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HSBC CHAMPIONS

November 9, 2008

Geoff Ogilvy

SHANGHAI, CHINA

SCOTT CROCKETT: Geoff, thank you for coming in and joining us, and well played this morning. It's been a long day and a long week but you must be quite pleased with your position in the tournament.
GEOFF OGILVY: Yeah, it has been. It feels like we've been here for quite a long time. I've played quite nicely this morning. It was quite tricky this morning. I had a rough start last night the first two holes, bogeying the first and parring the second, felt like two bogeys and was a frustrating way to end my day yesterday.
Played okay this morning. It was very cold, first few holes, finally made a birdie on 11. Then kind of up-and-down on the back nine but ended up having quite a few birdies on the back nine with a couple bogeys in there.
So it was all in all pretty good, yeah.
SCOTT CROCKETT: Anything particularly pleasing today, any aspect of it, or was it good right across the board?
GEOFF OGILVY: It was all quite good. Like I said it was cold when we first started, so it was nice to get off to a few pars, or to not do anything too poorly on the first few holes, because it was a tough start.
Yeah, I hit the ball pretty nicely. I hit one loose drive on 13. I hit the ball in the water. It wasn't that bad of a drive but just caught on the wind and it just kept going and going and went in the water but it only cost me a bogey at the end and it wasn't too bad.
And I made a couple of nice putts, so whenever you make a couple of nice putts, it tends to make you feel kind of better at the end of the day.

Q. I know you said it was cold this morning, but was it better than playing in the dark last night, and how dark was it?
GEOFF OGILVY: It was pretty dark. I mean, it wasn't horrendous, but it wasn't -- you'd prefer not to be playing when it was that dark obviously.
The last, I couldn't really read my putt on the second hole, just before they blew it, I was struggling to hit the putt. I knew I would hit it anyway because I'd like to finish the hole that night but it was quite dark last night. Saying that it's never that nice playing in the cold, especially at 7.30 in the morning, it seems colder in the morning somehow.
But, we saw the sun shine this morning, first time in a few days, so all in all it was quite nice out there. A bit blustery but the sun shining puts you in a better mood than playing in the dark, that's for sure.

Q. You've won the Open and two World Golf Championships and not too much else; do you regard this event as of a high stature and why do you play so well in larger events than smaller events?
GEOFF OGILVY: I don't know. Firstly this event definitely has come a long way in a short time from a new event. It's already the biggest event at this time of year for sure and biggest event played in Asia. You don't get fields like this regularly in the U.S., let alone anywhere else.
So, yeah, I regard this tournament pretty highly. It seems to be getting bigger and bigger every year.
Second half, I don't know why I play well in bigger tournaments. Just one of those things. I wish I could explain it, because if I could work it out, I would do it in all tournaments. But why I've had success in bigger tournaments, I don't know.

Q. I'm just wondering if the current financial crisis, has it affected the sport and the play; was it a big issue among players in the locker rooms? Just some thoughts on that.
GEOFF OGILVY: I don't know if -- you'll have to ask the commissioners of all of the tours and the sponsors and all that how much it's affected the game from that side of it. I think golf is in a pretty strong position economically more than some other things and it seems to be riding the storm.
I don't really understand the economics and all that but it seems like it's going all right. But the players, everybody is talking about it. Everyone's got their solution to why it's gone wrong and how they can fix it, but again as professional golfers, we don't really know what we are talking about, but it makes for interesting conversation in the locker room, for sure.

Q. Does playing 27 holes, or having the rounds broken up like this, really make any difference to professional golfers, or are there any tricks to playing longer coming into Monday and doing well?
GEOFF OGILVY: I guess most of it is try and get to bed as soon as you can. So I guess that aspect most of us have handled.
It's hard, there's a nice cadence, I guess, like Thursday morning, having a break, playing Friday, having a nice sleep between each 18 holes, has a nice flow to it. But when you do this, it's hard to get any momentum when you're playing holes in a broken-up fashion. It's a little bit awkward.
But saying that, anyone who has played professional golf for more than a few years, when you do this seven or eight times a year at least, and a bad year, you do it 15 times a year, you play broken-up golf. So I think we are all quite used to doing it. Some are probably better at it than others, but for the most part, we are all pretty experienced at it.

Q. Two questions for you. First of all, have you joined The European Tour because of the attractive prize money; that's the first question.
GEOFF OGILVY: I see a few different reasons. Prize money is definitely one of them. Also, I've kind of been getting bogged down with the exact same schedule every year, same tournaments, and I started playing on The European Tour and I thought, I'm now in the position where I can play both, because I get in all of the World Golf Championships and the majors, so I can get it done. I thought I could add a bit of diversity to the tournaments I play and play a bit more around the world while still not jeopardising what I have been doing.
So just to add a little bit of diversity, really.

Q. Both you and Adam Scott, you have beards; is there any special meaning of why you both have it?
GEOFF OGILVY: No. I just haven't had a shave for a while. (Laughter).

Q. Can you talk about MOJO Pies and whether they will be available in China any time soon?
GEOFF OGILVY: MOJO Pies, anyone who has been to Australia, knows meat pies and pastry. They are basically Australian pies and MOJO is a brand. Some friends of mine, Australian friends of mine, started up a company in America trying to sell pies in the Americas, and it's going really well and will try to expand and go everywhere we can, but at this point not sure if they will cover China.

Q. Anthony Kim was disqualified today because he was walking along and tapping his driver on the ground, hit a sprinkler head and apparently altered the characteristics of the face or whatever. Can you tell us of any instance where you have done something relatively minor and yet altered the characteristics of a driver?
GEOFF OGILVY: I did once. It goes way back to when I had steel shafts in my driver. And I don't know the incident whenever I did something, but by the end of the day, my driver was quite bad. Hitting was bending it. So I must have weakened it at some point.
Steel shafts are different than the graphite ones. I must have bent it a little bit and I never noticed it, and I was playing with it all day. And all of a sudden on the 15th hole, all of a sudden it was noticeable and I can't ever remember doing anything. And it wasn't at the start of the day and was on the 15th hole, so I had to disqualify myself.
It was minor enough that I can't remember ever doing anything. Maybe it got bent on an airplane, I don't know. But it definitely was getting more and more bent during the day. It happens to a lot of guys. A lot of guys lay their putter down on their bag or accidentally kicked over a golf club and bent it and kept using it. It's a funny rule but it is what it is I guess.
SCOTT CROCKETT: Geoff, thank you very much for coming in. Good luck this afternoon.

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