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EDS BYRON NELSON CHAMPIONSHIP

May 12, 2006

Joe Ogilvie

IRVING, TEXAS

TODD BUDNICK: We thank Joe Ogilvie for stopping in after an 8 under 62 in the second round of the EDS Byron Nelson Championship. Joe, just one off your career low, a 61 during the third round of the '04 Valero Texas Open, your low round of the year. Tell us about today's round.

JOE OGILVIE: I played my first 25 holes, I think, maybe the first 24 holes, two bogeys and 22 pars, made one bogey in 17 pars yesterday.

Omar Uresti kind of said to me going down the 6th fairway, he said let's make a birdie here and kind of get it started. I hit it in there about four feet, made birdie there.

I hit it to a foot on 8.

Made it ten feet on 10 actually, no, sorry, made it from a foot on 10.

About ten feet on 11.

12 feet on 12. Then that just kind of started to get going.

Then on 14, about a 14, 15 footer. I haven't seen a lot of putts go in this year, so once they started to go in I've always thought of myself as a good putter, so once they started to go in I thought, okay, here we go. Then 15, I hit a great putt from about 25 feet, I thought I made that.

16, I had an eagle putt of about 12 feet that burned the edge of the hole.

Made it from 12 feet on 17.

Made it from about 16, 17 feet on 18.

I just hit the ball really well. The wind there wasn't a whole lot of wind today. The wind that was there really seemed to set up well for me on that course. All in all, just a pretty solid 62.

TODD BUDNICK: Talk about your season coming in. You made the first four cuts of the year and then just made three of the last ten. Obviously you found something to change a little bit of that.

JOE OGILVIE: Yeah, my game is a lot about confidence, and with my putting terribly for so long, I think it started to put pressure on the other spots of my game. At Augusta, the first nine holes the second day, I got it to 1 under par, and that was the best I've ever hit it, I think, for nine holes. I think I had it inside 15 feet probably every hole and just only made I think I made three tap ins.

Then the backside I just kind of lost it. Every single tournament I seem to hit it decently and then not putt worth a darn. Then the second day just put so much pressure on myself to hit it better so I wouldn't have to putt.

Once I kind of figured it out, it works. I kind of switched my stance in New Orleans. New Orleans I think I kind of hit rock bottom with putting because I putted the first two holes with my putter and then I switched to a 3 iron for six holes, then I went back to a putter and did kind of a Jack Nicklaus stance, almost sidesaddle, really open, feet together, and that's when I started hitting the ball solid. I wasn't even hitting the ball solid with the putter.

Last week in Charlotte, I hit the putter very, very solid, and I saw some putts go in, and then today they all went in.

Q. When you used the 3 iron, was that because you got angry at your putter or something you wanted to do to experiment?

JOE OGILVIE: I use a 3 iron as a drill back home in Austin. My teacher and I do that just to kind of keep my hands going through the ball longer. All else was failing (laughter), so I kind of wanted to just I putted really well with all my drills, and I wasn't taking that to the golf course. I decided to take the drills to the golf course.

You know, I actually putted decently, but I thought, okay, if I can just keep that same thought process I missed the cut by a couple, but that was the general idea. That was the right unfortunately that was probably the right thing to do.

Q. You've obviously made a lot of your living out here with your ability to putt. What happens to your mind when the one thing you depend on leaves you for months at a time?

JOE OGILVIE: It's funny, John Hawkins from Golf World asked me at the beginning of the year, he said, if there's three guys that couldn't putt owe who would lose their card if they couldn't putt I think was the question, and my name was the first one to come to mind. I guess that's what comes to mind. If you take away my strength if you take away anybody's strength out here, they're going to struggle. If you make their strength their weakness, all of a sudden it's going to be a tough go.

That's been my whole year. I look at myself as probably a Top 10 putter out here, and if you go from Top 10 to Bottom 10 or Bottom 20, that's going to be a pretty big statistical variance, and that's what it was for me this year.

Q. When it's lingering that long, you're not talking about just a bad week. Are you going, "aah, I'm a good putter, it'll come back"?

JOE OGILVIE: Sort of. I actually kept somewhat positive, but I've worked hard on it. I didn't switch putters, I didn't get crazy. Truth be told, me saying I'm a bad putter is like a normal guy. I probably putt average. But I just kind of kept plugging away, plugging away, plugging away, and for me usually it takes a certain putt, but if one goes in, they start to go in. I started to see that in Charlotte.

Q. What did your caddie say when you asked him for the 3 iron?

JOE OGILVIE: Well, we've been doing drills for a long time with the 3 iron, so he's like, "Are you sure?" I said, "Yeah, I hate to say it, but I just need to look at something different for a couple holes."

After the 3rd hole he kind of said let's go back to the putter, which I think I did after the 5th hole. I think for me it looked bad and I hated it because the fans thought I broke my putter. It's just one of those things that I needed to just do some drills when I was actually playing a tournament, and it almost worked. I started to putt better, and that's what kind of led to, hopefully, me putting a little bit seeing a few more balls go in the hole.

Q. You mentioned what Omar said to you, let's get a couple birdies. Talk about feeding off each other when you're in a round like that.

JOE OGILVIE: Well, I play a lot of golf with Omar back in Austin, and he's hitting it he's got great control over his ball right now. He's hitting it so well, and I felt like I was kind of on the cusp of I could be where he is in a tournament type of thing if a couple putts fell.

I think sometimes hearing that from another player or another competitor, you just kind of say, okay, I've got a good wedge in here, let's stay positive and go. It was nothing more than I think just a good positive thought.

Q. Would it have meant as much from somebody else that maybe you didn't know as well?

JOE OGILVIE: Probably not, but O and I play a lot of golf. It's kind of nice. We're partners a lot in Austin, so we kind of get that going.

Q. When you were playing so well the first half of last year, you talked about how you had always been kind of a streaky player, thought you might be able to become more consistent, and that was kind of your next thing.

JOE OGILVIE: Yeah, I've discounted that. That's no longer my goal anymore. I just want to be streaky now.

Q. I wondered, do you reach a point where you maybe have to accept or are going to try to accept that that's who I am, that's what I do?

JOE OGILVIE: I don't think as a player you ever accept you want to accept that. I don't think mentally you can let yourself accept that. Let's be honest, there's courses you just play well on, and you want to if you're in a bad streak, you want that course to kind of rekindle your momentum.

You always want to get more consistent, but I just have never gotten there. Last year I played well at the beginning and then pretty much played the rest of the year like I played the beginning of this year. Hopefully I remember when I missed the cut in New Orleans I told my caddie, I said, "All right, that's over with. We'll start a new year at Charlotte." Hopefully it'll be a good new year.

Q. Who else is at Spanish Oaks, you and Rich Beem?

JOE OGILVIE: Yeah, and Omar comes out, Wes Short comes out, J.L. Lewis comes out.

Q. How about Bob Estes? Do you ever go over and get any golf clubs from his house?

JOE OGILVIE: I don't play with Bob in Austin oddly enough. I've played with him here but I haven't played with Bob in Austin.

Q. Have you ever broken 30 before?

JOE OGILVIE: I think yes. I think a couple times I have. It's been a while, though. It's probably been two years.

Q. And your 61 was in San Antonio?

JOE OGILVIE: Yeah.

Q. What is it about Texas?

JOE OGILVIE: I live here. It's my home state. No, it's just nice, plus there's no state income taxes in Texas. It's kind of nice you get to keep your money.

Q. Do you walk away today feeling like, "I have found it," or are you still wondering if this is out of the blue? Obviously 62s don't grow on trees.

JOE OGILVIE: I'm not going to shoot two more 62s, at least I don't think. It would be great, though. But I think I've found it with my putting. Whether the ball striking keeps up, I've found it with my putting, I can say that. I just feel good. When I'm over the ball, I feel like I'm going to hit my spot. If I read the putt right, it's going to go somewhere towards the hole.

When good players hit the ball solidly with their putter, that's when good things happen. This is the first time I've really I know it's only this long and you're sitting there and you only take it back this far and it should be easy to hit the middle of the club face, but it took me a while this year.

Q. Was it just the stance thing?

JOE OGILVIE: I don't know, probably a little bit like that, and I think I'm probably thinking better, a little more positive. Putting is confidence. Now that I have some, it's good.

TODD BUDNICK: Thanks, Joe.

End of FastScripts.

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