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CIALIS WESTERN OPEN

July 3, 2004

Geoff Ogilvy

LEMONT, ILLINOIS

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Geoff Ogilvy, thanks for joining us. Three rounds in the 60s puts you one shot out of the lead going into tomorrow. Just maybe start with some opening comments about your week, very consistent so far, very strong week.

GEOFF OGILVY: Yeah, I've played well. I got off to a great start on Thursday. I was 4-under after six holes, made a few putts, which is what hasn't been going right for me in the past.

I finished that round off after 3-under, played quite nicely yesterday, played really well for the last 12 or 13 holes today, played really well.

Q. Geoff, when you hear McCord and Kostis and those guys say things like "This guy is so talented, he should have four or five victories," do you look on that as a positive, or is that putting undue expectations --

GEOFF OGILVY: I think they probably overestimate me a little bit because I'll take the money when I fly back to Scottsdale. It's nice, I guess. They probably believe in me more than I believe in me, so the more you hear people say that, I guess it's got to help you, especially from guys who have seen a lot of players.

Gary and Peter, they've seen them all from Nicklaus, Hogan, through everything, so it's nice that they say that.

Q. 18 is playing pretty tough. What do you expect tomorrow on the final day?

GEOFF OGILVY: It depends. I mean, it was playing so -- it was tough because of the wind. I mean, I hit probably the best drive all week that I've had, and I still had 187 to the pin, and I normally hit probably a 6-iron from there and I was hitting a 5-iron as low as I could really hard, and it was into the wind off the left, which for a right-hander is about as ugly as it gets, water short, right, can't get up-and-down unless you're Seve Hensby.

It's just a tough hole, and then if it blows straight across or downwind it's not so bad. It's a pretty slopey green, but if you're coming in with a 7- or 8-iron you've got a chance to spin one down there and get it close, so it all depends on the wind.

Q. Could you talk about today's conditions? It was windier and tougher than the last two rounds and yet guys seemed to make a lot more birdies. Was it easier pins or what was the reasoning today?

GEOFF OGILVY: The greens are softer by quite a lot today than they have been. When I teed it up Tuesday, the holes like 12 were almost impossible to hit the green. Thursday were a hair softer, but still very hard Thursday, very hard yesterday. Today maybe they put some water on expecting a bit of sun this morning. I don't know how greens work, but they were definitely softer. The firm greens is what made it tough the first two days.

Q. You talked a little bit about TV guys believing in you more than you believe in you. Obviously you do have self confidence. How do you carry that into tomorrow and stay in your game and what do you have to do to put yourself on top?

GEOFF OGILVY: Well, if I had done it, I'd know. Just do what I did today, I guess. You can't get ahead of yourself. I mean, today I got off to a pretty bad start and I was still right there towards the end. I just kind of tried to stay patient, which is definitely my worst virtue, patience. I'm getting better, I guess, or it's age. I'm learning.

I don't know, I've just got to try and play well. It's that sort of course. If you really went low you really could spread yourself out quick. It's kind of nice like that. But it's also a course if you struggle a bit, you can fall back quick. You've just got to play well and add them up and see who's on top at the end.

Q. Could you give an example that would seem to indicate that patience is your worst virtue?

GEOFF OGILVY: You don't want to drive in a car with me, especially here (laughter). Driving a car I'm definitely at my worst, the least patient. I think a lot of people, when they play golf, when that's your profession, you want everything now. You see other guys that you've grown up with winning, and they're doing it, why can't I. You just want everything now. Whereas if you look back now and say Geoff won his first tournament at 27 and went on to win 50 tournaments -- you've just got to take it as it comes, I guess.

Q. Did you say Seve Hensby?

GEOFF OGILVY: 17, he made what I thought was the best up-and-down I've seen all year, and then 18 he topped it and made one of the best up-and-downs I've ever seen by a long -- it was ridiculous. It was probably the slopiest green north of -- it's the slopiest green in the world pretty much, and he's 20 yards right of the green, and he had a little bit of a window to land it right -- it was just perfect.

Robert was actually in the bunker, Allenby was in the bunker, and Mark had to go over, and he couldn't get the bunker shot on the green, and yet Mark got it up there. He hit it to eight feet and made it. It was impressive.

Q. Getting back to the patience thing, can you kind of describe your long-term patience? You had a chance to win at Honda. It's been a couple years now. Was that good for you? Did you think you should have done more because of that? Did you think it was going to be easier? What's been the long-term patience outlook?

GEOFF OGILVY: Basically I'm pretty good. When I'm in this position, I'm pretty good. It's when I'm playing bad that I'm bad, and I guess most guys are like that. See, a guy like Adam Scott is going to impress because he played fantastic at Players Championship and then lost his game completely and doesn't seem to care. He hits bad shots and laughs and misses a couple cuts and doesn't really care, and that keeps his confidence pretty good, so when he comes out and plays well again, he comes out and wins again. That's what I've got to learn to do is when it's not going so well, realize it's not the end of the world this week, you're going to be breathing tomorrow and you're going to play next week and it will turn around.

Q. After Honda were you thinking I'm going to win one of these next weeks for sure?

GEOFF OGILVY: I didn't think that. I thought I was playing pretty well. I was hitting the ball better there than I am probably now, but I'm a better player now all around. I know how to get around the golf course better. I would like to have that opportunity at Honda again because I was in great shape with about four or five holes to play.

I didn't think it was going to come straight away and I wasn't really desperate for it to happen straight away then, but I guess as the years tick by, that's three or four years ago now, and I've had a few chances. That was probably my best. Wachovia this year, and I've had three or four 2nds where I've kind of been there on Sunday. I guess when it happens, it happens. Hopefully tomorrow.

Q. How long have you known Hensby and did you expect that he would be playing this well and did you think he should play better earlier?

GEOFF OGILVY: I didn't really meet Mark -- he didn't sort of come up through the normal junior amateur golf sort of run in Australia like most of us did. I knew Robert and Stuart and basically all the guys over here, but he was from the country and I think he came over here, played some mini-tours, got on the Nationwide and came here. He's pretty impressive. He's better than anybody thinks. He can play. He can flat-out play. He hits it good, he putts fantastic and he's obviously got a short game. He's probably underrated by a lot of people.

Q. Is that unusual, to have an all-Aussie threesome?

GEOFF OGILVY: Weird over here. It was fun. It was nice because I know them both pretty well. It's great.

I mean, I guess there's more chance these days because there's 16 or 17 of us playing here, but that's the first time I've ever had that.

Q. Going back to the 2nd place finishes or other times you've been in contention, what lessons, if any, do you draw on from that, either things you did right or did wrong in the past?

GEOFF OGILVY: Well, a few times I just didn't have things going my way. At Wachovia this year I hit the ball nicely and I felt like I was hitting decent putts and they just didn't go in. 15 I made a double bogey and really only ended up missing it by three or four shots. I hit probably five putts that day that really looked like they were going to go in. If the putts go in that day, it's pretty good.

There's been other times where I've had a really good last round and come up to 2nd or played really well but someone else is playing. Flint last year I finished 2nd and went pretty low, but was it Furyk, I think, he went pretty low, too. I've never really been flat-out in front with any really holes to play on Sunday, so hopefully I can work that out tomorrow.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Geoff, if we could touch on your round and we'll take one final question. You had two bogeys in the first four holes, then really settled down. What happened at No. 2, par 3?.

GEOFF OGILVY: 2 is a really hard green to hit, even when it is soft. I hit it kind of pin high left but in the rough and chipped it out to about six feet, missed a six-footer.

4, I hit it right kind of under the trees there, made a mess of the pitch out and it stayed in the rough, and then I couldn't do anything except pitch it in the bunker and actually hit it out to about 12 feet, made a pretty big putt for bogey, which might have turned it all around.

7, I hit a nice drive and had a sand iron from about 112 or something. I hit it to about five, six feet short of the hole, made it.

8, I hit 2-iron, wedge -- 2-iron, 9-iron, back edge of the green, looked like it should have spun back but it didn't, but I holed the putt.

11, I drove it in the left rough, laid it up, hit wedge to about 25 feet maybe, made it.

12, I hit 7-iron about 25 feet left of the hole, made it.

15, I hit driver, 3-iron just pin high right in the bunker, hit it out to about three, four feet, made it.

17 was a driver just off the right side of the fairway in the rough and a wedge to four feet, made it.

18, I hit another good drive, what I thought was a pretty decent 5-iron, kind of on the bank just off the green pin high, didn't hit the chip hard enough and left it short and missed it.

Q. Does it make any difference to you that among the guys chasing you, you've got Tiger Woods and Jim Furyk, last year's Open champion? Does that change anything?

GEOFF OGILVY: Not really. I mean, I don't think anyone is going crazy at the moment. Tiger is not playing his best but he's getting there. He obviously played fantastic today. To have 6-under today is pretty good out there.

Not really. If I look at leaderboards I look at the numbers. I don't really look at who it is. They're playing the same 18 holes that we are, so yeah, they've had more experience, but they've been beaten a lot more times than they've won, too.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Geoff Ogilvy, thank you.

End of FastScripts.

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