away, maybe because your attitude wasn't there. You realize it starts getting expensive. You start realizing it's just stupid, no one is listening to you, anyway. If you're going to say anything, you might as well be positive, unless I'm perfect. But at least I acknowledge that's an important part of golf now.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Geoff, thanks.

End of FastScripts.

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