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BARCLAYS CLASSIC

June 9, 2006

Joe Ogilvie

HARRISON, NEW YORK

NELSON SILVERIO: Welcome, Geoff, thanks for coming in, currently tied for 1st. Give us some comments on how the course is playing today.

GEOFF OGILVY: Yeah, I mean, it's tricky like normal. It's not really when it's soft like this, it's not really hard, it's tricky, I guess, when you've got back pins back pins are very awkward here with short irons because the ball spins so much and the greens slope so much back to front. That's the tricky stuff.

When it's rained so much, the greens aren't quite at their best because they're fine when they're firm, but they get the heel prints in them when it rains like it did on Wednesday. They're a lot firmer today than they were yesterday, and the surface was a lot better.

Yeah, you just want to miss it below the hole and take your chances when you get them. Ball striking wise, it's not that tough, but it's just tough to get the ball in the hole sometimes around here.

Q. Could you talk about the eagle, just describe it?

GEOFF OGILVY: I was pretty irate and you would be at best walking after 16 because I started really well today and then messed it up and kind of started the back nine really well and then messed it up, and I bogeyed 16 to get back to 11 for the day, and I wasn't that excited about it at 16.

Then birdied 7 and 8, and 18 was playing downwind, which I can't remember but I don't think it normally plays as short as it did today. I hit 3 iron. I think it was a better shot than where it ended up. A 3 iron came backwards, which they don't normally do when they hit the green. I made like a 20 footer, got to a tricky pin. It's a pretty nice way to finish. I'm 2 under with a reasonable day with two holes to play and then to have a good day, it's always nice to finish like that.

Q. When it's wet like this, they really don't have too much places to put the pins. They're all going to be I guess you're facing a lot of these pins these two days because they've got to put them in the high spots.

GEOFF OGILVY: And the high spots happen to be on the back of the greens and you can't get near the back of the greens because you spin the ball so much. Yeah, it's a bit of a because they're soft, it makes it even harder because of where they have to put the pins. There's no real wet spots on the greens, they're just soft. I guess it's been raining for a month here in New York. They haven't really had much chance. It's pretty impressive the way the course is considering how much it rained on Wednesday. You don't want to jinx it, but if we don't get any rain it didn't appear that was going to happen, either. It's one of those things.

The course, considering how wet it was on Wednesday, I thought we were coming out yesterday morning I thought we were coming in to say we were delayed for three hours to get the course ready because it didn't look good at 3:00 Wednesday afternoon. The place was under water.

Q. You're a little tired after all these delays, too, I would imagine?

GEOFF OGILVY: No one likes delays.

Q. Well, Memorial was

GEOFF OGILVY: Yeah, we had a few last week, which is just par for the course at Memorial. But I got kind of lucky. There was a couple of guys that are to restart early twice, I only had to restart early once. I think I got to the 18th fairway, and I can't remember which whatever the first delay was, I was on the 18th when the delay came and I had to come back and play a hole and then we just continued on. I was one of those lucky six or seven groups at the front of the field that actually got to finish their round without having to come back the next day.

Yeah, it was fine. Delays are awful. I mean, they're not so bad at the Memorial because of the food and the milkshakes. It's a pretty easy locker room to be sitting in.

Q. Can you talk about how your game has kind of elevated here the last couple years?

GEOFF OGILVY: Yeah, it has, definitely. I think it's a combination of all the factors. I'm putting a little bit better, I do everything just a little bit better, and I think psychologically I'm quite a lot better, I think. But that comes with winning a golf tournament or two and the more you play, I think the more confident you get. I mean, it's kind of like

Q. The Open last year, did that do anything in particular?

GEOFF OGILVY: The British Open?

Q. Well

GEOFF OGILVY: Pinehurst I finished like 20 something.

Q. Oh, the PGA, I'm sorry.

GEOFF OGILVY: I finished 6th maybe, which, yeah, that was backing up after a 5th at the British Open, so I was pretty happy with myself at that point. Just to play four rounds, those last three majors of last years, Pinehurst, St. Andrews and Baltusrol, just to play four rounds around those places, I would have been happy with that to be honest with you. But to have two Top 10s in two majors in a row was pretty nice.

Q. But there's nothing in particular that you

GEOFF OGILVY: It's a gradual thing. There's nothing, really. It had been coming for quite a long time without, like, actually winning a golf tournament or being right up there at big tournaments, I knew I was playing better and better all the time. So it doesn't surprise me how I've played really the last 12 months because it had been coming. But I'm quite happy with how I've been playing.

Q. Where are you in the Aussie pecking order now?

GEOFF OGILVY: In the Australian pecking order?

Q. Yeah.

GEOFF OGILVY: I don't know, Adam is obviously No. 1, and I think he's resolidified that in the last three or four weeks. I mean, he's playing pretty well.

Q. Stuart?

GEOFF OGILVY: Stuart obviously wins Kapalua every year, and then Houston, he's won twice, so he's in front of me because he's won twice. Nick O'Hern, his wife is having a tough pregnancy, but if he was playing every week he'd be up there every week. Adam and Stuart would be in front of me definitely I would think.

Q. Do you guys work together much, practice? I know you hang around together. Do you really work much on the range or talk or anything?

GEOFF OGILVY: I mean, I play a fair few practice rounds with Adam, go out to dinner and bit and that sort of stuff. Shared a house somewhere this year, went on holidays last year. All the Australians, we're not trying to segregate ourselves, you just tend to hang out with people with the same accent (laughter). At the end of the day you end up hanging out with who the wives want to go out to dinner with, and we just follow (laughter).

Q. They're all good friends, too, I suppose?

GEOFF OGILVY: Yeah. Our friends are the ones who our wives are friends with. We play quite a few practice rounds with Australians. It would be the same if there were 12 Americans playing in Australia. They'd all gravitate toward each other. You can talk Australian and all that sort of stuff without people looking at you funny, cricket.

Q. Such a bunched leaderboard, a bunch of guys at minus 5. What do you need to do the next two days?

GEOFF OGILVY: Have less shots than them the last 36 holes. David Howell could be six in front of me at the end of the day and it will be silly. He just won Wentworth by a lot of shots, the best tournament in Europe on greens that would be similar to this, roll similar to this. They're probably a bit squirrelly at Wentworth. So, I mean, he could go low this afternoon. So it could still be tied for the lead at the end of the day. It's one of those courses where you really feel like you should be going lower than you do, but you never do. It's always single digits or 10 or 11 under par wins at the end of the week. 2 under for the rest of the week would have me pretty close I would think.

End of FastScripts.

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