MEDINAH, Ill. – His win at the U.S. Open got him into the club.

The way he’s played since then has Geoff Ogilvy on everyone’s short list.

If you thought the Aussie was a one-hit wonder when he outplayed and outlasted the field at Winged Foot, well, you were wrong. A tie for 16th at the British Open. A tie for ninth at the PGA Championship.

And he more than held his own in the opening two rounds when he was paired with the top two players in the world -- Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson.

“He's extremely talented, and he's proved he knows how to play in major championships,’’ Woods said. “There's a reason he's the U.S. Open champion.’’

There is indeed. The lanky Aussie -- he’s 6-foot-2, 180 pounds -- still gets confused at times with Joe Ogilvie, who looks nothing at all like him, but he can laugh about it. He’s been making his way up the Official World Golf Ranking for several years now, but make a quantum leap in 2006 to No. 8 with his wins at the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship and the Open.

The latter got him into that pairing with Tiger and Phil. And, well, he was welcomed into the superstar world in a big way.

“It’s impressive how he manages it all,’’ said Ogilvy, who, like Tiger and Phil, were still answering questions an hour after finishing the round. "But just one thing. I'm getting a bit hungry. When do these guys fit lunch in?

"It's incredible. (Tiger) has been dealing with this ever since he was 16 and I never hear him complain. He seems to understand it comes with his position and it's what he has to do."

Geoff Ogilvy finished tied for ninth at the PGA Championship. (WireImage)

Ogilvy is adapting, too. He’s suddenly surrounded by reporters after every round and he makes the most of it, whether it’s answering questions about the frustrations of chasing Tiger -- ''He’s better than us. .. His belief must be incredible’’ -- or comparing Medinah and Winged Foot.

“This is the setup has got so much to do with it,’’ Ogilvy said of the comparison. “If you had greens as firm as Winged Foot were and rough like Winged Foot was and as narrow as Winged Foot was, there would not be many people under par. If you had Winged Foot as soft as this, we would not be going as low as this but people would have been under par.’’

Or scrutinizing his own play. He opened the third round with a double-bogey -- something that might have sent him into a tailspin a few years ago. This week? He recovered and shot 68.

“I'd like to think not but I probably wouldn't have done as well as I do now,’’ he said. “I probably would I'd like to think I probably would have been all right, but probably wouldn't have been. I might not have fallen apart and had hundreds, but I don't know if I would have come back as well as I did.

“In a major that's a pretty disappointing thing, you sit there all night, thinking you’re in contention and come out in the first group and you're in great shape and you watch guys firing birdies in the first rounds, and you drop two shots on the first hole. It feels like you're dropping three shots, really. Yeah, it wasn't a very fun way to start.’’

But he was still there, contending going into the final round.

“It makes me feel good (to play well at the majors),’’ said Ogilvy, who tied for 16th at the Masters. “There are four times a year we want to play well. Those are the pinnacle of golf.

Oh, yeah, for sure. With no question, that's the best part about winning any golf tournament is that you've done it, and the next time you get there, you're going to feel better about it. And it's the same way with a major. This is just fun. I mean, it's just so much fun being out there when there's crowds like this and the first two days, I had a great time, today I had a great time because there's still few people left on my holes after he had gone. (Laughter).

This is great. It's just great fun to I guess if you get in situations the first time you get in a situation like this, there's more nerves than enjoyment, but now it's just a lot of fun, you know what I mean. It wasn't fun on the first hole, but after that I had a great time.’’

Ogilvy has often been the player to be mentioned at the end of the sentence when talking about Australians. Stuart Appleby, Adam Scott and Aaron Baddeley were getting all the attention when Ogilvy slipped in the back door. And now he’s expected to be up there every major week.

“It doesn't add pressure,’’ he said. “It probably adds my own expectations a little bit. But also it takes pressure off in the respect of I've already won a couple of big tournaments this year. The rest of the year doesn't matter.

“When I sit down at Christmas, I've had a good year and I've won a major. I can sit down when I'm 50 now and I've won a major. Hopefully I've won ten by then.’’