	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

WGC ACCENTURE MATCH PLAY CHAMPIONSHIP

February 22, 2007

Geoff Ogilvy

TUCSON, ARIZONA

LAURA NEAL: Geoff, thanks for coming down. Another great win. Do you want to talk about the match and your win out there today.
GEOFF OGILVY: Yeah, obviously I got off to a good start. I didn't birdie the first, which is not that good. But he birdied the first two holes. I think I was about 3-under after eight holes and 2-down. I thought it was going to be a tough one to win.
He let me off on 10 and 11. He birdied 9 and then he let me off. I birdied 10 and he made bogey on 11. I got back there and then he made a big bunker shot on 12, which you would expect to hole at least one or two chips in a row, so that was the first one he made.
Then we kind of traded holes a little bit. I won 16 and 17, which were the right holes to win at that point. It was a nice one to win because it was looking pretty bleak, poor, after eight or nine holes.

Q. Was it a case of you playing better on the front nine than the back nine?
GEOFF OGILVY: A bit of both. As I said, he bogeyed 10 and 11, which he probably didn't want to do. I mean, I don't know, we both went out -- he probably went out 5-under and I probably went out in 4-under. We were both playing pretty well. I mean, you can't keep going. Well, I guess you can.
But he just hit a couple of poor tee shots and hit a flier out of the rough on 11. He hit some poor shots out of the rough and didn't have good lies and made some bogeys. He had an eagle on the 12th, and I lost that hole with a birdie.
15, 16, 17 I played perfect, and that's what you want in a tournament like this when you're hitting the shots where you need to hit them.

Q. What did you hit for a second shot on 17?
GEOFF OGILVY: I had like 264 to the front and 32 something, so I was trying to smash a 3-wood and get it up on the green because he had already laid up. If I hit that on the green, he knows he has to make birdie to even get to the 8th hole, so it makes his a bit harder.
I did. I hit the two best shots I hit all day. Well, 16 was the best shot I hit all day, the tee shot, but 17 was two good shots, two long ones when I needed to.

Q. He had a chance to win that hole anyway. He had a birdie putt there and you were kind of short on your approach.
GEOFF OGILVY: You have to lay that putt up because if you hit it three feet past it's off the green. That pin is -- it's unbelievable. There's a lot of putts out there you feel like you have to lay it up. The pin on 13 is an incredible pin, too. That's teetering on the brink.
There's a lot of Pinehurst-like slopes off these greens and there's some pins right on the edge of them, and you're putting up to them because they rise up and then it disappears off the back. You're putting uphill for 40 feet, and if you hit it two feet past you're going to be off the green. It's hard to hit it to the hole.
But 17 I did. It was definitely one of those match play situations: He makes his putt and I miss mine, all of a sudden we're all squire on 18. He hit a great, it just ran over the edge.

Q. When a guy makes five birdies in the first eight holes, do you say to yourself, He can't keep doing that or, He can keep doing that, I've just got to make more birdies?
GEOFF OGILVY: Sort of. It's the kind of golf course you're going to get very lucky if you're going to win a match not making lots of birdies. The par 5s are all birdiable. There's two par 4s where guys are going to make birdies most of the time.
There's some tricky stuff towards the end. On the front nine towards the end you've got short irons into receptive greens that are rolling really well. I thought, Yeah, if he kept up -- I mean, you just tell yourself if he keeps making birdies you're just going to get beaten by a better player. But if I can birdie some holes he doesn't birdie -- it's all a mental thing, match play, isn't it? One shot can swing the whole feel of a match.
I hit it close on 9 and made birdie, and that didn't really swing it, it was just a nice hole. And 10, he kind of made a bit of a mess at 10, and I guess that swung the momentum there a little bit. I felt like I was on top after that actually. Even though I won some holes and lost some holes, I still felt like I was on top of it.

Q. So do you start pressing then? If you're down early do you feel like you have to go after it, or do you stick to your game plan?
GEOFF OGILVY: Not really. I mean, I just -- it's just frustrating when you're playing really well and the guy is just making more birdies than you. It's just the nature of playing the best golfers in the world head on over 18 holes. It's just the way it is.
Whatever that drive was, is it 7, he hits it just short of the green in a really bad spot, a really tough one to get up-and-down, and I hit 3-wood off the tee. So I've got a three-foot eagle putt, and he's in a spot where no one else in the field gets it up and down in the field except maybe him and Phil and Tiger maybe.
He makes his shot and I miss mine. You just keep telling yourself if you're playing well you're going to miss some holes. That's the way it is in the end.

Q. Is there something about match play format that is conducive to your game now that you're 8 and 0 in this type of play?
GEOFF OGILVY: I don't know. I mean, I'm playing quite well, which helps. I don't know, it's good for my mental state to be able to -- I mean, every hole -- this is the last hole -- every hole, this is it. You have to do it on this hole -- it's different from a stroke-play event, I don't know.
I get in a better mindset, but we're all up in the locker room saying, Why can't we get in this mindset for stroke play? Because we all shoot such ridiculous numbers in match play, so much better than stroke play. There's something about the mindset that's right. I don't know, I enjoy match play. I don't know, I mean, it's just working at the moment.

Q. Talk about being mentally draining before -- three weeks of golf crammed into six days. How are you feeling now?
GEOFF OGILVY: Yeah, fine. It's been a lot less stressful to this point than it was to this point last year. I had gone 19 holes and 21 holes at this point last year, I think. A lot less stressful. I played really well yesterday. I played really well today.
I was just getting beaten by a guy playing better over the front nine, but I played really well. Golf sure is a lot less stressful when you're driving it really well and making some putts.
Right now I feel fine. If I go extra holes a couple times it'll start getting a bit weary, but two rounds in I'm feeling pretty good.

Q. Why do you guys get in better mindsets for match play?
GEOFF OGILVY: I don't know, I mean, we were -- let's say you miss the green somewhere and you've got a really tough chip and you chip it to 15 feet. In stroke play you're annoyed and you're probably hitting a 15-footer three feet past and miss it coming back and miss it coming back for double bogey.
In match play you have to make the putt to halve the whole. You're in a much better mindset. You don't let things annoy you as much maybe. I don't know. We were thinking about it last night. So many guys hole so many putts and chips in match play it's ridiculous.
It's black or white, match play, success or failure, where stroke play is a bit more gray involved. But match play, you hole this putt to halve the hole or you lose the hole. I don't know, something happens to your mind. It's like the putt on the last hole of a golf tournament. How often do you see a guy hole a big putt on the last hole of a golf tournament because he has to hole it. Match play you have that on lots of holes. I mean, you have that all the time, so I don't know.

Q. Jesper Parnevik talked about it a couple years ago at a Ryder Cup, you know how many putts you see holed and shots you see holed at a Ryder Cup, and I think he talked about because of the match play, because of all the pressure you narrow your focus maybe a little more.
GEOFF OGILVY: I'm sure you do because -- at a stroke-play event you've got, What am I going to do? You're on the 12th hole and you're thinking about the 16th or this or that. There's all kinds of stuff you can make yourself think about.
But when you have to think about it or you lose, you can only think about one thing. Maybe it forces you into the right mindset. That's what Tiger and Jack and all those guys play like all the time. I know this definitely improves my mindset.

Q. How much do you know about Niclas Fasth's game?
GEOFF OGILVY: I don't know, I haven't played with him for a long time. I'm sure I played with him a few times a while ago. He's a pretty strong player, hits it pretty decent and I think he's pretty feisty.
He beat Retief today who was playing great. He's obviously playing pretty great.

Q. When you're standing around the gallery people always want to make a big deal about what putts you're going to give or what you don't give. Do you have a rule of thumb, is it a three-footer, two footer, depends on the situation?
GEOFF OGILVY: Depends on the situation purely. I have to be honest, it depends whether I think he's capable of missing it or not. If the guy is capable of missing it, I don't give it to him. Sometimes you might give a guy a putt after -- you might have a six footer for par to halve the hole and he's at two feet. You might let him leave the marker down there and hole a six footer before you give it to him.
It makes you feel better because maybe it isn't the end of the road if you make your six footer. If I think the guy is capable of missing, I might get him to putt it. Some holes that's two feet and some holes that's three feet. If I guy has to think about it then it's not a gimme.

Q. Does he glance at you saying, You going to give it to me --
GEOFF OGILVY: I don't know how much that happens anymore, but in golf that used to happen all the time. Are you going to give this to me or what? Rule is if a guy asks for a gimme then you definitely don't give it to him.
LAURA NEAL: Geoff, thanks for joining us.

End of FastScripts

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297