U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

June 14, 2008

Geoff Ogilvy

Q. Tough start, on that front nine this afternoon?

GEOFF OGILVY: I guess. I didn't see everyone else's, but mine wasn't very good. Not ideal, but I didn't know everyone had other bad starts, but that's the U.S. Open, I wasn't panicking too much.

Q. You've got it back every day, what does that say?

GEOFF OGILVY: I'm making bad starts. I don't think there's anything to read into that. I've got to make a better start. I don't think there's much of a pattern. It's hard to be under par in a U.S. Open. Hopefully, maybe I'll go out and birdie two of the first three tomorrow and reverse it.

Q. How do you assess your day?

GEOFF OGILVY: Pretty good, everything except the mess on 14 I'm pretty happy with. I didn't hit the ball very well. I had to get up-and-down -- I only hit five or six greens -- I had to get up- and-down a lot. But I did most of the time. I had a bomb on 12, which is a bonus on that hole, that's probably one of the harder holes out here. I birdied the par-5 like I needed to. And I messed up 14 very well.

But the rest of it was pretty good. As I said, the last nine or ten holes, without the 14th, I was really happy with.

Q. The misses you left them in the right places?

GEOFF OGILVY: I gave myself some chances. If you're in the wrong spot -- some spots you can miss it where you have absolutely no chance. Most of the time I had some chance. Yeah, I was -- I felt like I hit most of them pretty good.

Q. On 14 it seems that everybody that's missing the fairway on 14, perhaps out of fear of going long is coming up really short, not just in front of the green, but 30 yards short. You also did that today. Was that your thought, not to try to hit it too far?

GEOFF OGILVY: Not really, I just hit it fat. Obviously everybody -- no one hits it into that green when the pin is in that spot, doesn't at least acknowledge that isn't the spot you want to go.

I hit it fat. I had a club that couldn't get more than 10 yards up the green. It would have had to be a pretty weird shot to get up to the green. I got a great break, I thought, it was on some sort of like grassless, dryish mud, which was a great break, but I put the fat one into play. It was just a bad shot.

That sort of grass, I got to the front edge, but it's very unsympathetic if you hit the ball fat. So what are you going to do?

Q. (Inaudible.)

GEOFF OGILVY: I scrambled quite well. I got it up-and-down most of the time. I plugged it in the bunker on the first tee shot, but for the rest of the time I got it up-and-down pretty well. My scrambling today -- I guess everybody is scrambling, it's hard to hit lots of greens. But I got up-and-down when I needed to.

Q. If you can scramble effectively in a USGA setup that has got to be encouraging.

GEOFF OGILVY: It is. It's always hard. It's always the hardest part of a U.S. Open is getting up-and-down when you miss the greens. You elevate your chances if you're missing it in the right spots, which I seemed to do today. You give yourself no chances when you get them in the wrong spots. But you still have to get them up-and-down. I got mine up-and-down. It's nice.

Q. Going into the final round, does it remind you of another U.S. Open?

GEOFF OGILVY: Yes, Winged Foot. You don't know what's going to happen in the last round at a U.S. Open. My story proves that more than anyone's.

Obviously I'd love to be in the lead, but 2 or 3 or 4 back -- 4 shots could disappear in three holes -- two holes out here. The amount of shots isn't as important as the amount of people, and there's probably only two or three people between me and the lead, and that's similar to Winged Foot again.

It's nice. I'll be in the second to last group or third to last group and have every chance.

Q. Tiger is in the mix this time, he wasn't there the last time.

GEOFF OGILVY: He's obviously the hardest golfer to beat in the world when he's up in contention. But unless he gets into the lead he's never won a Major when he hasn't been in front starting on a Sunday. I'm sure he'll do it one day. I don't know, we'll see.

It's just a hang around kind of deal, you hit good shots and hopefully you're still there towards the end and you hole a few putts. And I'm sure he's going to be hard to beat. But Rocco seems to be a U.S. Open specialist, he's going to be hard to beat. There's some experience out there.

Q. Do you feel like your mind and body are where they need to be to give yourself a chance to produce that special round tomorrow?

GEOFF OGILVY: Yeah, I think so. I mean, I could definitely -- I played my best on Thursday this week, no question. I haven't played as good since. But it's very rare you actually walk off a U.S. Open round and actually feel you're playing that great. You can hit great shots and you start thinking you're not playing that well when you really are.

I'm definitely playing well enough. You don't play well every day in a four round tournament, so I'm due to have a good one.

Q. In terms of the ball-striking, you didn't hit a lot of greens today. Is that something you're going to try to adjust or that's how the day went?

GEOFF OGILVY: That's just how it went. Usually whenever I try to fix anything too much I'll adjust too much and mess it up. I'll just do what I do, do what I know how to do when I play well and it works or it doesn't.

I mean, I'll try my best to hit it as well as I can tomorrow. I just seemed to be missing greens, and I missed a few short and long. I was four or five times on the fringe. It wasn't terrible, it's just probably -- it just makes it hard on yourself when you're in the bunkers and the rough all day. I'll just go out and try to hit at my target tomorrow and hopefully it goes there.

Q. 2006 you kind of lost it each day as it went on, do you feel okay not being --

GEOFF OGILVY: Yeah, I definitely -- yeah, I said yesterday I think sometimes being 100 percent happy with your golf swing sometimes backfires. Sometimes it works out when you're not a hundred percent. You seem to bear down a bit harder and be really aware of where you need to miss it and where you need to miss it.

It seems to sharpen my focus, when it's almost perfect, but not quite. So if you stand on the first tee and you're 100 percent happy with your golf swing, you have something to worry about, because that's very abnormal. I'm happy with my game.

Q. Is it easy to get spooked on the greens?

GEOFF OGILVY: They're funky, but that's the U.S. Open in the afternoon. They're definitely worse in the afternoons the first two rounds because of the number of players on them. They were pretty good today. I had a bit of a mess on 14. And the rest of the time -- they roll good, and if you hit good putts they go in. Sometimes they look like they're rolling around a lot. But I think they pretty much go where you hit them. You have to trust it's going to go there and hit it.