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By Melanie Hauser
PGATOUR.com Contributor

HARRISON, N.Y. -- The shot was -- in his words -- disgraceful.

Middle of the fairway. Perfect look at the green. A par 5, for gosh sakes.

He winds up making bogey. An ugly 6. At the 18th hole, his ninth.

Stumbles on the ninth and the 18th holes Friday kept Geoff Ogilvy?s good Friday from being a great one. (Nick Laham/WireImage)

INSIDE THE NUMBERS

OGILVY IN 2007

Category Total Rank Driving Distance 295.1 yds. 49 Driving Accuracy 57.67% 159 Greens in Regulation 61.47% 152 Putts per GIR 1.787 80 Sand Saves 55.67% 28 Scoring Average 70.08 26 FedExCup Points 8,623 24 Money Leaders $2,255,430 17

• Geoff Ogilvy's Player Page

Yes, Geoff Ogilvy rebounded. He found three more birdies on the back nine and cruised up the leader board at The Barclays Friday afternoon.

He shot a 66 to settle into a tie at 8 under -- four behind midway leader K.J. Choi, two back of Rich Beem. But bogeying a par 5 here at Westchester was -- considering his tee shot -- was unacceptable.

"It's disappointing,'' he said. "Sometimes it works like that, sometimes just one of those days.''

This time it was a blocked 3-wood that landed pin high in the right rough.

"It was one of those awkward ones. I had to chip it along a ridge and hit it left,'' he sighed. "It was just an awkward shot.''

The good news is Ogilvy is hitting it straighter off the tee. He hit 86 percent of the fairways Friday and has found 78.6 percent of them over the last two days.

The bad news? It's been one of those years. The 17th and 18th got him at Southern Hills, where he tied for sixth. He missed the cut at the Open Championship and, as the defending U.S. Open champ, staggered home with rounds of 78-75 to tie for 42nd at Oakmont.

Ogilvy swung into the FedExCup playoffs ranked 24th on the list -- a position where, with a few good tournaments, he could jump way up the list. And he's working on it.

"I've driven it better today, but I'm making more putts,'' he said. "Pretty much end of the day when you're trying to analyze golf, when it goes good, it goes good; and when it goes bad, at the end of the day, it comes down to the putter.

"The driver helps and I'm driving it quite straight. I holed a few 15-footers today."

The only other complaint he had was at the ninth -- his 18th -- where he overcut an approach into the green and settled for par.

Still, he was sitting in great position going into the final round. His best finish this season was a runner-up finish to Henrik Stenson at the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship. He also tied for third at the World Golf Championships-CA Championship.

He does play well at the big events -- what else would you expect from a man who won his Open by surviving another treacherous week at Winged Foot last year -- but like everyone else, he doesn't know what to expect in the first playoff event.

"If K.J. is playing that well, who knows, he might be able to finish 20 under; or 12 under might win,'' he said. "It's going to get firmer and it's going to get harder, and as it gets firmer, it will get tougher.''

He's just -- like everyone else -- going after the short, but tough Westchester course. And, no, he can't recite chapter and verse of how many points this week put him where in the FedExCup standings.

"I don't really have a feel for how much I'm going to jump up in the week or what's a good week or what we need to do,'' Ogilvy said.

"I think after this week, it will build up to a crescendo, you know what I mean," he explained. "I'm still trying to get a feel for the way it's all going to shake up, but I'm excited.''