home

jobs

	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

August 19, 2006

Geoff Ogilvy

MEDINAH, ILLINOIS

KELLY ELBIN: Reigning U.S. Open Champion Geoff Ogilvy with us after his second consecutive 4 under par 68, in at 11 under par, to 5 after three rounds of the 88th PGA Championship, three strokes outs of the lead.

Geoff, thoughts on your round today and the conditions of the golf course today perhaps versus yesterday?

GEOFF OGILVY: Obviously I didn't get off to the best start. I missed a 6 foot putt for bogey on the first, so I made a double, which is not really ideal when everyone when you've been watching on TV before you go out and everyone seems to be birdieing every hole in the first few holes, so that wasn't any fun.

But I made a few pars and then made a three on the fifth which is nice to get them both back in one go. Then after that, I mean, really, after the first hole, I played as well as I have all week or better. So, I mean, it could have gone either way after the first hole but it went back the right way and I played I knew I was playing well, so guys win plenty of double bogeys and I just happened to have it on the first hole today. It wasn't the end of the world. I just wanted to manage to get to the par 5s in reasonable shape and I eagled the fifth and after that it was really good.

KELLY ELBIN: Can you go through your eagle and the birdies that followed?

GEOFF OGILVY: 5, I hit driver, 3 iron, best shot I hit all week, to five, six feet, eight feet, something like that.

7, driver, 3 wood just short left of the green in the rough. Had a good chip shot to about four feet and made birdie.

I hit a great shot to eight feet with 5 iron and made birdie.

12, I hit a driver up the left and it was touch and go whether it was to be in the fairway, you get a nice bounce there, and hit 7 iron there close to four or five feet maybe.

15, I hit 2 iron on the fairway and 8 iron to probably three or four feet, made that.

Q. Say old Geoff versus new Geoff, a couple years ago, you start off with a double like that, did you let yourself off the hook or is it all said and done and ballgame over for the rest of the day?

GEOFF OGILVY: I'd like to think not but I probably wouldn't have done as well as I do now. I probably would I'd like to think I probably would have been all right, but probably wouldn't have been. I might not have fallen apart and had hundreds, but I don't know if I would have come back as well as I did.

In a major that's a pretty disappointing thing, you sit there all night, thinking your in contention and come out in the first group and you're in great shape and you watch guys firing birdies in the first rounds, and you drop two shots on the first hole. It feels like you're dropping three shots, really. Yeah, it wasn't a very fun way to start.

As I said, I just try to look at it objectively now rather than subjectivity. I just look at it like plenty of guys have won golf tournaments with double bogeys and I was in pretty good shape. If I birdied the first hole to get to 5 under, would I have been pumped. Would have been in great shape. I just try to look at it the best way for me go forward.

Q. What happened on those second and third shots on that hole?

GEOFF OGILVY: I just hit it fat with a wedge. It felt like a lot of club. It wasn't, really. It was a downslope, just a bad shot.

The third shot was not very good. I mean, I should have just realized how bad a spot I was in. It probably didn't look that bad on TV, but it wasn't very nice. A good pitch shot should have been eight feet so I just should have tried to hit to eight feet and make the putt for par.

The worst possible spot for me to leave that second shot was where I did and the worst possible spot for me to leave that third shot was where I did. Yeah, just one of those holes you'd rather forget. Everyone hits bad shots. I just hit two in a row.

Q. Just going back a little bit to what you said before, when was the exact moment when you sort of had this little epiphany about, you know, I need to be sort of nicer to myself and change the way I'm going, and secondly, can you compare this to a U.S. Open in terms what it takes out of you mentally to go out and make birdies, vis a vis what it takes to go out and make pars?

GEOFF OGILVY: There wasn't really an epiphany. There was a bunch of lots of different things. It was a slow learning process, and, like most things, you don't get rewards that the first day. You start thinking better, you know what I mean? It wasn't like I went from a zero out of ten to a ten out of ten. I probably went from a four to a five and a five to a six, and a few months later, a six to a seven. I'm probably still about a six or a seven, that's about where I am.

There's no real epiphany, but you have moments where you either get a bit annoyed and you walk off the last and you realize you've cost yourself shots, or you play with another guy who is doing the same thing, stomps around in a negative manner after he plays bad. And see someone else doing it, I realize what sort of an ass you look like when you are doing it. Even if you make a bad score, you just don't want to look like that. When you see what you look like when you're carrying on like that, you want to stop pretty quick.

What was the second part? Oh, the pressure? It's different. The U.S. Open is just relentless. Obviously I loved it this year. It's completely different, but I don't know, it's just as hard. This is just as hard in a completely different way. When you're playing behind the best golfer in the world, he seems to make birdie on every hole it seems like it today he made a lot of birdies. What did he make, eight birdies? He was making a lot of birdies. There was a lot of cheers up there. When someone like that is making birdies in front of you, all of a sudden it makes you feel like you have to birdie this hole, and that's quite difficult.

Obviously, tomorrow, I'm three behind him and Luke and they both played well today. I mean, it's going to take something it's going to take something pretty special I would have thought. Wouldn't be out of it would not be out of the realms of possibly a 20 under win this tournament. That's me shooting nine under.

That's pretty difficult to go out and shoot 9 under at Medinah. It's just as hard as U.S. Open, just in a different kind of fashion, really.

Q. Tiger is pretty good closing when leading after 54, 11 of 11. Your thoughts on what plan of attack and what strategy and what you need to do?

GEOFF OGILVY: I'll have to shoot a very low round. At some point, he's not going to win one when he's leading. You know, he's not going to go his whole career hopefully (laughter) leading after three rounds and winning.

I mean, I was kind of laughing, we wanted Luke to hole that putt on the last because that brings us all back into it because then he's not leading, you know (laughter).

But, look, someone is going to beat him one day. It would be more special to win the tournament if he would be leading going into the last round and you beat him. That would be a pretty good feather in your cap, you know what I mean? So every opportunity you get to play in the field with him is a chance to put your feather in your cap, you know what I mean? Because he's obviously a pretty special player. But to start three behind him, it's going to take something really low like that. But who knows? You never know, maybe he's going to have a bad day on a Sunday. I don't know.

Q. How would you compare the difficulty of this course compared to Winged Foot? And, secondly, given the numbers that people are throwing up there today, is it possible to feel sorry for a golf course given these conditions?

GEOFF OGILVY: I don't think so. I mean, no. I don't think good scores should be I don't think the quality of the golf course should be related to score at all, to be honest with you. I mean, fairly widely known that St. Andrews is one of the best golf courses in the world and they tear that up every time they go and everyone loves playing it.

This is the setup has got so much to do with it. If you had greens as firm as Winged Foot were and rough like Winged Foot was and as narrow as Winged Foot was, there would not be many people under par. If you had Winged Foot as soft as this, we would not be going as low as this but people would have been under par. So much has to do with how firm the greens are and how long the rough is and how narrow the fairways are. Winged Foot, the fairways are very narrow and the ball was bouncing in them so they played a lot narrower as well.

But Winged Foot has some scary greens with slopes and stuff, probably scarier than here, if both were setup identically, which they couldn't be, but Winged Foot was still playing harder. This is still a pretty stellar test. If you had the rough up more, firm greens, it would be pretty hard.

But I like it this way. I think people are having fun watching it and the players are having fun playing it. It's pretty good fun to go out there and have birdies all week in a major. I don't think the quality of the golf course should be judged by the scores we shoot. I think sometimes if we shoot good scores, it should be, hey, that's a good golf course, look how much fun they are having out there, you know. That's the point, isn't it?

Q. Do you think the fact that there's a lot of low scores to be had out there might increase the chances of someone beating Tiger tomorrow in that he won't be able to play defense and just par his way to victory like he so often does?

GEOFF OGILVY: I don't know. He's managed to win tournaments when it's over par winning and he's managed to win tournaments when it's way low. You'd think like the Buick a couple of weeks ago is exactly this situation, a lot of guys go out and go low the last rounds and he just goes and manages to have his 66 the last round and just buries everyone that way.

You'd think it was you'd think there's more opportunities. He can have 2 under he can have a good day and just have 2 under and that brings a lot of people into the thing. He just tends to do what he needs to do. If pars are required, he seems to end up he just does what's required, which is what Nicklaus always did, which is what the great players always did.

It would be nice to put him in the situation where a few guys get past him with a few holes; if we can get past him and post a couple of numbers with groups in front of him, that would be fun. Generally, like you say, he puts it in cruise control after nine holes and everyone else has to chase. It would be fun to see him chase one down. Hopefully it's me.

Like I said, someone is going to beat him one day. He's not going to beat everyone from leading.

Q. I know that the Ryder Cup is probably about the furthest thing from your mind, but as a neutral observer, could you assess who you say is the underdog going in?

GEOFF OGILVY: As the list stands right now, I would say the U.S. is the underdog. Especially being in Europe and on paper you would say that. But, I think this is probably one of the first times the U.S. is going to go in an underdog and the U.S. is probably going to win this time. It's on a course which suits Americans, designed by Arnold Palmer. Is similar to what we have over here. Europe has been favored forever, aren't they? The bookies will probably have their nose in front odds wise I would have thought.

I think the U.S. guys have got a point to prove, too. I think they are sick of losing Ryder Cups, you know what I mean. They had a lot of fun at the Presidents Cup winning there. So I don't know, I mean, that's why it's such a great contest because it's just impossible to pick.

This one is probably the most even it's been for a long time, and yet it might be a whitewash either way, you know what I mean.

I don't know, it's one of my favorite things to watch. It's an amazing sporting event. It's a shame Australians are not involved one way or the other, but it's great TV.

Q. How much scoreboard watching will you do tomorrow to see if the players, the leaders are really lighting it up like you suspect, or are you just pretty much committed to sort of a pedal to the metal strategy in the final round?

GEOFF OGILVY: I'm going to try to have the lowest score I can. I enjoy watching the leaderboard. At the U.S. Open, it really helped me watching the leaderboard because you make a couple of pars in a row, you look at the leaderboard and you've moved up a couple of spots because a few guys have made bogeys.

It's generally fairly apparent when you're playing in the group before Tiger or after Tiger or the leaders what they are actually shooting because you can just hear.

I'll watch it. It won't change my strategy. I'll be trying to birdie every hole that I've got a chance, and if I'm in a bad spot I'll be trying to make a par. I'll just be trying to have the lowest score I can. I'll look at the leaderboard and if the only thing it really affects you like if you're two in front on the 17th hole, you just make sure you hit it left, that sort of stuff. But up until a point like that, like you say, just pedal to the metal and just go.

Q. Could we talk about you for a minute. You have this monkey off your back, you've got a major in your pocket and you're out here. Doesn't that give you sort of a stride in your step, you go out there, don't you have a different kind of confidence for tomorrow than if you had not won a major, isn't that sort of huge in your head?

GEOFF OGILVY: Oh, yeah, for sure. With no question, that's the best part about winning any golf tournament is that you've done it, and the next time you get there, you're going to feel better about it. And it's the same way with a major. This is just fun. I mean, it's just so much fun being out there when there's crowds like this and the first two days, I had a great time, today I had a great time because there's still few people left on my holes after he had gone. (Laughter).

This is great. It's just great fun to I guess if you get in situations the first time you get in a situation like this, there's more nerves than enjoyment, but now it's just a lot of fun, you know what I mean. It wasn't fun on the first hole, but after that I had a great time. I mean, I just really enjoy it. I think everyone out here once they are comfortable with the situation has a good time in this situation. This is why we play. It's four times a year we get to do this, and when you play well in them, it's fun.

KELLY ELBIN: Jeff Ogilvy, thank you very much.

End of FastScripts.

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297