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MERCEDES-BENZ CHAMPIONSHIPJanuary 6, 2009Geoff OgilvyKAPALUA, HAWAII Q. What can we expect this year? GEOFF OGILVY: From me? I don't know. Last year's start was obviously a bit rough. I played well from Florida till the U.S. Open, and then I kind of lost the plot a little bit. Didn't really play very well at all after the U.S. Open. I don't know why that was. Just one of those things. Wasn't playing very well and got beaten up at Oakland Hills, like most people, and after that, lost motivation after that. Played well at the end of the year in Australia, and I played well in Shanghai in the HSBC and missed out by a shot there, and by one in the PGA in Australia. End of the year, ended up playing pretty well. Hopefully, I can start well this year and play better through the middle, hoping to play well. I feel like I'm a better player this time, January 1, 2009, than I was January 1, 2008. And I've got no babies due in the next few days. His birthday's tomorrow, so settled at home. Q. Is everything still the same with you as far as all your endorsements? GEOFF OGILVY: Yeah, we have got a new driver we are trying, three or four times I've used it. First time ever it's going straight in the bag. It's brand new, so looking at that. And then obviously there's new Titleist balls I'll be testing. Q. What's the driver? GEOFF OGILVY: It's the new Cobra -- I'll have to ask the rep what it's called, Speed 9.1 or something, I don't know. It goes really good. It's like the composite carbon on top, and it's less spin for me, so it's basically going a bit further. Q. Did you use that in Australia? GEOFF OGILVY: No, it only got approved in September. I tested it a little bit in the last week or two. So if it makes it in the bag this week, which I think it will, it will be the first week it's been out. Q. Any difference in the playing characteristics of the ball you are trying that you need to get used to? GEOFF OGILVY: I haven't -- the new-new one, I'm not going to use this week. And the new one, of the old one, if that makes sense, that one is fine. I don't notice a difference. I'm going to play these two weeks, with the new version of the old one, and then do a bit more testing, and I'll probably -- the new one, there's good reports about the new-new one. So I've got a whole month in Phoenix to test them all out. They never make a bad ball. They are always pretty good. Q. New version of the new one, or just the new one? GEOFF OGILVY: Well, the new-new one -- there's a new-new one, because the new-old one -- Q. Kind of redundant. GEOFF OGILVY: There's a new-old one, and there's a new-new one, which is the new one -- (laughter) -- which is the model in front of the old one. The other one is a 2007 ball and this is a 2009 ball. There's a version of the 2007 ball, but doesn't breach the patent, so I'm using the non-patent-breaching version of the 2007 ball, these two weeks. Q. There's still an '05 ball, too, right? GEOFF OGILVY: Yeah, I don't think there's any patents on that. And there's still a bunch of guys using the X-ball from '05. Q. I lost track, shame on me for this, but when you won the PGA, was that your first victory in Australia? GEOFF OGILVY: Yeah, that was nice. I've been close quite a lot obviously, but we only get one or two chances a year, so they get on us pretty hard for not having won down there. You go down there and you've usually had a month or two off. You're sitting around relaxing, and then you have to go play straightaway. Obviously, it's a pretty historic tournament down there, the PGA and the Open, they are both over a hundred years old, so it was a nice trophy to get on. It's a good little three weeks. I didn't play the first week, but I played the second two weeks. Tim Clark was down there, JD was down there, Goydos, it was fun. Q. Allenby came to his defense about the camera incident. Did you play the Open? GEOFF OGILVY: Yes. I think every player on TOUR would have snapped putting up with what he was having to put up with. And there was a guy with a flash less than three feet from his face for 20 minutes just going bang, bang, bang, right in his face, trying to get him to snap, and he did. I think a lot of guys might have grabbed the camera and thrown it in a marsh or something, and JD snapped. But every player on TOUR would have snapped because it was horrible behavior apparently. The Australian tour didn't even fine him because the guy wasn't even supposed to have a camera in the tournament, and he was flashing and was trying to wind him up, and he was there. Can you imagine, the flash? I don't blame him at all. Q. Were marshals around? GEOFF OGILVY: Marshals, but they can't be everywhere, and when he gets a big crowd and they are trying to keep the crowd back -- and the guy just, I mean, I don't know. People get cameras and they don't have metal detectors and stuff in Australia because it's not that big of a deal. The worst ones are the camera phones because they make that big noise. But this guy was trying to wind John up, I think, on purpose, and got him, because he was laid back and chilled out and probably the best-behaved player for the whole three weeks and until that moment, he was quiet. Q. You talk about sometimes motivation lacking during the course of the year. I wonder if you can speak to two things: A, how difficult that is to keep sharp for nine months or whatever the case may be, and then secondly, there seems to be so much focus on Kim and Villegas and some of the younger guys who have broken through, and how critical it is to do it again this year, as Sergio has done, for example? GEOFF OGILVY: Yeah, Sergio had a great year. He had a few flat years and went bang last year and I guess he's still ranked second in the world and he's easily the best player in the world since THE PLAYERS Championship. Sergio has probably been the best player in the world, him or Vijay, or Harrington has won two majors. Sergio has been there every week. He won in Spain and he won in Shanghai, which is a great tournament. I just want to win golf tournaments. Whoever you guys write about, it doesn't really worry me to be honest with you. Winning Doral was pretty satisfying. I like winning golf tournaments like that. If everybody is talking about Camilo and Sergio and Anthony Kim and Tiger, that's fine with me. I'm actually happier when everybody is talking about other people. I just want to compete in the big tournaments, the big four obviously, THE PLAYERS Championship, the World Golf Championships. Maybe win The Presidents Cup this year would be quite a fun thing to do. Q. There seems to be a lot of attention about them, they had a breakthrough year, but how hard is it and important is it to do it again, and then next year to keep going? It's one thing to win a tournament, but a lot of people break through and you don't hear from them again. GEOFF OGILVY: Yeah, Camilo had a really good last month. And he won, because he played great at THE TOUR Championship, too. He played well the week before, Boston, didn't he? So he had a great month, and he had been playing solid up to that point. And Anthony had been playing well all year so, we should be talking about him, because he is the best player in the world under 20. For them to back it up, Anthony had played great for the whole year. Camilo, this is almost his first time back out on TOUR since he's won two events. People expect a lot and it's hard when you're expecting a lot. For me, every time I played well, if I played well the next few weeks, it's hard to keep my head on because I'm expecting too much and if I'm not winning the tournament straightaway, I get frustrated. It's hard for them, but they are good players. I'm sure they will work it out. They might have a rough couple months, but they will work it out. Q. Seems like your confidence was high at Doral for the whole week, and you didn't seem fazed by anything. What happened after that? GEOFF OGILVY: The week after, I finished second in Houston, and then Augusta, I don't know what happened there. I just finished 30th or whatever. I just found the course too hard. Couldn't believe the scores Trevor was shooting, it was amazing. Up through the U.S. Open, I had two or three Top-10s in a row. Nine holes to play, I was there in the U.S. Open. I had 1-over or something on the last nine holes, and Tiger had 1-under or something on the last nine holes. It was a good tournament. And then after that, I went flat a bit for some reason. But through there, I was okay. My expectations after Doral, I think I've got a pretty good handle on that now. I'm going back to -- even going away a bit, when I first came out on TOUR and I had a Top-5 or something, I expected to do it again. The first few years, I struggled after having a few good weeks. But I have a good handle on it and how fickle it can be and how easy it can be one week and how hard it can be the next week. The Australian open, for a while, they talked about it being a fifth major but it was back in the days when Palmer and Nicklaus had sponsorships all year, but they would go down for a month, and Gary Player won it six or seven times; Nick won it six or seven times, Arnie was down there all the time. That would be like having Tiger, Phil, Sergio down there every year. It would be the biggest tournament of the year in the off-season and it would be amazing, that tournament. But I don't think the economics are going to support that anymore. It's an historic tournament and over a hundred years old. Tim Clark won it and good players win the tournament. I don't think it will get back to where it was just because of the economics of the thing. If I was an American and I lived in Florida, you would have a hard time getting me to fly 24 hours. I just want to sit there and get ready for Christmas. There's a lot of things going against it economically. It's a good golf course. I think they are going to play it at New South Wales, hangs over the ocean, it's going to be stunning. It's so far away for guys, at that time of the year. And the money, when you can go to Shanghai two weeks before, for 7.5 million; at the end of the day, we are all playing for money. It could get there but I don't think it will. Q. What's your global schedule as it relates to The Race to Dubai? GEOFF OGILVY: Yeah, I'm playing The Race to Dubai. Adding Loch Lomond. There's definite, I'm playing Loch Lomond. And then probably all going to happen after the FedExCup to be honest with you, so it's really not affecting my schedule at all. I'm considering going to the desert the next few weeks. It's a long way from Hawaii to Abu Dhabi. The travel agents so far could not tell us which way around the world we should go. Do we go east or west? They are like, "it could be either." (Laughter). I'll have enough, because I've already played HSBC and that counts. Dubai Championship can be the 12th. Two have to be on the continent, so Loch Lomond and the British Open count. They make it pretty easy, actually, for guys who are exempt into the World Golf Championships. Next year they will change it from the January to December. The Australian Masters is going to be co-sanctioned and that's a great golf course. So the Australian Masters is going to count and Singapore Open is going to turn into a European event by all reports. Where it's going to sit on the schedule, it's going to sit between the HSBC and the Australian Masters. It probably should be, it's one of the best fields of the year they have there. It's a great tournament. I've never been, but everyone always goes. But HSBC I heard was going to be a World Golf Championships event. That's a great tournament. First time I was there. They call it the major of Asia, and it is. It will probably go back to 11 events, or maybe if it stays 12 from January to December, it's going to be harder, because then you are going to have to go to Dubai or Abu Dhabi and all that at the start of the year and you might not get to the West Coast. Q. Does it surprise you that there are more European Tour Members in the Top-50 than there are PGA TOUR Members? GEOFF OGILVY: No, because there are a lot of double members. Tiger is a member of The European Tour, technically. That wouldn't have been true last year, because Mike Weir rejoined and Camilo joined, Anthony Kim. Q. Boo joined. GEOFF OGILVY: Boo joined? I didn't know that. I don't read the golf media. (Laughter). Q. Did you play there at the AMEX in 2005? GEOFF OGILVY: I was 61st in the world before that tournament. And then a month later I was 31st on the Money List. That was my unlucky stretch. Everyone has one and that was my unlucky stretch. They are already fired up for The Presidents Cup. Q. What do you think will be the toughest major this year? GEOFF OGILVY: All in normal weather? Q. All in respectful weather. GEOFF OGILVY: Hazeltine, Turnberry and Bethpage, and Augusta. Turnberry, it's all weather-dependent. If you have weather like last year -- Q. Have you played it? GEOFF OGILVY: Not since they changed it. It's tough. I played the British amateur there and shot 85 and thought it wasn't that bad of a score. 15 over was like getting in the Top-64. It was frightening. Then Augusta, who knows? You hear so many rumors about what's going on. Q. They say they had reduced it ten yards but they really did not make any major changes for the first time in several years. GEOFF OGILVY: 11 was about ten yards wider, at least. Q. 15, they took some trees out on the right. GEOFF OGILVY: It would be nice if they took all of them out. (Laughter). Q. 17 moved up a little bit. GEOFF OGILVY: 17 needs to move up. 17 and 7 are the obvious two long holes. But 18 is still long there because you cannot even get to the bunkers now. You just aim at the bunkers. Augusta, if it's cold and windy like the last couple of years, it will be the hardest probably. Q. What do you think will be a bigger story at the Masters, Greg coming back, Tiger coming back, or Harrington going for a third straight major? GEOFF OGILVY: Tiger. Depends when Tiger plays. If Tiger plays at San Diego, probably won't be that big of a story. But if he has not played until then, it will be the biggest story. Whenever he plays the first week, it will be the biggest story of the year, at the time, until something bigger happens. When is he going to play? When do you think? Match Play? Do you think he'll go all the way there to play one round? Doral, maybe drive down the road? It's cold in Tucson, walking up and down hills. I don't know, apparently he's already walking on golf courses and jumping on rocks and that sort of thing. End of FastScripts |
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