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MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 8, 2011

Geoff Ogilvy

AUGUSTA, GEORGIA

LARRY PUGH: Geoff, welcome, congratulations on another good day. This is Geoff's sixth Masters appearance and his best finish is 15th in 2009. Geoff finished his first round here with a 69.
Do you have any comments regarding your round?
GEOFF OGILVY: I'm quite happy with how I played, obviously. I had a pretty rough start there on the second. I 4-putted, actually, from a pretty simple looking spot. Missed a pretty short putt and it went about seven or eight feet past, and missed the one coming back, which is disappointing because I was just in the front much the green for two, which is not a good position. No one is going to go 72 holes without doing something like that. I knew I was playing well, so I just set out to go about my business. I was a lot less worried about that than I might have been in a normal tournament, because you know things like that are going to happen around here. After that I played well and I played really well on the back nine, too. It.

Q. Can you summarize your birdies today and tell us what club you used?
GEOFF OGILVY: I birdied the third, a sand iron from 110 maybe that, spun right back to the front edge which is a pretty good spot. It's about a foot from being all the way back short but a nice putt, made about a 15-footer.
Then I birdied 6. I hit a 6-iron kind of a gentle 6-iron, pin-high right, which is a really good spot. It's a pretty straightforward putt if you get pin-high to the back left pin on 6 and I made that.
Then on 7 I hit 9-iron probably about four feet right of the hole, which is pretty good, that's kind of a birdie pin today. Hit it really close there. Made that.
Birdied 12. 8-iron, I don't know what it's playing, about 157 today maybe. I was trying to go a little bit left of the pin and pushed it straight of the pin but it's a right-ish pin that you can go at on 12. We were lucky. It was quite docile when we hit our shots because it was starting to get slightly blustery at that point. About eight feet short of the hole and made it.
Then pushed my 3-wood and couldn't go for the green and hit a nice wedge about ten feet behind the hole and holed a pretty good putt, that was fast.
15, I hit a good tee shot but couldn't get it high -- because it didn't seem like -- I could maybe have got the distance but it wasn't the right club so I laid up. A nice birdie on 15, and 13, because I completely butchered the par 5s on the front nine.

Q. Any part of you that sits back today and says, about time, given your affection for this place?
GEOFF OGILVY: Not really. This is the first time I've come here really happy with how I was playing probably. No, I mean, it's nice to play well. It's the first time probably every year I've played here, it's seemed so hard. Like the weather. In 2006 it was probably doable. 2007 was really tough. 2008 seemed to be really windy. It just seemed to be really hard.
This is the first year we've seen lots of red scores the first day. A few guys have always gone low the first day but I've always found it pretty tricky. Nice to come here with warm weather and playing well, and I felt like my preparation was really good, had a couple of great rounds here on the weekend. I don't know, about time -- it's really nice to play two good rounds and obviously be in contention for the weekend.

Q. Is this the one you wanted to win growing up?
GEOFF OGILVY: Yes and -- yeah. Yes. I wouldn't prioritize this over The Open Championship. When this was on, this was the one I wanted to win and when the Open was on that, was the one I wanted to win does. That make sense?

Q. You once characterized this golf course as Royal Melbourne but with greener grass?
GEOFF OGILVY: It's similar. The style of shots you have to hit are quite similar. Especially around the greens. It's the same guy who built the greens, basically, Alister MacKenzie. Similar style of golf. Lots of really fast putts that you have to dribble down hills and big breaks and stuff, and wide fairways, choose your angles and stuff like it is here. It's a similar style and I grew up right next to that.
So it should suit the guys that grow up in Melbourne, actually, around here.

Q. We spoke beforehand about breaking the Aussie duck, will it flush through your mind at some stage?
GEOFF OGILVY: Probably not. Thinking about the Aussie duck thing would happen after I won, oh, I'm the first Australian -- that's probably not what I'm going to be thinking about when I'm out on the golf course. But obviously it would be a really nice thing for Australia for it to happen, for sure.

Q. Two things, first of all, has anybody agreed with you, disagreed with you, given you grief about the changes that you -- if you could change Augusta National -- and second of all, how much of being comfortable has to do with maybe you just being more comfortable with yourself and where you are in your career? You talked about you're comfortable with your game, but is it more than just that, also?
GEOFF OGILVY: The first one, no one's really -- a few people have mentioned the fact that I had a couple of things to say about the golf course in magazines recently. But no one really actually said they were good or bad ideas, really. Well, none of the players did anyway.

Q. Bringing back the rugged look or whatever -- I just wondered?
GEOFF OGILVY: Oh, I got a few -- I didn't really get -- not as much as I would have maybe thought.
And the second, I had quite a rough last year, really. Kind of reassessed it all and took quite a big break after Atlanta last year. Started practicing -- got, not the love back for the game, but the joy of practicing back a bit and working out the balance of family, how do I be a good family guy and still work as hard as I should and getting my schedule right to balance all this stuff out. Played really well in Australia end of the year and hiccupped a bit in Hawaii hurting my finger.
But just working out that golf and life balance and working out what's best, and I feel like I've got a better handle on it now than I used to.
I had a pretty good idea of how I was going to -- the whole first, however long it is, the first three months of the Tour, of what I was going to do leading into this and I was always going to take the two weeks off before this and really feel -- so I'm content with my preparation. I'm getting more of a handle on how to balance life and tour golf, if you like.
LARRY PUGH: Thank you for being with us and good luck the rest of the way.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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