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PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

August 10, 2007

Geoff Ogilvy

TULSA, OKLAHOMA

KELLY ELBIN: Geoff Ogilvy, ladies and gentlemen, in with a round of 2-under par 68, in the second round of the 89th PGA Championship at Southern Hills. Geoff had the two-day total of 137, 3-under par.
Looked like an event-filled back nine today. You were coming home at Southern Hills.
GEOFF OGILVY: I played good for the first seven of the back nine. Tried to find a way to win it. What are you going to do other than hit it on the fairways the last couple of holes. That's what happens if you don't hit the fairway.
KELLY ELBIN: Go through your birdies and bogeys.
GEOFF OGILVY: Birdie at 2nd. I hit it in the rough. I hit a wedge to ten feet and made birdie.
9, I drove it in the boonies to the right. Hit it in the back bunker, ended up getting up-and-down for about 50 yards short of the green for bogey. The shot didn't stay on the green.
11, I hit it close in my birdie. I think I hit 7-iron.
13, I drove a 6-iron, got up-and-down with it from the bunker.
15, I hit driver and sand wedge out the right semirough about 10, 15 feet behind it and made it.
16, I hit a good drive, 8-iron about 25 feet and made it.
17, I drove it to the right, I hit a 3-iron in the right semi and that was -- had a cut out of the rough, very hard to cut a short iron. It was a point of rough. It was supposed to be on a fairway. Didn't get up and down out of the bunker.
And 18 I hit -- just slapped up the right rough and wedged out and had a reasonable putt. What do you do? I had a reasonable par for putt, didn't make it.
KELLY ELBIN: Geoff has bogeyed the last two holes. Unfortunately he took the first two rounds. Open it up for questions.

Q. Geoff, is that just Southern Hills kind of jumping up and biting you? A lot of players have had trouble at 17 and 18, or has it been more you just not being able to finish up?
GEOFF OGILVY: I had a tee shot yesterday it was way in the boonies, that was a good bogey. Today I didn't hit that bad a shot, could easily have been on the fairway, a sand wedge in. Birdie chance. It's a narrow fairway. If you're going to miss it, you really need to miss it to the left. I missed it to the right. It didn't take a severe bounce, but could have been easily on the fairway. Every second time -- I mean, that 3-iron hit ten times, would be in the rough four, five times, maybe on the edge of the fairway five times. It wasn't that bad a shot. I could have got up-and-down out of the bunker.
18 is an awkward hole, awkward tee shot. I just hit a bad one. It's a lot wider than it actually looks. It's hard to see where you want to hit it from the tee. I'm having trouble with it. I don't know, tough hole.
17 is one that's really tough, 3 on the wedge hole. It's a proper short putt for that one.

Q. You come out of this feeling good about your position? Because frankly your results since about March have been not up to your standard. You seem a little bummed, I guess, the last couple of bogeys. But I think you're right in the midst now?
GEOFF OGILVY: Yeah.

Q. Haven't snipped it in a while.
GEOFF OGILVY: It has been pretty disappointing, especially in the majors. Especially U.S. Open. Carnoustie I missed the cut, which was my first miss in a major, because I thought I was going for it right there.
It's nice. It's hard to talk to a guy after just splaying the last two holes, a little bit annoyed. I'm happy where I am. Hopefully if I play decent I'm playing good enough. If I hit a couple more fairways, I'm putting good enough that I think I could -- if I get a few birdie putts I could make one of the birdies there. I have to hit more fairways.
I'm happy. If you asked me on the first day, 3-under would be a pretty good spot, I would say, yes, that's pretty good. Pretty happy.

Q. I don't know if you were watching score boards at all down the stretch. You and Tiger were kind of paralleling at 5-under a bit there. He's got a quite a round going at the moment. Did you notice that and how ominous that might be leading into the weekend?
GEOFF OGILVY: Not that ominous. I mean, Tiger Woods, he's just a good player. He does pretty well when he leads off for two rounds and even better when he leads out for three rounds. So I guess that is kind of ominous. But at some point he's not going to win.
I don't know, at some point he's not. It would be cool if you could outshoot a 62 in a major. I'm sure no one has ever shot a 62 in the major if he has a last birdie on the couple holes. I don't know what he did on 17 if he's played it.

Q. Par.
GEOFF OGILVY: Birdie on 18 for 62. I think that would be cool. No one has done it in a major. Justify the setup. If it's set up straight, it shows that it's possible to have a great score and it's possible to have tons over par. That's what we're all -- that's what we're all asking for. We can't ask for any more than this, we're playing in this week. But you'd rather he didn't bogey the last hole.
(Laughter)
If he does, he does.

Q. How many times have you felt the last couple of days you've had something going then had it kind of slip away and go the other direction?
GEOFF OGILVY: Yesterday was a pretty sneaky 69. I was all over the place for the first 11 holes. I had four birdies in the last six holes to shoot 1-under which was a pretty good save, really, because it could have gone completely the wrong way. 3-under after 11 is not where you want to be.
Today, I mean, I knew I was playing okay. Birdied 11. I thought that was all right. Birdied par 5. I thought this was pretty nice. Really only 15, 16 I realized I thought I was having a pretty good score. That's when I gassed it the last two holes (smiling). Not really. I knew I was playing well. It's actually surprised me how few people were making birdies today that I saw. Again, if you're on the fairways, it's pretty fair. And the greens are all pretty good, all day. I'm not surprised that Tiger's 7-under.

Q. References on TV, maybe you hear it welling up behind you when you're out there, can you tell a difference from the crowd when the cheers are for a certain guy since half the crowd is out there with his group anyway? Almost sense it and feel it and hear it and all that, that something's coming in the distance?
GEOFF OGILVY: I don't think of it like that (smiling). But he's only three or four groups behind me, so I'm pretty aware that he's only three, four groups behind me. I know where he is at on the golf course. If you hear it coming from those holes I just played a few holes ago, you know where he's at. I don't know. It's quite -- it's quite nice when there's lots of cheers going on. It's good to hear. In the tournaments we haven't had a lot of cheers, so it's nice.

Q. When you won the U.S. Open you didn't even have to worry about Tiger being there on the weekend, would that affect your attitude tomorrow because you go out knowing that given past history he's probably not going to come back, you're going to have to go get him?
GEOFF OGILVY: Makes it easier, doesn't it, because now you've got nothing to lose if you don't win. No one expects you to. If you do, you go out and do it. That's the way I look at it. You know you'll have to play well. He's the best front runner in history. Probably.
So you don't want him to get too far in front. If you've got someone to chase, maybe you play a bit freer. Maybe it's a good thing.
KELLY ELBIN: For the record, Geoff's best finish in the PGA Championship was a tie for 6th in 2005 at Baltusrol.

Q. Geoff, this is an old one I'm sure you've answered, but in the mind of a one-time major winner, how big a deal is it to get the second one, to so-called validate the first one or is that just all made-up media stuff?
GEOFF OGILVY: I don't know. I wouldn't really mind about validation. Just be nice to win it. It would just nice to win a golf tournament. The fact it was a major it would be really nice. I guess -- I mean, you get into more elite company when you've won two. And even more if you got more, you go on from there. It's just nice to play well in the biggest tournaments in the world and historic tournaments in the majors. It's nice to play and win them.

Q. Given your recent results, are you surprised to be in this position; or have you been close to playing this well to where it's not a surprise?
GEOFF OGILVY: Not really surprised. I've been a little surprised how poorly I've played most of the year. You start rusty and you just expect the rust to go away. It's kind of -- I've never really found it this year. I think when you don't make a lot of putts that doesn't help.
Not really surprised. Pleased, more, probably.

Q. You seem to have more of a sense of the occasion, historic proportions. I haven't seen you in that many tournament situations but the U.S. Open and here, when you talk about the tournaments you talk about the history and the import and all that. Are you a student of history and we just don't know that about you yet?
GEOFF OGILVY: I don't know. I like the history. I've read all the books that you're supposed to read when you're a golfer. I'm not Ben Crenshaw, but I'm not completely oblivious to the history. Somewhere in the middle.
It's nice that there's a few golf tournaments left on Tour that they've been playing forever and then there's these four majors that are pretty special. They've gone on a long time. And anyone who has been anyone in golf that's played well in these things, it's cool to play well and all that stuff.
KELLY ELBIN: 2006 U.S. Open champion, Geoff Ogilvy. Thank you.

End of FastScripts

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