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July 5, 2007
BETHESDA, MARYLAND
NELSON SILVERIO: Joe, thanks for spending a couple of minutes with us today. 4-under, great round, currently leading the tournament. How about some general comments on your round?
JOE OGILVIE: Well, pretty much every time I hit in the rough, I made bogey, which most people are probably going to do this week and then every time I hit it in the fairway I had a pretty good chance for birdie.
This tournament is going to be won or lost hitting it in the fairway, so whoever hits the most fairways is going to have a pretty good chance.
You know, I think that five of my birdies came within 3 1/2 feet, so you know, I made a couple really good putts, but also I hit it close, so that was I guess an extra bonus.
Q. Even though it's not a U.S. Open course this week, does it still have the DNA?
JOE OGILVIE: Yeah, especially with the rough. A couple of holes, certainly the USGA is going to bring in the rough another maybe one or two yards, maybe three or four yards. Then the greens are extremely soft and receptive. So those firm up, it will be a U.S. Open course by next week. They could have it, because the rough is certainly healthy.
I wasn't able to advance the ball. Out of the four times I hit it in the rough, I hit wedge, sand wedge, wedge, and sand wedge and I was more than 200 yards each time to the pin. So, you know, I didn't have a chance to advance it.
Q. Will they be able to get the greens firm at all by this weekend, or are you guys going to be able to throw it at the flag right through Sunday?
JOE OGILVIE: I think -- I mean, you know, it's Washington, D.C. in July. I don't think you're going to have -- last week in Flint, we had zero humidity and the greens went from soft to pretty darned hard.
I don't think we're going to be able to get them first. They might be able to get them a little faster; you roll them. Washington, D.C. in the summer you're going to have the afternoon thundershower, so I don't foresee very firm greens.
Q. An example of that, was that 17, you were above the hole, a lengthy put?
JOE OGILVIE: Yeah, I was probably 25 feet. That was the longest putt I made all week. Case in point was No. 18. I was in the first cut of rough, which I had a very good lie, but downhill, downwind, and I hit a wedge and it backed up probably, you know, two feet. Normally U.S. Open, that's taking one bounce and going long.
I don't know how much rain we had, but it was a pretty good downpour there on my seventh hole, and they were extremely, extremely soft after that. It made the wedges difficult because now all of a sudden you had to worry about spinning it back too much. So any time you were within a hundred yards and the pins were in the back, you had a pretty tough time getting it close because of the spin.
Q. To follow up on that, it looks like the fairways are still pretty firm.
JOE OGILVIE: Fairways are very firm. Fairways are in fantastic shape.
Q. So is that an interesting combination so that someone who is a mid-length hitter or even a little short, gets the run, his accuracy is rewarded?
JOE OGILVIE: Yeah, you look at leaderboard you have a pretty good mix, which also shows you how got course is. You have Corey Pavin, Fred Funk and I'm not particularly long but then you have Vij and you have a couple of the longer players. That says a lot about the golf course.
Q. When you set your schedule at the beginning of the year, were you scheduled to play in The INTERNATIONAL, and if you were, or were not, when you saw the tournament was coming to Congressional during the holiday weekend was this a no-brainer?
JOE OGILVIE: Well, it was a no-brainer regardless, but I was scheduled to go to The INTERNATIONAL.
When Tiger hosts a tournament, it becomes pretty much a no-brainer for anyone -- certainly anyone that's American. The Europeans have a big tournament over there this week. But, you know, Tiger's a pretty powerful guy. I don't foresee that tournament getting moved pretty soon.
Q. It seemed after you got a bogey, you came right back with a birdie on the next hole.
JOE OGILVIE: Yeah, I was thinking about that. My caddie said that at the end, I think the key is every time I made a bogey, I hit the fairway on the next drive. Because you miss a couple of fairways in a row here, it could get pretty ugly, pretty quick.
But I also decided that after playing a practice round on Tuesday, that every time I hit it in the rough, I was just going to hit a wedge out. I wasn't going to try to hit a chop 5-wood out or something that you see Phil do a lot. He's got that shot; I don't have that shot.
So I'm just pretty much going to hit a wedge out, a 9-iron out, unless I have a pretty terrific lie, I'm just going to take my medicine and hopefully I'll get up-and-down a little bit more. I didn't get up-and-down once today. I think that's kind of -- not making doubles are the key this week.
Q. A lot's been made of the fact that you and Warren Buffet have become friends, I wonder if you went to the annual meeting, and also I wondered if there are any precepts of value investing or his or your way of looking at markets that also applies to the risk/reward strategies on a golf course, especially like this week when you have to decide on risk/reward?
JOE OGILVIE: I didn't go to the annual meeting this year. I have been once in the past.
You look at certainly Buffet is the best at what he does. And Tiger is head and shoulders the best at what he does. And I think they are probably the two most disciplined -- well, I don't know two most, but Tiger and Mr. Buffet are extremely disciplined, and I think that's -- discipline is something that even guys at our level really separate the field. Especially at golf courses like this.
And if you can be a little bit more disciplined, if everybody could be a little bit more disciplined on the golf course, they are going to play a lot better and have a lot better results. Tiger has shown day in, day out, he's by far the most disciplined. And it also so happens, he's the best putter, he's the best chipper and best iron player; and when you have discipline to go along with those attributes, it's a pretty compelling product.
Q. Describe Mr. Buffet's discipline.
JOE OGILVIE: Well, I think he's just always invested in things he knows and he's never really deviated from that. I mean, even in the 1990s, he probably could have told you -- he always says he doesn't understand technology, but he probably could have given you technology companies and made a bunch of money but he never did. He probably could have shorted every company he knew was going to go bankrupt but he never did as well. He always buys what he knows, and he's never deviated from that. And the results, 23 percent compounded over 40 years kind of speak for themselves.
NELSON SILVERIO: Thanks, Joe.
End of FastScripts
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