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THE TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP

October 31, 2006

Geoff Ogilvy

ATLANTA, GEORGIA: Pre-Round

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Thanks for joining us here at the TOUR Championship presented by Coca Cola. You've had a great year, two wins, including a major championship and the birth of a daughter recently. Maybe some opening comments about a great 2006.

GEOFF OGILVY: Yeah, it's been good. I've been getting better all the way. I started out pretty good at the Match Play obviously, and the U.S. Open was pretty much fun. And then the best part, we had a baby girl about three weeks ago, which is very exciting. So it's all been pretty good.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: You've had some time off recently, as well. Maybe just talk about the state of your game and your expectations coming into this event at East Lake Golf Club.

GEOFF OGILVY: I haven't played for nine weeks in a tournament. I played a few times when I was at home. But it's been really nice having a bit of a break. It seems like my game is okay. It's okay. It's hard to tell. You're going to have to make the putts and stuff. It's hard to know if you haven't done it for two months. But all the pieces are there; hopefully I can just put them together.

Q. What's your daughter's name?

GEOFF OGILVY: Phoebe.

Q. Did you ever think you'd be the only major champion in the field?

GEOFF OGILVY: Am I? Major champion from this year.

Q. Yes.

GEOFF OGILVY: No, it's almost that way, too, at the Grand Slam (laughter). No, I didn't think I didn't even think about that. It probably hasn't happened before in the TOUR Championship, I don't know.

Q. Any thoughts on that?

GEOFF OGILVY: (Smiling) not really, no. I didn't even know you're probably the only one who thought about it.

Q. I'm the only one who thought of that?

GEOFF OGILVY: No?

Q. Did you think of it, Joel?

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Just don't bring up the word encouragement (laughing).

Q. I would think that the people of Atlanta that bought tickets for the event expecting Tiger and Phil to be in the field probably thought about it, don't you think?

GEOFF OGILVY: Well, that's a different question. I mean, someone else may have won majors this year. They still don't care if the major winners are here. Tiger and Phil is the question you're asking, not all the other major winners in reality. I don't know what else to say. It's not a surprise.

Anyone who bought a ticket expecting Phil to be here was not understanding how Phil plays the game. I mean, Phil doesn't play after August, and most guys know that.

Tiger can be hit or miss. I mean, I don't think anybody can ever guarantee Tiger was going to play anywhere unless it was a major. That's just the way he does what he thinks is best. Maybe he doesn't maybe I'm making my comeback after nine weeks and he's scared his streak is going to end (laughter). He didn't want to go back until he was ready to play, I don't know.

Q. Where are you in your season? What have you got left after this? Do you have some stuff down in Australia?

GEOFF OGILVY: I've got a couple in Australia, Australian Open, Australian PGA, the Grand Slam, which is in between those two, in Kauai. And then I'm playing in Tiger's tournament in LA, so I've got about five or six to play.

Q. In between, meaning here and Australia?

GEOFF OGILVY: I've got two weeks off, then to Australia, then back for the Grand Slam and then back to Australia and then to Tiger's. A couple Pacific crossings. That's part of being Australian. You have to go a long way to play.

Q. When you take such a long break, how do you keep sharp?

GEOFF OGILVY: I don't know. This is the longest break I've had for quite a while actually. I mean, I was pretty tired after Akron. PGA was a tiring week, and Akron is just a tiring golf course if you're not playing well. It was nice to have a break.

And then looking forward to Phoebe and spending a few weeks with her before I came out I played a bit of golf, but I wasn't grinding very hard. If I'm not the sharpest I've been all year, it's because of that. But I'm excited to play. I wasn't excited to play at Akron.

I was pretty excited to put them down after that tournament. I'm looking forward to this week and a few more at the end of the year. It's going to be good.

Q. You just used the word "tired" a couple times. Can you then understand Tiger being tired, too tired to play here?

GEOFF OGILVY: I completely understand being too tired to play a golf tournament or being too tired to put your best effort forward. Playing a golf tournament when you've had enough is no fun at all, especially on a tough golf course. It wears you out.

He puts a fair bit into it. When he actually plays he puts a fair bit into it. It seems to take a lot out of him, playing golf. I mean, I can sympathize, for sure. I'm not yet in a position in my career where I can take off the TOUR Championship, but he can.

So it's a shame for the tournament, but he needs to do what he needs to do. He'll probably come out and win the first four tournaments next year, but it won't be a convincing streak because he didn't come here and beat us (laughter).

Q. With all of that being said, do you think next year's schedule, the way it's set up, is the solution to guys deciding to skip this because it's in November and it's so far past the PGA?

GEOFF OGILVY: Well, again, any tournament after Phil is done playing, Phil is not going to play, I don't care what you do. It's just him. He doesn't even go to Kapalua. How can you not want to go to Kapalua? He just doesn't want to play. You couldn't have any more money in a better place in the world, and he still doesn't want to go.

When he doesn't want to play, he doesn't want to play. That's his deal. This schedule is, no question, more down his street, because naturally the whole Tour is going to run in the period of the year that he plays and he's going to take off the time without missing any of the big tournaments that he wants to take off.

As far as Tiger, whether he's going to play more or less, I don't know. Time is going to tell. It makes a lot of sense, condensing it down a bit. It's a pretty long period of time. If you're considering you throw in some of this silly season stuff, there's not much time off, really.

It might encourage guys to play like a denser schedule during the year and have a longer period of break, I don't know. Time is going to tell. No one knows what's going to happen, but hopefully it's going to work out for the best.

Q. Kind of waxing philosophical over here, but is it a money issue, good for Tiger, good for Phil, that they don't feel like they need to play, but maybe it hurts the Tour indirectly? There's so much money in the game right now, endorsements and this and that, that everybody feels like they should be here except the guys making so much money it's

GEOFF OGILVY: Yeah, but the Tour is so good because of people like Tiger and Phil, so you can't say that Tiger and Phil are hurting the Tour by not coming to the TOUR Championship. Where would the Tour be without Tiger and Phil? We'd be playing for $2½ million a week; we'd have 20 tournaments; no one would be watching it on TV. We'd be back where we were 15 years ago.

The Tour might be better if they played more often, but no Tiger and Phil at all they do so much for golf it's ridiculous. They can't do it all.

Q. After Winged Foot, which was a big win for you I think most would say, was the rest of the year did it feel like a normal season, or were you kind of on air a little bit and kind of drafting a little bit in NASCAR terms?

GEOFF OGILVY: It was pretty good, the rest of the season. I really haven't played that much. That's just the way it worked out. I was always going to take some time off after the U.S. Open. The next tournament was the British Open, and that was fine. It was the British Open so it was a fun tournament anyway.

Then obviously a few more through the summer, PGA and Akron and Flint and stuff. It was really good. It was nice to be announced on the first tee as the U.S. Open champion.

Q. But you played well in those events?

GEOFF OGILVY: I played pretty well after, I did. I mean, I played well at the PGA; I played okay at the British Open. It's nice. I mean, it's nice getting announced on the first tee when you play something like the U.S. Open, the toughest course we play, and you come out on top. It makes you feel better when you go out on an easier golf course.

Q. For example, when you played the PGA, did you feel like you played the PGA knowing that you were the U.S. Open champion, or did you play the PGA maybe as you did last year, another tournament, get ready to do your best, that kind of thing?

GEOFF OGILVY: The same as last year, but I think you just have a bit more belief when you've done it once. I probably just started the tournament with a bit more belief, or like at those times during the tournament where you might feel a bit overwhelmed.

I mean, I had a pretty big first couple of days there at the PGA. I might have handled that better because of the U.S. Open, I don't know. I don't think it would have been any different, but you definitely feel like a better player after winning the U.S. Open. That's a part of what the good players have got over the rest of us, is that they know they're better players. They just know because they've beaten people so many times.

That's got to be an awesome way to play, and I glimpsed a little bit of that this summer.

Q. Building to next year, how do you approach next year?

GEOFF OGILVY: The same way. This year turned out pretty good. I'll probably prepare a little even harder for the majors even. I might go to Augusta twice before the tournament and spend two days there instead of one day, go to Oakmont early. I'm going to go to Sawgrass early a couple times, too, because that's going to be quite different.

That's going to be a cool tournament where it's fitting in there. That's going to be a bigger tournament next year I think.

Q. Do you expect more of yourself, and do you think others expect more of you?

GEOFF OGILVY: I don't really mind what others expect. I'm probably result wise I won't expect too much. I want to play well, obviously. I'll be disappointed if I play poorly. Sometimes you can't I mean, some people seem to be able to it seems to be quite hard to control your results out here. You can play great for six months and not get much out of it, and obviously you can play poorly for six months and win two tournaments.

I'd just like to keep improving golf wise, prepare for the majors, play the majors well, and the big tournaments.

Q. Have you started thinking about your schedule yet for next year, or is that still a little abstract given all the changes? Florida Swing is totally unrecognizable.

GEOFF OGILVY: Florida is different. It's pencilled in. I've pencilled in most of what I'm going to play. There's a couple of spots where I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do, but I've got a pretty good idea of what I'm going to play.

It's been out for so long, it came out, what, middle of the summer, next year's schedule? We've never had that. We've been getting it now usually. We've had an idea because usually Florida is the same and the tournaments fell at the same time, but we've had a chance to look at the schedule for three or four months, so I'm reasonably sure about where I'm going to go and what I'm going to do.

Florida is different because you've always I'll play three or four on the west coast and then I'll take a week off and then I'll play these three in Florida. You get used to what you're doing. The west coast is the same, and it changes what you're doing. Now Houston is different and The Masters is different. And THE PLAYERS Championship is right in the middle of a run where you don't want to take off anyway, and there's another week you don't want to take off. It's a cool looking schedule. It's going to be fun.

Q. Where are you fuzzy?

GEOFF OGILVY: I'm a bit fuzzy in Florida. I'm going to play two or three in Florida. I'm not sure which ones, because I like Honda but Honda is a new golf course now, and Tampa, Tampa is now at a different time of year, and that's a tournament you've got to play.

Bay Hill is Bay Hill, and Doral, I haven't been going to Doral, but it's a WGC now. You can't play four in a row because the match play is a week before that and The Masters comes the week after, so you can't play more. I guess you can.

Vijay will play them all; Brett Quigley will play them all. So I don't know. I'm a bit hazy in Florida. I'm going to play two or three, I'm not sure which ones yet.

And then that run from The Masters to the U.S. Open is a pretty busy stretch, and then after that I'll probably calm down a bit and then play the British Open through the end of the phase kind of thing.

Q. You'll play six or seven, Firestone, PGA, week off and then the four?

GEOFF OGILVY: It appears, looking at it, it'll be Greensboro is the one that I'll miss, Akron and then PGA and then week off and then four, if I get into all four. I mean, I like Greensboro. I really like it.

If I was playing poorly and I needed to improve my ranking or something, because you wanted to get right up there I mean, it's going to be a pretty good bonus if you do well.

Greensboro is going to have a lot of late entries. A lot of guys are going to make late entries into Greensboro.

Q. Six or seven and then Presidents Cup.

GEOFF OGILVY: And then Presidents Cup.

Q. Do you expect a lot of the top 50 will play the six or seven down the stretch like you are?

GEOFF OGILVY: I would be very I think everyone in world golf will be surprised if Tiger and Phil play six or seven. Vijay will play six or seven. Most guys will. I don't know, we'll see. I mean, I don't know. Maybe. I mean, that's the whole motivation behind doing it.

I mean, you've got to make the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow big enough that people want to do it, and the pot is a pretty big pot. So hopefully the tournaments are better when everyone plays them.

Q. It wasn't long ago that a winner would get $100,000 check. This week last place is $106,000 and change, and in effect Tim Finchem can't even give money away because a couple of guys have turned down $106,000 to come here. What does that say that about golf? Is there too much money in golf? Is money corrupting golf?

GEOFF OGILVY: There is a lot of money in golf, but there's a lot of professions that 94 guys made a million dollars this year. There's a lot of professions that the 94 best anything makes a lot more than a million dollars. The 94th best doctor in the world makes a lot more than a million, the best lawyer.

Profession wise it's not that ridiculous. It seems ridiculous because they're published numbers and everybody sees them. I think some of the off course money guys make it pretty big. The fact that $106,000 isn't enough to get someone to play, probably it's good for the guys that don't have to come for a hundred grand. It's bad for golf probably. There's good things and bad things.

In some respects we just hit a ball around a grass field. But in other respects it's probably fair because we provide entertainment to the masses in some respects. Baseballers are overpaid, too; footballers, hockey players, all sports, we're overpaid. But if it entertains enough people, then it's worth it. We just play for what society determines we're worth.

Q. For this tournament next year, how many tournaments at that point in the season based on where you've used your pencil so far

GEOFF OGILVY: About 21 or 22 probably.

Q. 21 to this point next year?

GEOFF OGILVY: Between 21 and 22.

Q. You've been, what, about a 25, 26 guy over the years?

GEOFF OGILVY: I have. This is my 20th event this year.

Q. Sometimes you have to do that out of necessity?

GEOFF OGILVY: My first few years I just wanted to play, and you just start learning where you play better and where you don't and appreciating that I only had one week off to make a two week break next year. You just start appreciating home time a bit. It's not a golf tournament thing, it's a not being at home thing that wears you out.

It was only 20 this year. That's hardly any, obviously. This will always be the least I'll play.

Q. Is it because the season is too long, or is it too long because certain guys can't go out and chase appearance fees as much as they'd like? Do you see what I'm saying?

GEOFF OGILVY: I know what you're saying.

Q. Can you complain about the season being too long and then take appearance fees?

GEOFF OGILVY: To me the season is too long because it may dilute the product. College football is the most watched sport around and it's 12 weeks long and it's talked about all year long, 12 weeks, 14 weeks. What's pro football, 18 weeks long or something?

I mean, that's a third of the year, you know. And that's the biggest sport. Football is the biggest thing. Would football be the biggest thing if every single Saturday those first few Saturdays in September be fun if you had been watching it every Saturday for the last six months?

Q. It doesn't exactly create an appetite when you

GEOFF OGILVY: It's like baseball. It's hard to create an appetite because there's so much. That is maybe the aspect that makes golf too long. It's also nice to have a season that stretches. It's nice to start in winter, and then this truly is the four seasons when you play golf.

There is a spring, there is a winter and the summer and the fall. Look at the trees outside. It's kind of cool, and it's been like that forever, just kind of a few weeks have been added on the start and the end.

I don't know, I don't the appearance money thing is going to be like off season tournaments are going to be around, it doesn't matter how long the season is because guys are going to find a way to play them. If people have got money to pay guys to play, then they're going to exist.

I like to see them. I like the fact that the Tour well, the main start of the Tour season is being shortened. I like that. It'll crescendo to the end a little bit. PGA and Akron time it's massive. Everyone is right into it. By now it's petered out a little bit because football has started. I don't know, I like what's happening, and it's going to be good for me. For my kind of schedule, I like it.

Q. When people look back in history and I'm sure you've been asked this question before, don't take it the wrong way you have a U.S. Open victory and I certainly don't, but people will look at your win as more of Phil's loss rather than your win. Does that bother you at all? Do you think about that? Do you care?

GEOFF OGILVY: Not really. Obviously I'm not planning on it being my last one, so it might be a lot more validity if I win another one. Not that I don't think it's valid. I played 72 holes in less shots than anyone else.

If I had been watching on TV, I would be thinking Phil lost it. And Monty, Monty lost it just as much as Phil did. But that's fine.

I just feel fortunate there's plenty of guys who have done better than me on the last few holes and lost in major championships, so I just feel fortunate I was one of the lucky ones to have things go my way.

Q. How much have you watched any video of that?

GEOFF OGILVY: I haven't watched much. I've just seen the highlights here and there, a few shots here and there. I haven't sat down and watched it in real time and listened to all the announcing and stuff.

Q. Really? What the hell did you do your last three months off, nine weeks, other than change nappies? I would have watched it 100 times by now.

GEOFF OGILVY: It's hard as a golfer to watch a tournament when Johnny Miller is announcing it.

Q. I knew there was a real reason.

GEOFF OGILVY: It's really difficult. He might be really entertaining, but there's a part of him that's entertaining for every normal person makes and it hard for us to listen to. It's really frustrating.

Q. Give us an example from your perspective, personal example, something specific?

GEOFF OGILVY: One is I walk off the 6th green on Sunday at Winged Foot, and he said now at least he can tell his grandparents that he led the U.S. Open on Sunday. As if this guy is gone, he's got no chance.

Q. Check back in five minutes and he's out of there.

GEOFF OGILVY: Ten minutes later he's saying what a great player. He might be entertaining. I know everybody loves him, but he could interview the locker room and there's not one guy that likes the way he announces. But he's good for the game because everyone loves him. I can see the entertainment value. If it wasn't me or my friends that he was talking about, I would think he's great, but it's not great when it's about you.

Q. Do you watch golf on TV much?

GEOFF OGILVY: I watch more golf when I'm playing in the tournament. When I'm finished, I'll go home on Thursday and Friday and I'll watch the major when I get home in the afternoons.

Q. The reason I ask, is next year The Golf Channel is taking a huge bite of the apple, and I'm wondering whether you've seen enough of their component to think whether they can shoulder the load?

GEOFF OGILVY: I'm sure they're going to have to up their infrastructure and stuff, but I'm sure they'll do all right. Every major week I'm sure half the Tour is the same, we all go home and watch the geniuses deciding who's going to win this week and what's wrong with the golf course.

Q. The players or us?

GEOFF OGILVY: Everybody who sits on those panels.

I'm sure they'll do all right. I think they'll do all right. They've covered Nationwide Tour stuff so they know how to cover a golf tournament. It's obviously a big step up. They're obviously going to gain some announcers and do some deals. I'm sure it'll be fine. Again, we're not going to know until they do it, but I'm sure it'll be fine.

Q. Are you up to snuff with all the details of the FedEx Cup series? And if so, what do you like and what don't you like about it?

GEOFF OGILVY: I don't know how up to snuff last I heard they were talking about shortening the fields every I don't know.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: You probably know more than me, Geoff.

GEOFF OGILVY: I really don't. That's the last I heard, that there was a potential discussion in which the fields might get smaller and smaller towards the end of the FedEx Cup. I don't know where they got with those discussions.

The only weird thing to me is 125 people keep their card on Tour, but there's 144 guys out there. That's always been weird to me and I don't understand.

Q. Not real exclusive, is it?

GEOFF OGILVY: But you could also say short field golf tournaments are often not as exciting as full field ones, you know. It depends on how it shapes up. Having a short field, having just an elite field, doesn't guarantee that the tournament is going to be great.

The best major we've watched in 20 years is Bob May and Tiger Woods. What would that tournament be without Bob May in it?

So short fields don't guarantee great tournaments, but I think the whole point of the FedEx Cup is it building up to a crescendo. I think it's weird that there's going to be 19 guys in the field at that first one and they're not going to be but they kind of did what they wanted to do that year. The rest of it is great.

The guy who would be leading this year, I mean, Tiger would win the FedEx Cup if he did everything again. It's really not going to change everything, it's just going to make the end of it better hopefully. Hopefully, I don't know.

Q. Overall you like it?

GEOFF OGILVY: I like the concept, yeah. I mean, the concept of the Nextel Chase for the Cup or whatever is good, too, but I don't watch that. That seems to work. I'm sure it's going to be fine.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Geoff Ogilvy, thanks.

End of FastScripts.

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