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THE HONDA CLASSIC

March 12, 2005

Geoff Ogilvy

PALM BEACH GARDENS, FLORIDA

JOE CHEMYCZ: We welcome Geoff Ogilvy with an 8-under par 64 in very difficult conditions today.

That's the best round of the year for you score-wise. Maybe you can just talk about all of the things that were going right for you.

GEOFF OGILVY: Yeah, I didn't really do anything wrong I guess. I hit the ball really well. I really only hit one bad shot, and that was driver off the first par 5. We had like a two- or three-group wait there and I got a bit messed up and hit it straight in the fairway in the hazard and had to take a drop and ended up making a real good par, but apart from that I really didn't miss a shot all the way.

It's the kind of course that you have to do that because it penalizes bad shot quite a lot, especially when it's windy. The chipping around these greens is hard work. It was good fun.

JOE CHEMYCZ: Ten of 14 fairways; 15 of 18 greens.

GEOFF OGILVY: Yeah, if you'd seen me play on Thursday morning or Thursday and Friday you would have laughed. You would never have believed I could hit it like that. I don't know what my stats turned out, the first 27 holes here is probably the worst I've hit it for about two years but I was chipping -- it was ridiculous. I holed a couple of chip shots, or one chip shot and I hit some really tough spots and then I kind of found a bit of a swing click, clicked off the first tee which is my 28th hole yesterday and the last 27 holes were as good as they were bad, it's been really good.

Q. What clicked in?

GEOFF OGILVY: Intangible kind of stuff. Wednesday when the Pro-Am got rained off, I had nothing to do, so I went to the gym and ran on the treadmill for an hour, which wasn't intelligent because I always get stiff after I run on the treadmill for a while. And I'll probably put it down to that because I had been swinging it well previous. So I probably just tightened up my hips and back and stuff by running on the treadmill too much, so I might stick to the bike.

Q. You hear all the time about guys who do so well and break through, and once you get that first win it seems like it becomes a lot easier. Can you talk about that at all?

GEOFF OGILVY: Well, there's a combination I guess that a guy who wins is playing well, so I probably would -- I probably would have played well this week anyway. But the confidence it gives you is -- it doesn't feel that different, but you just, you're a bit more sure of yourself, you know you can get it done. Like on a day like today maybe six months ago sneaking right up the leaderboard deep on Saturday, I might have got a bit more nervous than I did, but I was nothing but comfortable.

I think every time you're in contention, or every time you're a bit nervous and you hit a good one, that kind of goes in the memory bank and you feel good about yourself. You feel better about yourself every time you hit a good shot under pressure, you know what I mean? And I think when you win a tournament, you hit so many good shots under pressure and you're holing so many putts when you need to that you are just a better player because of it. And also, there's a lot to be said for a lot of guys, it's a bit of a big deal winning a tournament.

Q. Was is that way for you? Did you feel like it was overdue or something you should have done?

GEOFF OGILVY: Well, it's hard to win out here. The few times I've played great for 72 holes and didn't do anything stupid, you don't win but that's just the way it is out here. There's probably ten guys a week who play really well and things just don't go their way.

So I try to look at it like that, before, that I just had not had my week yet. But there's obviously a big -- there's object a big psychological boost to winning a golf tournament because you see it happen all the time. Steve Flesch, wins, starts playing great. Duval was probably a textbook example, nine seconds and 20 wins in the next two years or something like that, just ridiculous. It makes you believe you're a better player I think, and that's the biggest key out here and that's what Tiger and Ernie and Vijay do; they know they are the best. It's not even a question for them. They just know they are good so when they are standing there coming down the stretch on a Saturday, they know they are going to hit good shot; and if they don't, they don't really care because they know the next shot is going to be good.

That comes with winning I think. That sort of belief that no matter how many bad shots they hit in a row, they still believe they are going to hit the next one well. I think that's the real key to doing well out here, or one of the real keys.

Q. Can you speak about the golf course and how its personality is emerging now that it's dried out and the winds are up?

GEOFF OGILVY: It's turning much more into last year than it was the first couple of days. The first hole of the tournament I played on the first I backed a sand iron up downwind 30 feet. I mean, I've never seen anything like that on bermuda because bermuda generally doesn't spin like that and it was really wet.

The difference between Thursday morning and now, it's a different golf course. We were trying to fly it past the pin on Thursday, and now it's starting to take that bounce again. And it's not like it was last year because it was real fiery last year, but it's much more like that; and another day like this tomorrow, it could be like that.

Q. If it gets like that, does it become one of the more difficult courses out here for regular TOUR events?

GEOFF OGILVY: Yeah, because it's so penalizing. It's quite generous off the tee really and the rough really isn't a factor compared to some of the tough rough we play.

But any time you miss a green it general, seems it runs down this big hill and you're in some grainy kind of lie, and the green is way out there and it's downhill past it. And you've got eight different options, you could put it or get your 3-wood out or lob it way up or bump it up the hill. It gets your brain involved around the greens as opposed to just getting the 60 out and flipping it up like normal.

So in that respect, that's where it's tougher when you do miss a green, it generally filters off 15 yards away from the pin; whereas usually if you miss a green it will go bounce into the rough six feet off the ground and everyone here is pretty good at that, the 60-degree out of the rough.

It's just a different style around the greens. The first two shots on every hole are the same as everywhere else -- well, you know what I mean, it's not that different. But around the greens, it really gets you thinking about where you want to miss the ball because you can miss it in spots where you've just got no hope. So in that respect I think it's a really good course.

Q. Is it different than the Tucson course than you won on two weeks ago?

GEOFF OGILVY: Yeah, I mean -- yes and no. I mean, a lot different, really. Desert golf and Florida golf are probably at opposite ends of the spectrum. There's no rough in Tucson. So there is a bit more chipping involved than just a 60-degree jobs, but yeah it is quite different. And it does blow here; a windy day in Tucson is ten miles an hour, and that's a still day out here. So it is quite different here.

Q. Is this comparable at all to Australia?

GEOFF OGILVY: It's not like an Australian golf course or Melbourne but the shots it gets you to play are. It's similar, Australia we basically have no rough -- well, in Melbourne. When most people talk about year-round golf courses, they are talking about Melbourne and Kingston Heath, they tend to have no rough around the greens and tends to either be in a bunker or down a hill and you're off a tight lie and you have to either lob it or putt it or bump it. In that respect it's the same around the greens. We don't have bermuda like this and the grain and stuff, but in the chipping aspects, yeah.

Q. Do you know the other Ogilvie?

GEOFF OGILVY: Yeah, really well. Very, very regularly get each other's stuff in lockers. He's probably been congratulated for winning in Tucson a few times this week, because I've been congratulated when he plays well. (Laughter.) It's a bit of a running joke between us; we have a law firm Ogilvy and Ogilvie.

Q. What's the craziest thing that's ever happened in that regard?

GEOFF OGILVY: Well, last year, he came in second in New Orleans and he was really unlucky to come in second, Vijay birdied four out of the last five or something stupid and he got stiffed because he was leading all week. At Wachovia, the next week in the Pro-Am, I got congratulated from winning between every green and tee except one. So 17 times I got congratulated, "Sorry for coming in second last week."

It's just funny. It is spelled different. I know it's not the most common name in the world, but if you actually look, it looks different to me. One starts with a G and J, first name. I can see it at first, if you hear people talk about it, but if you see it written down, I don't understand it.

Q. It's not like you guys look like each other.

GEOFF OGILVY: No, he's short and I'm not.

Q. Have you been together on the leaderboard before?

GEOFF OGILVY: He's been playing great from about -- probably New Orleans onwards last year, he's been playing fantastic. So it seems that he's on it more than me, but yeah, I think Tucson, he did all right, I think he finished Top-10, so a few times this year.

Q. Can you talk about the tangible benefits that you've found going to events after you won at Tucson? You get into different categories and things like that?

GEOFF OGILVY: Well, this is my first one since Tucson, I didn't play last week.

Obviously you're assured of that tee time, that nice tee time which is third, fourth or fifth group, so to speak, in the winner's tee times. Everyone congratulating you on your first week back is quite nice. You don't get tired of that.

As far as tangible benefit, I mean, not really. It's nice to know that I'm starting next year in Maui and I've got -- not that I'm really thinking about it, but you have a two- or three-year exemption, fundamentally three-year exemption because it's two years from the end of this year. It's just a weight off your mind. Tangible, not really. People maybe talk to you different, have a bit more respect for your game or something like that.

Q. You mentioned out there with Dottie that since you got married, maybe you're focused a little different or your attitude is a little different?

GEOFF OGILVY: I don't know, I mean, there might be something in the marriage thing, I don't know. I didn't really think there was. I didn't win before I was married and I got married and I won. (Laughter.)

Q. When did you get married?

GEOFF OGILVY: She'll say it's her fault. We've been dating for a long time anyway, so it didn't really change a whole lot. It's just she's my wife now not my girlfriend. Maybe last year, it's kind of in your head, the wedding and who do you invite and who do you not invite, and all of that wedding stuff, that didn't excite me too much, but there's so much that goes into organizing it. Maybe there was something in there and now, it's over, and I can just go, I don't know. I guess I had never won before I married and now I have so maybe there's something there.

Q. Do you wear a ring when you play?

GEOFF OGILVY: Yeah. I thought it was going to annoy me, but after the first two shots, I didn't even feel it. It's under the glove, too, so I think that helps. You forget that it's there.

Q. When was the wedding?

GEOFF OGILVY: November 13, it was a week or two after THE TOUR Championship last year.

JOE CHEMYCZ: Let's go over your card.

GEOFF OGILVY: 1, driver, played short to 40 yards short of the green and hit it up to eight feet.

2, I hit a good drive, sand iron again to about six feet.

4, I hit a 3-wood middle of the fairway, again with a sand iron to about four feet.

6, I drove it out to the right but all right, right of the bunker and hit it on what really good 3-wood to about 25 feet and 2-putted.

Bogeyed 8 with a 3-putt. That's a really tough hole. 3-putt, long down into the valley where the pin was yesterday.

9, I hit 3-wood, 7-iron to about eight feet.

10, I hit 2-iron, 9-iron to about 12 feet maybe.

12, I hit driver, 3-wood in the front bunker and hit a really -- probably the best shot I hill hit all day, long bunker shot had to fly it about 40 yards bunker and wept up to about a foot.

17, driver on the fairway, 3-wood just right of the green, pitched it up to about 15, 18 feet and made it, 15 feet probably.

18, I hit probably the two best shots I hit all day, driver and 5-iron to eight feet maybe, ten feet.

End of FastScripts.

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