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THE OPEN CHAMPIONSHIPJuly 22, 2012Geoff OgilvyLYTHAM ST. ANNES, ENGLAND GEOFF OGILVY: It was nice. I played well every day. It's just Friday and Sunday I had decent scores and the other two days I didn't. I can't really explain why I didn't have a good score yesterday. I was thinking about it and I thought I hit pretty good shots most of the day. That's what majors are like, you pay the price when you miss the shots, and I missed a couple of shots. I made bogeys because of it. I hit it well when it was decent. I would rather to be hitting off now, but it's better to have a few under in the last round than a few over, I guess. Q. (Inaudible.) GEOFF OGILVY: It's obviously on. The forecast is for it to gradually strengthen more and more, is that right? If it stays like this it's playable, I think, difficult but playable. It is getting bouncier. Most of the bunkers are pretty dry and powdery and dusty looking now, so it's probablyhow they would have liked it on Thursday right now. So it's getting much more linksy, if you like. But you can still hold greens downwind and hit greens out of the rough and stuff if you're sensible. It's on if you play well, you're just going to have to play well. Q. (Inaudible.) GEOFF OGILVY: They said that, but I didn't notice, to be honest with you. They said they cut them, gave us the cut mark, every single cut. I didn't know they were cutting them more than once, anyway. They seemed the same to me. They're probably drier, so it probably balances out the length of the green. Q. Can you talk about Adam, how are you feeling about where he's at and why you think now is the time for him? GEOFF OGILVY: He's obviously playing better this week than anyone else to this point. Yeah, he's always been very impressive when he's started with the lead on Sunday. Doug's probably got the stats, but he very often gets off to good starts when he's leading, and that makes the day quite a lot easier. So hopefully he does. He's looked like he was going to do this since he was 14, to be honest with you. He was really on track it looked like up to a few years ago, and then he kind of lost his way a little bit for a couple of years, was it '08 or '09, or something like that, and then kind of rededicated, I think he did. I think he's been working harder than anyone, I think. He's copping a bit of flak for playing in less tournaments, but he's probably practising harder than anyone else, well, at least as hard as anybody else. And this has looked like it was coming since the Masters last year really, hadn't it? I think. He's happy with his putting, he's been looking confident and sticking to his plan of just playing when he's ready to play and go home and work really hard on your game and prepare for the big tournaments. If it wasn't this week it would be two weeks' time at Kiawah or it would have been a month ago. This is‑‑ it's been coming, it looked like, anyway. So hopefully he gets off to a good start and has a fun day. It would be more fun to get ahead a few more. Q. Are you going to watch? GEOFF OGILVY: In our house, just slowly pack my bag in front of the TV and sit on the couch, probably. Q. Can you recall Adam's mental strength when he has a lead? GEOFF OGILVY: It's pretty good. It's difficult. He's never sat on a major lead before on Sunday. Believe it or not, it's harder to have a four‑shot lead than it is a one‑shot lead, mentally, because you feel like it's in your hands more and that puts more pressure on you, you know what I mean? It's an odd feeling having a big lead. But he's obviously got a lot of belief and he's great under pressure. And when he's playing well, he seems to finish the job very well. I'm pretty confident he'll play well. Q. (Inaudible.) GEOFF OGILVY: It would be fantastic. Obviously it's been quite a long time, since 2006, and the questions have been coming pretty hard for the last two or three years. And it would be‑‑ it would be large. A lot of kids picked up golf clubs when Greg was winning majors and contending in majors every week, and I think that sort of thing will help them and the public golf courses will fill up and people will get their golf clubs out of the closet and more people will come to golf tournaments in Australia and we might get more sponsorship. It's impossible to measure, but I think it would be really big. Q. (Inaudible.) GEOFF OGILVY: Well, I think it can only help. It obviously‑‑ the Europeans have done really well the last few years. Harrington kind of started it and then McDowell wins and Rory fires up and he wins. And Luke gets to No.1 in the world. And it seems to go in runs like that. So you would hope if Adam wins here that it would fire a few of us, hopefully. We'll see. Q. How much do you think putting with the long putter has helped him? GEOFF OGILVY: He's playing very well this week. I think it makes his bad days better, I don't think if makes his good days any better. He was always a great putter when he was playing well. I don't think it would be any different. When he was putting well, he was always very streaky. He was a great putter when he was putting well. You don't win however many tournaments around the world, 15, 16, 18, without being able to hole putts. I think what it's done is getting him through the bad days, which is what those sort of things help for, I think, and they keep your head up when you're not going very well. So it's probably helped that. But I don't think it's been the whole thing, because he was obviously a great putter with the short putter before, he was just a bit up and down. He's just a bit more consistent with this thing. Q. For the last year he's had Steve on the bag and seems to have grown in confidence a bit, too. I don't know if that's because Steve has been around big moments and‑‑ GEOFF OGILVY: Well, if Steve does anything as a caddie, he makes his player feel like the best player in the world, just by the way he talks to them, by the way he carries himself. It's‑‑ everyone who's ever played with him‑‑ anyone who's‑‑ you can go way, way back to the early '80s, anyone he's caddied for thinks he's the best caddie because they feel a better player, straight away from the first tee. The way he carries himself and whatever he says to his players, they feel like better players when he's working for them. And that's probably one of the most important things a caddie can do. So I think it's been pretty important for Adam, really. It's been a really good thing for him, anyway. Q. (Inaudible.) GEOFF OGILVY: That was pretty unbelievable because he was actually on an airplane about to fly out, debating with somebody. It might have been Ernie, even, on Ernie's airplane, debating, should I go, should I stay, should I go, should I say, because I hadn't won at that point but it was like I might win with two holes to play or one hole to play, and he came back and he was there. It was a pretty impressive display, actually. Q. Will you come back? GEOFF OGILVY: Oh, yeah, I'm not going anywhere.  I'm going back to my house, but I'm not going too far. Q. We can all see Adam as a player, but what's he like as a bloke? GEOFF OGILVY: He's a great bloke. Everyone likes Adam. He's‑‑ that's all you can really say. There's nothing to not like about him. He's just a good bloke. Q. How did you first meet him? GEOFF OGILVY: I met him when we had this junior interstate series where the state of Victoria would play against the state of New South Wales and the state of Queensland, junior under‑18 thing. I was 17 and he was 14, I think, and he was a prodigy of the Queensland team. He was actually carrying drinks at the start of the week, and by the end of the week he was one of their best players at 14. There's a big difference between 14 and 17, too, so pretty immediately he looks like he was world class. And then so that was '93 or '4 or something. So, yeah, we're talking 20 years ago. Q. Do you remember which course that was? GEOFF OGILVY: That was at The Grange in Adelaide. You'd better look it up, but that's where I first met him. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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