European Tour Insider: Ogilvy is hope for winless

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Geoff Ogilvy's latest win is a reminder to players still trying to break through that it can happen.

He sat in a cave in the Scottish Highlands, watching a spider weave its web. Repeatedly, it failed and fell, only to re-group and have another go.

King Robert the Bruce watched those eight legs eventually work their magic, and decided he could still fight the English oppressors: "If at first you don't succeed, try, try and try again."

Geoff Ogilvy is a distant relative of the King of Bannockburn fame. And Sunday, many years removed from those medieval times, he beat his English challenger, Paul Casey, at the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship.

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Yes, it is a bit much to suggest Ogilvy had to "try, try and try again." That suggests there were plenty of failures and disappointments before he seized the throne as one of the world's top players.

But consider that he joined the European Tour in 1999. Third place in the Volvo Scandinavian Masters was his best finish, and top 70 on the Order of Merit is a fine return for a rookie season.

The following year he added a second place at the Johnnie Walker Classic, behind Michael Campbell, and boosted his Merit position still further.

He elected to try q-school for the PGA TOUR and hence -- until this year when he's taken up European Tour membership once again -- the Aussie has always been based Stateside.

Another second-place finish came at the Johnnie Walker Classic -- behind Tiger Woods in Thailand with Michael Campbell in third.

Tiger said "both Campbell and Geoff Ogilvy are excellent prospects for the future. I am sure they will do well on the PGA TOUR if they play here."

All this is good, of course. You are no slouch if you are recording prominent finishes every season of a young career and building on an excellent foundation as an amateur. But it was to be 2005 in the Chrysler Classic of Tucson when, after seven years as a pro and 108 PGA TOUR events, the first victory came for Ogilvy.

And there's been no looking back as Ogilvy has won three World Golf Championships events as well as the 2006 U.S. Open.

There are countless players on the world's tours who are looking at Ogilvy's successes and believing there's still a big future for them.

THE RACE

Ogilvy has inevitably now moved to the top of the standings in the Race to Dubai, as well as the PGA TOUR's FedExCup. He is sure to be one of the elite playing the Dubai World Championship to close the European Tour season in November.

The man he beat in the Accenture Match Play Championship final, Paul Casey, holds second spot in the Race, and his second place in Arizona is his best finish in the U.S.

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Thongchai Jaidee earned his 11th Asian Tour win last week -- a new Tour record.

BALI HIGH

Thailand's Thongchai Jaidee sits 20th in the Race to Dubai and more than ?1 million behind the leader, but he has now accrued more than $3 million in career prize money as a result of his third European Tour win -- at the Enjoy Jakarta Indonesian Open (which was played, despite the title, on the glorious idyllic island of Bali).

Ogilvy may have come a long way, but consider Jaidee's roots in a wooden house backing on to a golf course, and the pain of having a skewer embedded in his foot which wrecked his ambition to be a soccer star.

With his background as a paratrooper, there were times in the luxury hotels used for golf tournaments when Jaidee would claim to have still slept on the floor, because it was more comfortable for him than the too-soft bed.

Jaidee has long held the ambition of breaking into the world's top 50. He's closing in at 71st position. Try, try and try again.

ALLEZ JEAN

The Bruce phrase was certainly appropriate when Jean Van de Velde found himself with trouser legs rolled up in the burn at Carnoustie back in 1999.

Van de Velde is opting not to play a full schedule on Tour this year, winding down and smelling the roses, but the Frenchman will take on Jaidee and others this week at the Singha Thailand Open.

There is no European Tour event this week, but several members will be testing themselves in Phuket.

Aside from the upcoming World Golf Championships-CA Championship, where Ogilvy will defend, the next purely European Tour event is back to the scene of Van de Velde's last triumph (well, almost).

The Madeira Islands Open is the first European event of the year actually in Europe, though it's moving for the first time from the main island where Van de Velde won in 2006 to a spectacular Seve Ballesteros course on Porto Santo.

The next couple of weeks will be spent figuring out how to get there.