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TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP BY COCA-COLASeptember 21, 2011Geoff OgilvyATLANTA, GEORGIA JOHN BUSH: We'd like to welcome Geoff Ogilvy into the interview room. He enters the TOUR Championship by Coca-Cola No. 24 in the FedExCup standings, making his fifth start at this event. Take us back to last week, third place finish at BMW, exactly what you needed to do to get here. GEOFF OGILVY: Yeah, last week was obviously pretty good for me. You often -- we don't often, I guess, but you have -- sometimes you can weeks in golf where you have to do something or you have to have a good finish and you often don't do that, so it's nice to actually have one where you had to do it, and do it. So it's a tough course, Cog Hill. I've never really played very well around there. I think I played okay the year that Stephen Ames won. But I've always found it quite tough. So to have a good week like that was pretty good. Sunday was pretty tough withholding the umbrella up all day and it was cold and rainy and not exactly what you want to see when you play golf. But I played my best on Sunday, and I probably played my best over the last five or six holes, which was nice. So it's good to be here. Q. Do you ever go back to being stuck on that rock on 17 at Boston and wonder how you got here? GEOFF OGILVY: I don't often, but -- Q. You had to take a penalty, right? GEOFF OGILVY: I did. It was in a pretty deep hole. At that point I didn't think I was going to be playing in Chicago when I was picking the ball out of the hole. But I didn't really know, actually. I thought it was going well before that to be honest because I wasn't playing very well that day. I wasn't really sure, actually. But yeah, I wasn't -- definitely wasn't thinking of being here when I was in that hole. So the fact that I am is pretty nice. Q. Luke was in here yesterday, and I asked him kind of the $10 million question, and his thoughts going into it was, well, we're all pretty set anyways, we've got a little bit of a bank account, and the $10 million is nice but I don't really think about it too much. Is that the case with you? And if not, do you really need the $10 million to get yourself excited to play in these events? GEOFF OGILVY: It's less, I think, about what's going to end up in your bank account and more about the principle of holing a putt or doing -- like getting up-and-down like Jimmy did last year. It sounds better when you say that, doesn't it? The money is obviously really nice, but it's like beating your friend for $2 on the putting green. I mean, it's better to beat him for $2 than it is just to beat him for the fun of it, you know what I mean? There would be something about coming down the last nine holes, this is for $10 million and doing it. Irrelevant of what ends up in your bank account, it just sounds better, don't you think? Q. To me, yeah. GEOFF OGILVY: That's part of the appeal of the FedExCup is that carrot dangling at the end, whether we need the money or not. The first few guys who have won it -- Tiger probably didn't even notice it going in his bank account. It was all retirement at that point anyway, wasn't it? Q. The first one was. GEOFF OGILVY: Yeah. Vijay would have noticed it go in. That's going to make a difference. Most guys out here have got a lot of money and it's not going to be a life-changer, but guys are going to be pretty happy with it, I think. It makes a difference. Q. When you were young -- did you play golf when you were young? GEOFF OGILVY: Uh-huh. I started when I was about five or six probably. Q. Did your golf game when you were young affect what you do today? GEOFF OGILVY: Probably, I think. I can't really remember, but I think so. I think it all starts there. I think if you start off doing all the right things, good things happen later on, I think. I wish I could go back and change a few things, what I thought was the priorities of what I worked on. I wish I had worked a bit more on my short game when I was a youngster and not my long game. But I think it all -- when guys get out here, it's an accumulation of everything they've done their whole golfing life. So I think everything you do from day one is pretty important, I think. Q. Just wondering if you could talk a little bit about growing up near Royal Melbourne right next to that track and why you bought that house and how close it is and how cool it's going to be to walk to work in the morning when you're over there. GEOFF OGILVY: Well, it's a pretty cool place to grow up if you play golf. Quite spoiled because Royal Melbourne, like a lot of the greats, is probably a hair short these days, but it truly is a top 10 course in the world. It's an astonishing property, really. Next door is Victoria Golf Club, which was right up there. Kingston Heath is just around the corner and it's a whole supporting cast. It's a bit like out on Long Island or Westchester County or any of these places in the world, or Surrey in England that are dense with some of the best golf courses in the world around every corner. That's that area in Melbourne. It was also probably the most visible golf course in Australia, especially through the '80s, because it had golf tournaments it seemed like every year, Australian Opens, famous ones where the greens got too fast, and Greg led a walk-off in '87, but then he won the tournament by 10. Watson won in '84. There's a massive tournament called the Bicentennial Classic in 1988 where the whole world -- where effectively the top 50 in the world played. It was maybe one of the first World Golf Championship type events. There was a World Cup there in 1988, as well. Allenby nearly won the Australian Open as an amateur in 1991. It was the golf course in Australia that was the best golf course, and it was also the golf course where great things happened in professional golf, and I grew up right next door, so it was pretty nice. A lot of times I would have a ticket but the gate was right around the other side of the property, so I would just jump the fence to get in because that was the easiest. I wouldn't go to school and mom and dad would go to work, and I would jump the fence because that was the quick way. And the other way I had to walk a mile and a half to get to the golf course. Q. So you were, A, cutting school; and B, hopping the fence? GEOFF OGILVY: Pretty much, yeah. As I said, a lot of times I had a ticket anyway, but I wasn't going to walk all the way around to the gate. I might as well just jump the fence. I never got caught. I think a lot of people used to do it. I think probably people do it a lot less; it's probably harder to do it these days, but in those days. So I spent a lot of my young life watching professionals play around Royal Melbourne, so a big part of the reason I play golf, I guess. To go back there -- and I watched the last Presidents Cup in '98, the weekend anyway. I had just turned professional, and I was blown away with the magnitude of the excitement. I just had never seen anything like that on a golf course. Like anybody, I think, when you first go see a team event, you can't understand that it's just incredible, the atmosphere. I was pretty blown away by that and I guess secretly hoping that it would happen in Australia again. Q. How did you wind up at that house? How did that come about, the current house? GEOFF OGILVY: The current house, actually we grew up -- I grew up about 300 yards from the course, and then mom and dad, I was probably 17 or 18, maybe 18, so I was in and out at that point, so I guess I wasn't growing up in the house anymore. They bought this house that I live in now for about four or five years and then they sold it, downsized, because the kids were officially never coming back, and for about four or five years, and then it went back on the market. Mom called me up four or five years ago and said that house is back on the market, so I said I'll have a look at it and bought it unseen because I knew the house. So it wasn't the house I grew up in, but I guess it was a house I had lived in for a few years, and I knew the house, and this one really does back on to one of the holes at Royal Melbourne. It has a gate. You don't have to jump the fence. Royal Melbourne is quite unique. I don't know if they do it in the U.S. It's a very old school type thing. They have the neighborhood players group, which is like a links member. A lot of the houses -- it's an amazing property that goes -- there's about three or four different paddocks, you cross roads, and it goes all over the place. At some point you're probably two or three miles from the clubhouse, because it's a 36-hole thing and you're way out in the suburbs of Melbourne unprotected. I guess in the old days there was no fences, so people would sneak on the course and do damage or play when they shouldn't. So they listed the local residents around the property, they kind of gave them some playing privileges if you look after the golf course and protect it and kind of be like outside security kind of thing, and that kind of still exists with some of the houses. And the house I'm in luckily it did, so I'm allowed to go play after 4:00 and before 8:00 in the morning. That's kind of the deal. Anybody who lives in this house can pay a nominal fee and be kind of like the sentry for Royal Melbourne. It's a pretty cool little setup actually. That's why the gate anyway. Q. Where does playing in the Presidents Cup rank now for you personally and other pro golfers? GEOFF OGILVY: It's pretty special. I mean, I can't speak for anybody else, but for me it's -- I was blown away at how much I enjoyed it because we watched the Ryder Cup every few years, and it's incredible how big a deal it seems and how much animosity it creates and how interested you guys all are in it for such a long period before it happened. And The Presidents Cup initially seemed like, oh, well, we're just trying to create something, but it appeared to be more of an exhibition type of thing, at first, at least. But then when I played it, it's obviously -- the draw I think really helped that. The draw created that, oh, we really want to win this kind of thing. And when was that, in '03? Then when I played it, I was blown away at how big a deal it is. First, by how fun it is to spend a week with the team and just the bus rides and the 5:00 mornings and the whole thing. It all sounds very like school, but when you actually get there and do it, it's a lot of fun. And you do truly -- the players I've been on a team with, I truly forever -- and John can say this, too, because he's there with that team every year, but you truly have a different relationship with those players than any other player that you're not on the team with. Forever. Well, I say forever, since Montreal. It just changes. You have a better relationship with their players and the wives and the week with Gary Player and Ian Baker-Finch, everybody involved with that week, and then the last time -- it's an experience that's not replicated anywhere else in golf, and I'm sure the Ryder Cup is the same. It's that side of it that's the best part. I don't know, it's just the team thing that everybody talks about, but I guess until you're inside that environment, it's hard to describe. That's why it's special. Obviously the golf is great. Playing in front of an atmosphere like that and playing inside a team, but it's the whole package is why it's a great thing to play. Q. I have one more Royal Melbourne question. You didn't get caught jumping the fence, but did you ever get caught for skipping school? GEOFF OGILVY: I think my teachers didn't really know what was happening. I had a few teachers actually come up to me, or one come up to me and multiple come up to my parents later on when golf had obviously been a little bit successful for me, and they said, "He was right, wasn't he?" Because I used to tell them I don't need to come to school. At the time they didn't agree. They thought I was making poor decisions. But it worked out all right. I think any sensible teacher sees that there's some passion there, they'll keep the passion alive hopefully, and hopefully they saw that with me. Q. And here, you're 24th, right, coming in? How do you approach this tournament being 24th? Jim was 11th coming in last year and won. At No. 24, what's your approach to this tournament? GEOFF OGILVY: I have to make sure No. 1 finishing, what, 16th? And No. 2 finishes 5th or something. Q. How do you do that? GEOFF OGILVY: Webb Simpson must finish 17th or worse, which is probably not going to happen, you wouldn't think. Dustin Johnson has to finish 6th or worse. Justin and Luke have to finish 4th or worse, which isn't going to happen, because Luke doesn't finish out of the top 3 anymore, does he? (Laughter). I mean, I'd love to win this golf tournament. That would be nice because people are forgetting this is one of the TOUR's special golf course, THE PLAYERS Championship, the TOUR Championship, we'll say the Mercedes championship, whatever it's called, the Tournament of Champions. They're the TOUR's tournaments. So it's still the TOUR Championship, and it would still be -- at the end of your career, it would be pretty special to have a TOUR Championship on your mantle as it would a PLAYER's championship, as it would a special tournament amongst all the other tournaments. So I guess I'll view it like that and try to win, and if the right things happen, that would be great. But to think that I was 91st going into Boston to have actually just played the tournament I think is a pretty good result. Q. You had the shoulder thing earlier in the year in March or May, I guess that was, and you're missing all that time. Was there ever any time this year where you were starting to stress about whether you were going to make it onto this team and get to play in truly your own back yard? Was there angst and -- GEOFF OGILVY: Well, I don't really study the World Rankings, and I didn't really look at the list because at the start of the year I was quite comfortable inside the list and not really that worried about it. I knew I was playing quite well. But then it went from mildly disappointing to be dropping down the list whilst not playing, it probably created a little bit of a panic when I did start playing, I'll just throw in a really good week and then I'll be okay kind of thing, and I guess it never really happened. I'm talking a little bit, because I think I finally dropped out of the official top 10 at about Akron kind of thing maybe. So I never really was out. I just kept -- I was basically running on the assumption that as soon as I have a good week, it'll be fine, so I didn't really stress about it. But I've thought about it more than I normally would, and I actually talked to Greg on the phone, I don't know, somewhere between Boston and Chicago, and he didn't actually say it, but he said, "Please make the team automatically." So the last couple of weeks I thought about it more, but I wouldn't have said it was stress, but I would have said it was definitely in my thinking more than it normally would have been, for sure. Everything else becomes fairly irrelevant -- all your other worries, for me anyway, become fairly irrelevant relative to the prospect of missing that team. I mean, bad year, not winning, struggling, missing cuts. I could have missed these tournaments, last week and this week and the whole thing and not really cared if I made The Presidents Cup team, you know what I mean? Not really cared, being less worried. But if I could have won four times and missed The Presidents Cup, it would have been disappointing. It was a part of thinking, but it wasn't really a creator of stress. Q. What's your take on more players trying the belly putters, the long putters, the non-traditional putters? GEOFF OGILVY: It's fairly typical of professional golfers in the follow-the-leader mentality. It's always happened with everything. As soon as somebody starts doing something, whether it be a certain technique in the golf swing or a style of club or putter or putting the line on the ball, that seems just normal now, and everybody does it. As soon as somebody does something well, pros tend to follow, or they want to anyway. So I'm not surprised that everybody is trying it. It seems to be a better way to putt -- no, it doesn't seem to be a better way to putt. It seems to be a less complicated way to putt. You still have to be in the right place to hole putts in your head, and you still have to read greens, which is maybe the hardest part of all. But it seems to simplify the technique of putting at least, and I guess whilst we're allowed to do it, it's going to become the norm. I mean, you're going to see junior sets sold in golf shops with an option of a belly putter or a short putter soon, which is disappointing, I guess, but it's probably the reality because it's what we do. What the pros do is what the kids want to do and it eventually goes into the club golfers. There's a big chance I think it becomes the normal. When metal woods came along, people thought they were a bit weird. You look back now and it's silly that you would ever use wood, you know what I mean, with the option to use metal. I think it's feasible if the rules stay the way they are that everybody uses one at some point, but that might take a while, we'll see. Q. Why would it be disappointing? GEOFF OGILVY: Well, I think it's another step away from the game that's been played for 300 years, and I know there's definitely an element of golf -- well, you can go to St. Andrews and I guess actually the history of golf, walk along and see these club makers, and they've got almost every modern day club, they've got it at some point in history it was made. It might have been out of wood or something, but they've got all sorts of crazy stuff that people were using at some point. So I guess it's a game that's always had technological advancement. But to me golf is two or three woods instead of irons, a wedge and a putter, the putter is the shortest thing in your bag. But as I said, golf has always had technological advancement. And if I came to the point in my putting where I thought I was going to putt better with one, with a belly putter, I would probably use it. I think. I don't know. I've tried one. I don't know, I mean, that's the ultimate romantic in me, but the ultimate romantic in me -- it's probably the same with everybody in some things. Q. Were you just not comfortable with it? GEOFF OGILVY: Not comfortable with putting with it physically? I've tried it. I kind of like how I putt with a short one. I can see the advantages of it. You can't just put it on and putt well straightaway. You're kind of relearning how to putt a little bit, so it's a significant change for some. It's an amazing change for Phil. It's not surprising with his personality that he would do that, and more than anybody, the way his technique was, it would have been the hardest thing for him to do. There's some people with their stroke you probably couldn't even tell that they've changed from a distance, it looks the same, but for him it's completely different. The whole forward press thing he used to do would have had the thing way off his tummy. He is probably the one guy on TOUR that's going to struggle with the change the most. And he might benefit from the change, who knows. It's an adjustment period and I'm not ready to make the adjustment during the season and I'm not ready to make the adjustment when I don't think I have too much of an issue with my putting. Maybe when my hands start getting the involuntary shakes, I'll try something else. Q. On Monday, Greg said that he would pick the player and not the flag for his two wild card selections. If you were in Greg's shoes, would you be tempted to pick two Aussies just to beef up the home advantage? GEOFF OGILVY: Yeah, I mean, I said this the other day. I think if two players are equal, you pick the home player for sure because of -- not only because they'll probably know the conditions and play better in their home country, but it'll add more to the home crowd advantage. But no two players are ever equal. So I guess you have to -- I think he has to assess who's in the picture. I guess the picture is a fewer Australians, Robert and Aaron, have been kind of right on the edge all year. Sendo just came into the mix last week, and then you've got Vijay and Louis probably, that's who you're picking from, so you've probably got three out of five possible Australians anyway. Greg has told us the whole time he's going to pick on form, and he's going to pick the two that he thinks are going to contribute to the team winning the most. So whether that means two Australians or not, I'm not sure. I really don't know where he's thinking. I don't know who I would pick actually at the moment. There's probably a few boxes to tick, and home country is one of those boxes that gets ticked, but it's not the only one. I think it's part of it but not the whole part of the pick. We'll see on Monday. Q. Who do you want in the team and why? And who do you think Greg wants and why? GEOFF OGILVY: Who do I want on the team? That's not very fair, is it? I would like all of them. I played a match or two with -- at least one match with Robert last time, maybe two, and he was fantastic. I loved playing with Robert. He's a great competitor. He's always going to hit the ball well. He's fired up for it, like he was really fired up in San Francisco. It was fun. You guys know the whole story, don't you? Aaron I've played with a lot. He's gone from one of the best players in the world to struggling to finding his way back this year. You love to play with him because he makes putts from all over the place. He plays very well in Australia. Lu ey, all things being equal with every golfer in the world, I think Lu ey is the best golfer in the world, but he just doesn't shoot the score -- the way he swings and the way he chips, I just love watching his game. You guys probably think that's a ridiculous statement, but he just makes golf look to easy to me, and I don't understand why he doesn't win all the time or at least contend all the time. Lu ey would be fun on the team just because I'd like to watch him play, because he's my golf hero, if you like, because I just love watching him play. And Vijay is Vijay, but Vijay on the team is fantastic. I mean, he is -- he was incredible. The two times I was on the team, I couldn't believe how big a part of the team he was and how vocal he was in the room. He'd give the young guys pats on the back. He was a really -- he truly adds to the experience. I'm kind of going soft on saying I would pick two of those four -- actually, and Sendo. If you start looking at form, then he comes into the mix, and he's Australian. He's the best ball striker in the world, almost. He's right up at the top in greens in reg every year. Any two of those five I'm happy with. Q. What did you expect out of Vijay in the room? GEOFF OGILVY: Not that. Q. Just more aloof? GEOFF OGILVY: Just expecting him to be Vijay. Vijay is just Vijay. He doesn't go out of his way to not be nice, he doesn't go out of his way to be nice. He practices, he says hi, he's always very pleasant...to the players (laughter), but he doesn't -- you didn't expect him to embrace the whole -- I didn't expect him to be one of those guys who truly embraces it, but he truly embraces the team format. He lights up. And as I said in one of the other answers, you become closer to Vijay and all the guys on the team, you become better friends with a guy than you think I might ever would. I'm not sure if he's in the mix in Greg's picture, but he was a big addition to the team the two times I played. Q. Do you think there's any external pressure on either side to pick somebody that's going to enhance the event? And if that's the case, do you think Camilo gets additional consideration with the Olympics coming and so much emphasis on South America? GEOFF OGILVY: He probably gets a consideration -- I don't know if Greg works that way. Does Greg work that way? Q. We would ask you that question actually. You'd have a better answer than us. GEOFF OGILVY: You're asking me do you consider Camilo because of the South American connection? Camilo should probably be in the mix. I don't know if he's right in the mix because he's only just started playing well the last few weeks, I think, and he was great on the team last time. He's fantastic. Talk about enthusiasm, he takes enthusiasm to another level, Camilo. He was fantastic on the team. I don't think that -- I think there probably has been picks in the past for Ryder Cups and Presidents Cups that are like that, but I don't think there will be this time. I don't think there's any obvious ones shaping up that are like that. I don't think -- you'd like to think that those sort of picks don't get made, don't you? I don't know, because it -- Q. That's sort of what we thought Ishikawa was last time. GEOFF OGILVY: Only because he was less known or perhaps there's not enough respect paid to winning on the Japanese Tour outside of Japan as there should be. But he was a pretty good addition to that team, and he won -- he played himself into a position where he couldn't not get picked last time because he won twice during the year, and just when it started -- when he was coming near the list, he won again and the day before he gets picked, he won again. How do you not pick him? He wins every week. When you look at the numbers, he kind of had to get picked. But I don't think picks like that happen actually. I think they may look like it, but they're not. Camilo is probably in the mix. I didn't even think of Camilo. Q. The Player of the Year debate, there's so many players involved right now, who could potentially be voted Player of the Year. When you look at the ballots, what do you weigh more importantly, consistency over 12 months, three good weeks at major championships? Where would you base your importance this year? GEOFF OGILVY: Well, consistency to me is always very impressive because it's hard to do that. It's not easy to win one week. It's not easy to win any week, but it's probably easier to win one tournament than it is to play well in every other -- to be consistent. It blows me away, maybe because it's never been me, but the people that play well every week is incredible. But saying that, we don't play golf to be consistent, we play golf to win big tournaments, so I guess the successful guy is the guy who wins big tournaments. Yeah, I don't know. There's no obvious Player of the Year this year. To me the best -- clearly the best player in the world right now is Luke Donald by so far it's silly, and he's creating quite a big gap in the world rankings. He really is legitimate No. 1 player in the world. To me if you said who's the best player on the PGA TOUR or who's been the best this year, I'd say him, because there's no one obviously beating him. He won a World Golf Championship, he won the Scottish Hope, which kind of has to get a half nod. Even though I know it's not on this TOUR, it's one of the bigger tournaments in the world. As I say does he ever finish out of the top three or four? I mean, every single week, he's there. Last week, he went over par in the first round and he still finds a way to finish fourth. To me he's the best player. There's other players who have won multiple times on this Tour and been consistent, as well. Webb has played really well when he needed to play really well. And Keegan has played really well and one of them was a major, so it's hard to get past that. Player of the Year is pretty interesting now than it was for about the last ten years. There's actually a discussion. Q. Could I ask you about the 1st hole? Could you sort of describe it tee to green? GEOFF OGILVY: It's generally a nice way to start your round. If you hit the fairway, it's a birdie chance for sure, although you can get a bit of a smelly pin over on the right-hand side which can get a bit tricky. But generally if you drive it down the fairway, it's a birdie chance. It's a 3-wood and a wedge or a driver and a wedge or a 9-iron or something, a nice way to get into your round. But you have to pay attention because if you do miss the fairway, it can get awkward on you quick. There's some trees on the right which I've been in a few times, which are no fun chipping out on the first hole. So it's a hole that you can make birdie, but it's a hole you've got to be careful off because it can go all wrong. The green is very sloppy, so if you hit it way past the pin, you can have a tricky putt down the hill. Definitely, as most holes at East Lake, but that one especially, you really want to drive it down the fairway, and it simplifies life immensely if you drive it in the fairway. Q. And then the 11th hole, par-3, can you tell us what your strategy is in terms of attacking that? GEOFF OGILVY: Pretty nice hole. It generally is about somewhere between I guess 7-iron would be the shortest I'd ever hit probably up to about a 4-iron. Often they tuck the pins on the right-hand side. It's a really hard hole to draw it on, really calls for a fade up the right-hand side. Nice hole, again, most holes here -- I do really like this golf course, and 11 is one right up there with my favorites out here actually. It's a par-3 that you've actually got to hit a real golf shot to get the ball close to the hole generally, especially when the pin is on the right-hand side. As I said, it goes from 7-iron to 4-iron which is a sensible distance for a par-3 and quite a slopey green. A good shot and a good putt required, I guess. Q. When you're on the first tee, what do you think of? What runs through your mind? Because I know everybody gets the jitters. GEOFF OGILVY: It depends, I think, if I've been really playing well, I have less jitters and I just -- I guess I'm just trying to think about keep doing the right thing that I have been doing because I've been playing well. If I've been struggling a lot and I maybe haven't warmed up very well, and I haven't hit very many good shots on the range, I'm probably a little bit worried about things, hoping that they go well, trying to find something simple to think about for the day to find a way to get through the day. I think the first tee can be very comfortable when you're playing well, and it can be very uncomfortable when you're not playing well. So I guess I just try to set out a plan for the day that at the time feels like the best way to have a good score that day, I guess. JOHN BUSH: Geoff, we appreciate your time. Play well this week. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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