Ogilvy is hoping there's no place like home  PGATOUR.com Senior Correspondent SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- Geoff Ogilvy, the reigning U.S. Open champion, can tell you what it's like -- the mighty having fallen. No, really, he can. The large green smudge running from his right elbow down his forearm is proof. "I fell walking off the 15th tee," the transplanted -- but apparently not well-planted -- Aussie said sheepishly Wednesday afternoon after coming in from a chilling desert rainstorm that cut short the pro-am at the FBR Open at the TPC Scottsdale. Ogilvy and his amateur partners were leading at 5-under par through 17 holes when play was halted by the gully washer that made an already saturated course unsuitable for continued use.  Geoff Ogilvy is hoping for some success at home this week in Scottsdale. (D. Arnold/WireImage)
"I might go and put some metal spikes in my shoes this week. I looked at my shoes and there was a bit of a buildup on them," Ogilvy added. Yes, well, being a major champion doesn't exempt you from everyday human incidents and inconveniences. It just prevents you from getting away with it without anyone noticing. Ogilvy, 29, put himself on the golf world's radar last winter when, as the No. 52 seed, he weaved his way methodically through the annually talent-heavy field to win the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship in his first appearance. Of course, that was nothing compared to what he pulled off a few months later, dodging a minefield down the stretch at Winged Foot Golf Club, watching all challengers suffer painful missteps over the same tricky ground, and walking off with the 106th U.S. Open title. It's only taken about six months for people to realize that he played well to win that Open and that it wasn't just handed to him by Phil Mickelson, Colin Montgomerie and Jim Furyk -- all who had a chance to either win outright or at least force a playoff. Furyk bogeyed the last hole. Montgomerie and Mickelson inexplicably butchered their way to double bogeys. "It's getting less and less about the 18th hole and more and more about what I've done last year in the U.S. Open," Ogilvy says. "The first month (the talk) was a lot about how it happened, but now it's just, 'good U.S. Open last year, Geoff.' I have described the series of events quite a lot of times. It never gets boring. I'll probably talk about it for the rest of my life, actually." At present, however, Ogilvy is satisfied talking about the current state of his game, which is rounding into form after a scrappy two weeks in Hawaii. He'll have plenty of time to discuss the U.S. Open, which this year is being held at Oakmont Country Club, near Pittsburgh, in the coming months. That stretch in June looms large, what with his 30th birthday coming on Monday of tournament week. A slight adjustment spurred him to a final-round 64 at the Sony Open in Hawaii at Waialae Country Club to lift him to a tie for eighth, and he has spent the last two weeks trying to build on that smidgen of momentum. It couldn't come at a better time. Ogilvy hasn't enjoyed much success in his adopted U.S. home (he lives 10 minutes from the TPC Scottsdale). A tie for 20th last year is his best showing in five starts, and twice he has missed the cut. "My golf swing wasn't quite there (in Hawaii)," said Ogilvy, who tees off Thursday at 2:26 EST with Jeff Maggert and defending champion J.B. Holmes. "Kapalua is not the place to find it because you're hitting off a side slope and it's blowing 40 miles an hour the whole time, and it's (having to hit) little chippy knock-down (shots). I kind of felt my way thought it. "Sunday (at the Sony Open), I don't know, but something clicked. There are about two or three things that I do wrong, and I'm constantly trying to work out how to not do them wrong. For nine holes I worked out how to not do it." Logic says he had it all worked out at Winged Foot. Not quite. It's been said that golf is not a game of perfect, but Ogilvy would prefer to not be in a perfect mode because that somehow leads to trouble. He was perfectly happy at the U.S. Open not bringing his A-1 game. "That was a perfect week, actually, because I was not quite there," he explained. "There was a bad shot in there somewhere (and) ... my best weeks are when it's just not quite there because you're wary of the bad shot and you really bear down and focus better, especially at the U.S. Open, because it's so narrow. "Other weeks I've hit it great and missed the cut because you go out and expect to hit good shots, and you don't think about it and before you know it, you've hit one in the water and short-sided it and you go for too much. By Saturday, I hit the ball great at the U.S. Open. Those couple of things I was working on got better and better every day." This week he's somewhere in between hitting it poorly, like he did at the Mercedes-Benz Championship at Kapalua, and striping it like he did the final round of the Sony Open. This is a good thing? "Yeah," he said with a smile. He would know. And after that little slip Wednesday, his week can only get better. |
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