|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
HYUNDAI TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONSJanuary 4, 2011Geoff OgilvyKAPALUA, HAWAII JOHN BUSH: We would like to welcome Geoff Ogilvy into the interview room here at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions. Welcome back to Kapalua. I'm sure you're glad to be back. GEOFF OGILVY: Yeah, obviously it's been a place that's been good to me the last few years. Being here before winning last two years, it's a place you always want to come. It's one of the nicest venues all year, if not the nicest probably. It's a nice little treat, reward for winning a tournament the year before and a little bit of a head start on everyone else. All of the above: Nice hotel, nice place; Hawai'i. Everything is good about this tournament, yeah. JOHN BUSH: Take us through the state of your game here as you go for three in a row. GEOFF OGILVY: It's pretty good actually. Obviously last year as not best year I've ever had. To the end of the year it got pretty good I won a tournament late in the year in Australia and had a second. I played well in all three tournaments. I've only played three times since Atlanta and played well in all three of them. Happy with the game. Had a few more weeks off over Christmas and been hitting a lot of balls and been practicing a fair bit. So pretty happy to be here actually. Q. Can you talk about what it is about these greens that you enjoy, obviously you ranked first in putting the last two years -- GEOFF OGILVY: Oh, did I? Probably happens any time anyone wins a tournament, they are ranked first in putting. I don't know, sometimes on bermuda, I didn't grow up on bermuda, so it's always been a learning experience for me. Here it's very obvious where the ball is going to break. Generally the whole course is on a big hill and generally the greens are on the same hill that the course is on. They are quite easy to read but they are big, sweeping breaks which is quite similar to what I grew up on many Melbourne. They are very fast downhill, which again I think is something we have just been doing in Australia the last -- late in November, December, we were playing fast greens and big, sweeping breaks. It is the flat bermuda I struggle with, if that makes sense. Like next week I would be less likely to lead the week in putting there. Because suddenly reading grain is more important next week. Here it's so obvious; the grain is ripping and it's strong and straight down the hill, and it's just appreciating how much they can break and how fast the putts can be. These putts, that's something like in Australia or and Augusta-type thing. It's visualizing that the putt can actually break 15 feet. If you have not putted a lot on greens that have those big breaks, maybe it's hard to do, I don't know. I like the obviousness of the slopes and the grain. Q. Obviously you have the chance to win three in a row here, have you talked to Stuart about winning three in a row? GEOFF OGILVY: No, obviously people have mentioned it to me; Stuart did it, you can do it, too, all that sort of stuff. It's nice he's back this year. We practice at the same place in Melbourne, so I've been seeing him quite a lot. He's been grinding pretty hard, like he normally does. It's just nice to be back here defending. It was the first time I ever defended anything, so that was kind of fun last year, and to go three in a row would be a bonus. But I haven't picked his brain about how he did it. Q. Do you see any similarities between surfing and golf? GEOFF OGILVY: A little bit. It's adjusting to the environment and every day is different. Every place you do it is different. Weather plays a big part. There's extreme differences between warm water and cold water, and bentgrass and bermuda and stuff. Yeah, it's adjusting to the environment you're in at the time I think. And it can change a lot. Obviously what these guys might do later in the week, waves are supposed to get big here later in the week, which is something I wouldn't get involved in, because I'm just a splash-in-the-water kind of surfer. Q. I heard an analogy to a guy who shapes boards over in Oahu, and he thought the similarities is kind of what you said, it's the ability to control your inner self and enjoy the environment you're in; do you see that? GEOFF OGILVY: Yeah, for sure. I mean, not everybody plays -- a lot of people play golf for the company, but a lot of people play golf for the environment thing. And I think anybody who plays like the great courses like the great courses U.K. or Cypress Point or Pine Valley or Shinnecock or any of these places that are interested in selling vacations, you're like, wow, I just like being here which is like surfing. A lot of surfing is just sitting on the back of your board and just enjoying the place you're at. And the surfing part of it is getting in line with the environment, and it is a lot of perils I think. And it's on your own; you can do it with friends or on your own. Some of the appeal is that you're out there on your own with golf, too. That was my appeal when I was a kid to play golf is I didn't have to rely on teammates; I can play with my friends, but I can do it on my own, as well. Surfing is similar. A lot of guys who go surfing would be those type of guys who like to get out and do their own thing for a while. Q. It's been ten years since an American won here. Is there any rhyme or reason to that in your mind? GEOFF OGILVY: Probably not. I mean, I don't know. I don't believe in stuff like -- it's just coincidence, I would have thought. I guess the obvious thing to look at is that Australians play quite deep into November and December. It's only three weeks off I think between tournaments in Australia. South Africa they were playing, they play very late. They play into December. A lot of the international players will often play deep into Asia late in the year. A lot of the U.S. guys traditionally have hung it up and gone to watch football and done their thing and come here a little less golfed, if that's a word. That's the obvious thing. We just play a little bit later and we are competitive more recently than they are and that's probably mostly coincidence because U.S. guys go to Shanghai now and there's usually a few travelling around the world and playing. You don't forget how to play golf in five weeks. I think it's probably more coincidence than anything else. Q. Last year when it was good, and last year when it was bad, was it more physical or mental? GEOFF OGILVY: Both. They go together I think. If golf is becoming hard work, you get physically tired, because everything is difficult. I was pretty mentally tired last year and that shows itself in a physical tiredness. You get home at the end of every day, and go, I don't really want to get up early and play golf. But it's like when you have a add bad day you're physically and mentally tired. I overplayed before at end of the year, and we had had our third baby in four years, I travelled a little bit. I went to Abu Dhabi last year in two weeks' time, then we had a baby, and three kids in the house all of a sudden: In three years, we went from none to three, and I probably overplayed. So it's a combination of a few things, which is why I've only played -- I chose to basically take Atlanta to here off. I played in Australia, but I've had, I don't know, how many weeks since Atlanta? I've played three in the last 12 or something, would that be right, something like that consciously so I'm just not where I was last year, just a bit over-golfed I thought. Q. Being here, going from one tournament then to Abu Dhabi -- GEOFF OGILVY: I think it can, not on its own. But I played a lot deep in -- we had the Presidents Cup and then I played six of the next seven or eight weeks or something at the end of '09. I had a couple of weeks off, come here, had a great week here and then go to Abu Dhabi, which is so far to Abu Dhabi from here towards the Middle East that your travel agent or the airlines can't tell you which way to go, east or west: "Which way should I go, east or west?" "I don't know; choose." It's a tough trip from Hawai'i. But that on its own is fine. We are all fit. We all travel. We take a couple of days to get out of jet-lag. But on top of all that stuff after the end of '09, and I got back and four days later we had our third. So you go through the first few weeks of that, you sleep in the house and don't get the proper recovery time. It's a great time in the house, but you don't get the recovery. So a combination of things. Overall I don't think a big trip like that is bad, but I think you've got to read what's going on in your life and not take on too much. I think I took on too much for a while there. Q. A year later now, what have you learned about grooves and its effect? GEOFF OGILVY: I don't know. It's interesting. I think it affected some guys more than it affected others. For me, it was kind of weird at this time of year. We are all messing with our wedges and pitching flights got all messed up. It's on the half-shots. The full shots are fine. I actually like the less spin on mine because my clubs, only the pitching wedge -- the irons, all of those they told us were all fine. So I could have used my '09 clubs last year. I like the less spin on the full shots. It was actually good. The pitch shots took a while but I end up putting more bounce on my wedge and taking a bit of loft -- the more bounce and less loft it acts exactly the same as my old 58 with more bounce. So it's a bit of an adjustment. Shots out of the rough didn't make any difference because I was already -- until I got to those wedges, all my other clubs, it was flying the same as it used to because the grooves were the same. So it didn't really affect me that much. But other guys who were PING guys or the big savage groups their whole life, the square grooves, some of those guys had to use those grooves, it was probably a bigger adjustment for the irons and flyers. So I think some guys it affected quite a bit and some guys, it was probably a bit like me, messed you up for a while until you worked out how to do it and then you got on with it. But as far as the strategy on the golf course or anything, it didn't do much. Didn't change. But that could be fixed by firmer rough and tougher greens. That could have an effect that I didn't know. Q. Do you think this course favors longer hitters? GEOFF OGILVY: It helps, I think. I don't know. Is the list of winners long hitters? I don't think I'm long anymore. I'm long enough. It gives longer hitters room to have at it, you know. There's a lot of holes here where you just hit it as hard as you can and have a little bit of concern for where it goes but a lot less than normal. So I guess it's an advantage to hit it long because you can -- it's always an advantage to hit it long. There's a lot of holes here where it's probably a super advantage. Like 18 is unreachable for the non-long guys but the long guys, it's exponential. Every ten yards you hit it, you get an extra 20 yards. But a good wind player and a good putter is going to do the best out here I think. But if you think about it, guys who have won, they are all pretty long. Chopra was hitting it long when he won; Ernie, Tiger, Furyk. Q. Someone theorized that one of the reasons for your success here is because one of the strengths of your game is the pitch shot from 50 to 80 yards, you have a lot of them on par 5s and the par 4s; do you think that's a valid theory? GEOFF OGILVY: Pretty true I think. My pitching in the last five or six years has come a long way because it's something that every time I practice, I only had one thing to practice, it would be pitching, because I think it's a very important part of golf and here it's accentuated because you do -- you have pitch shots in all of the par 5s, there's two or three par 4s that you drive very close to the green more than that, so you have eight or nine, ten birdie chances around that come from inside 60 or 70 yards. And especially the first year, '09, I hit it stiff from inside 80 yards all week. Thinking back, a lot of good stuff was happening because I was pitching it well. I think that's a fair theory. Q. I wanted to ask you how the Australian Tour schedule -- GEOFF OGILVY: It's fine. Just quickly -- what sort of question is that? Your question is -- well, Doug is probably interested. Jimmy is going to write about The Presidents Cup. I think it obviously was a very hard decision because they said they were going to announce it early, 8th of November. They announced it six weeks after they said they were going to so obviously they were really struggling. They asked Freddie and Greg for their opinion and they asked all of the players, basically in Australia, what they thought was best. There was a lot of to'ing and fro'ing and pushing and shoving for that prized week before The Presidents Cup date and I think the right thing happened. I think the Australian Open is the most prestigious tournament we have and it should be looked after; to spread the wealth amongst different cities in Australia, if you like. There was a lot of long-term I think great things for golf if the Australian Open got it, for a lot of reasons. OneAsia it impacts and all that stuff. I think it's the right decision. I think the romantics thought Kingston Heath and Royal Melbourne, two week in a row, it would be like playing the National Golf Links and Shinnecock two weeks in a row. It would be that type of two weeks of golf. It would be pretty amazing, but I think spreading it amongst Sydney and Australia is a wise thing to do, and from what I understand, long-term impact on golf is better because they have done it this way. Q. Do you know that most of the players have that opinion or was the opinion split? GEOFF OGILVY: That's my opinion. I don't know what other people's opinion is. You would have to ask them. Q. After two consecutive wins, is your confidence level at this course higher than any other course that you play? GEOFF OGILVY: Probably. When I first came here, I couldn't understand how anybody shot the scores that they were shooting around here. My first couple of years, it was just really, really windy. It's always windy but they were the tougher years, and early on with the new greens, they were really firm and landing on the green, and I'm going how does anybody play in this place and enjoy it. But every year I enjoy it more, and now I think it's a course that -- I both, Bothy's question was getting there, like it goes towards all of the things that I do well. It gives me space off the tee, good for my style of greens that I like to putt on and it tends towards the pitching which is good and I think I'm getting a reasonable play in the wind. So, yeah, compared to next week, is one of the courses -- because it has no space off the tee and they are bermudagreens and I struggle to read, but here they are bermudagreens and you see it as soon as you get there. It will be in the top two or three, for sure, courses I feel confident on on the first tee. Q. Playing next week? GEOFF OGILVY: I'm planning on it. It's a great week. And I've had a good, I missed the cut the first four times but whenever I have come from here and played there, I've played okay there. But if I am fresh, I haven't done any good there. This is a great preparation week for next week. You have a big advantage over guys who just go there fresh because they have all just come from cold weather and sloppy winter greens and whatever they are, and we have just come from bermuda and the wind and so many elements are taken care of. And I've often left here -- last year -- every time I leave here and don't go there I'm like what are you doing, you're in Hawai'i, stay there. So the plan is to go. Q. Five years since your U.S. Open victory and wondering if there's not to say a deeper appreciation for that win, but a deeper appreciation now with the separation from when it happened? GEOFF OGILVY: Yeah, I had such a rubbish year in the majors last year, it's sort starting to feel like fresh air a little bit. I just want to do it again. The reason I took off so much time since Atlanta is so I can get the practice organized again. It's not like I wasn't practicing. You lose a little bit of discipline and you just go and practice and you go through the motions and you don't challenge yourself and stuff. So just line all of those things back up again, and since I have landed, I have legitimately been thinking about the majors this year. And since the schedule came out I've been assessing where should I play and how should I build up for a start whilst playing all of the tournaments I like to play; how do I get there the best I can. So the struggle over the last few years has made me appreciate it more but the further I get from it, the more I want to do it again. Q. With that eye towards the majors, will your schedule be that drastically different, because pretty much you're locked into certain things here and there. GEOFF OGILVY: It's hard to change. Like if you're in the Top-50 in the world schedule, it's hard to change too much. Because Match Play, Doral, Charlotte, Sawgrass probably, Akron, leading up to Memorial maybe, they are all leading up into tournaments -- you are probably set in tournaments and that's great, you want to be in so you can get in them all. Nothing drastically is going to change. The schedule for us changed a tiny bit between the Masters. It only changed a few things that got reshuffled, Hilton Head moved and the Texas tournaments flipped and I think maybe Colonial and Nelson, so maybe a little different sequence of things. But if it's a work-in-progress, like from here, to try and win every tournament I play with Augusta being the prize at the end. You want to get to Augusta playing as good as you can, and hopefully you've won a few tournaments along the way and it's all going well. And then your preparation for that, you sit back at the end of Augusta, what went right, wrong, did I play too much, too little, how did I practice. And then you've got another buildup through that best period of the year probably through those great tournaments between the Masters and U.S. Open and do that again and just keep working it ought until I get it right. Q. (Inaudible). GEOFF OGILVY: It's a very selfish issue I think for most of us. You wonder about stuff. There's obviously -- no one can begrudge Lee winning a major. No one has wanted it more in the last few years than he has. It's more of a wonder than a, yeah, if that makes any sense. I don't like caring about what anybody else does, but you wonder about what's going to happen and there's definitely players that you like, who are your friends that you would love to see do well and win tournaments. But I think most guys are pretty much just focused on what they do and what they are doing. I guess this year there will be that eye on for us, how The Presidents Cup team is shaping up and how Ishikawa is playing in Japan; is he going to make the team for us and all that sort of stuff. There will be that element of caring. You want your potential teammates to go well and you want the team to end up how you want the team to end up, but you are mostly just worrying about yourself I think. Q. In a nutshell what does it take to win here? GEOFF OGILVY: Have less shots than everyone else. (Laughter). Probably, yeah, driving is less -- I guess it's hitting great shots in the wind. Making sure you keep it on a level field, whatever you keep that long stuff away, because it all goes bad when you're in there. So keeping it on the short grass and pitching and putting well I guess. JOHN BUSH: Geoff, thanks for coming by. Play well this week. End of FastScripts |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|