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THE PRESIDENTS CUP

November 15, 2011

Geoff Ogilvy

MELBOURNE, VICTORIA

Q. How much pride do you and your fellow Aussies and everyone in this country take in this golf course?
GEOFF OGILVY: Yeah, that's a good question. I think it's a very -- there is a lot of pride in this golf course. It's clearly our best course. It's probably clearly our best course. It's got probably as rich a history in professional golf tournaments as any golf course in the world, really, outside of Augusta and St. Andrews. It's had golf tournaments for as long as I can remember, and they were happening a long time before I can remember.
All the greats have played here. I mean, the golf course is going to be a really big part of the story this week, and I think it should be. Alister MacKenzie was here, and it's a stunning place. I hope player is going around today on their first hit or yesterday going, wow, I wish we could play this sort of course more often. I think it's pretty special.

Q. You're going to have the crowd with you as well. How much of an advantage is it for you and the four other Aussies on this team to have this course for this event because you played it so much?
GEOFF OGILVY: I think so. It's a bit of a local knowledge course. I don't think specifically because we've played it more than everyone else. Like a lot of golf courses you go to, you learn pretty quickly. This one takes a while to learn a lot of the nuances.
There are a lot of similarities to Augusta with the wide fairways, and the big, crazy sloping greens. Better to miss a long way on the low side than close to the pin on the short side. Lots of chipping off short grass and running it uphills. You've got to think a bit laterally around here as opposed to place hit it here. You've got to actually -- there is some interesting stuff you might not learn until you play multiple tournaments around here.
So I think we have that advantage. We have the crowd advantage. But there are plenty of guys on the U.S. Team who have played golf here before. As I said, everyone gets to play Augusta. They look completely different, but the questions they ask are quite similar in places.
So we have the crowd, and we have some guys who have played here a lot, but I think the U.S. Team has some guys who have played here before. And the captain, Freddy nearly won a tournament here. Freddy lost a playoff here in the Bicentennial Classic in 1998, so there is some history on the captain as well.

Q. Even though the U.S. has obviously won so many of these things, the two that have been played outside of North America was a tie and a loss. Do you think that it's much closer than the record shows if you look at the fact that when it's in the U.S., they tend to dominate? When it's obviously out in another continent, it's been a different story.
GEOFF OGILVY: Yeah, I think if it was -- it's a big trip, isn't it? From most guys that are like east coast U.S. to Australia, it's a long ways. It's a big time difference. The wrong time of year, the end of the year and stuff, and we're used to playing at this time of the year right here. We're accustomed to it.
And so a lot of the International Team, this is the sweet spot of everyone's season who is not American. So this is kind of one of the times of year we always play. We also get the crowd.
My first one in Montreal was a home game, but a lot of people made it across the border to get up to Montreal because it's such a cool place to go anyway. That was a pretty even crowd, I think. I think when you get the fans on your side, it tends to lift players. I think you play better than you might have done.
You've seen it in all sports when teams get the crowd and the momentum behind them, they do well. That's often an away team's goal is to take crowds out of games and stuff.
I think if it was a complete 50-50 split, a long way from the U.S., like you say, in the U.S. the results may have been close. I've got to say the Americans have been very impressive at the team aspect of this game, especially the ultimate shot. Maybe that's a nod to the help they get at Ryder Cup, (Inaudible) the beating that they get from the Europeans at the Ryder Cup every year.
They practice the game more than us. We do it every two years. They get to do it every year. So the nucleus of their team is there and doing it every 12 months. So I think there is a mild advantage in that.
I think the location has a fair bit to do with it. But I think the fact that usually by the end beer doing all right. But the first couple of days we get trounced. That may be helped because they're all from the same country, but they all get to do it the same. They all get to do it every year, but location is handy to me.

Q. Just on one note away from that. Last night the restaurant bus, did you help direct traffic with Greg?
GEOFF OGILVY: Greg was out there, K.J. was out there. There were a few guys out there. It was very impressive. Quite a busy road near the city, Bridge Road. So you know where we were?

Q. Yeah.
GEOFF OGILVY: He was backing it out onto Bridge Road, which is quite impressive, and K.J. and Greg took control and played policeman and stood out in the road. The bus got out. It was very impressive, actually.

Q. How long did it go on for? Greg mentioned it in his press conference.
GEOFF OGILVY: 10 or 15 minutes it was one of those cool things that it was cool that it happened earlier in the week because everyone on the bus was laughing, and it's just going to be a funny story to tell along with a lot of other stuff that happens this week. It's fun that it happened early in the week, because it was a fun little incident.

Q. Team bonding too?
GEOFF OGILVY: I guess that's what happens when everyone gets out of the bus and kind of looks what's going on, and everyone gets back in the bus, and you back the bus up a 300 meter street back out onto a busy road. Guys jumping out of the bus and controlling traffic, it's a story to tell, isn't it?

Q. I'll say. You mentioned the course, no one on the team as local as you are. Have you been sort of giving opinions?
GEOFF OGILVY: I've played it as much as any, but I would say Greg would have played it a lot more professional golf tournaments than me. In fact, Adam probably played a few more. He's played almost every Heineken, and Ernie played here a lot and Heineken as well. So I think there are a lot of guys on our team that have played here a lot.
Allenby's won here multiple times. Robert's probably as good as anybody else. I think I know the course as well as anyone, but there is a lot, there are multiple guys on our team including Frank and Greg. Especially Greg, that can contribute to the local knowledge thing.

Q. Are there a lot of questions coming from you guys that you haven't seen before?
GEOFF OGILVY: There are. Some of them are blown away by how firm the greens were and how fast the greens were. Though you can talk and talk about big breaking putts and fast greens and leave it below the hole, but you don't really believe it until you get out here.
But, yeah, everyone came back in gushing after their holes today after lunch. Blown away by how cool it is?

Q. Ishikawa is here?
GEOFF OGILVY: Yes, Ishikawa is here. He didn't play today, no.

Q. (Inaudible)?
GEOFF OGILVY: It's not ideal. But as I said, there is a lot of -- there is a lot of knowledge on this team. He's a very grown-up 19-year-old. He will ask all the questions he needs. He'll put the extra time in. You can almost bet he'll want to come out here early tomorrow and do more practice and pick people's brains.
It's less than ideal. You'd rather more rounds. But of anybody to only play one on our team, he's probably one of the better ones who haven't seen the course before to do that, because he's a pretty -- as I said, he's a no-stone-unturned, very grown-up 19-year-old.

Q. On the tee box or on the fairway are you giving instructions to players in practice rounds saying you want to lay this one up from the hole or something like that, or is it done already?
GEOFF OGILVY: I just said, we've got quite a lot of local knowledge on our team, quite a lot of guys. Greg and Robert and Adam may have played more professional golf tournaments around here than me. I may have done more laps on the course, but they've done a lot of professional tournaments, so we're all kind of helping each other out.
Frank's been playing here for a long time too. So he's been really good. Yeah, we're all kind of deciding. It's slightly different now. See, Greg and Frank talked from the late '80s, early '90's, and I kind of see the course as how I used to play when I played it the most kind of pre 300-yard drive kind of things, so the lines are slightly different. The grass is kind of changed. The last time you saw it, the ball would roll out 20, 30 yards, and the fairways were unbelievable by the way. Slower on purpose, so the course plays a little bit longer. So lines slightly change.
On doglegs when the ball doesn't run as far, clubs off tees change and lines change. So there's been some good learning today and some negotiation and some discussions about correct clubs and stuff, so it's been fun. There are quite a lot of go-to guys on the team.

Q. Were you on the bus last night?
GEOFF OGILVY: Yes.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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