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Articles by Geoff Ogilvy
Ogilvy: U.S Open's toughness means testing limits
Outside of the Australian Open, in fact, the U.S. Open is the only Grand Slam event I can think of where the way in which the course is presented to the players is even an issue. By way of example, no one ever talk about how Augusta National is set up for the Masters, much as the course is so much part of the occasion. Because the members tend to get just about everything right.
Ogilvy: All that really matters is what the ball does
To a man, they were “old-school” coaches. There was no video camera. And I was coached the way everyone was coached at that time. It was “short left thumb” on the club. “Don’t get too loose with your hands.” That kind of stuff; all about finding my own “feel”. Later, when the cameras did come along, the elite coaches were all using them. And the best players gravitated towards them as well. For me at least, one result of that was the difficulty in not becoming “vain”. I wanted to look like Greg Norman.
Ogilvy Column: It's going to be stressful. I’m going to be busy. But I am ready
It is a job I will be giving 100 percent to over the coming 16 months or so. When next year I captain the International side (drawn from everywhere except Europe) against the United States in the Presidents Cup at Medinah, it will represent one of the biggest honours of my professional career - a moment which has been “part of the plan” for the last six years.
Ogilvy Column: It's going to be stressful. I’m going to busy. But I am ready
It is a job I will be giving 100 percent to over the coming 16 months or so. When next year I captain the International side (drawn from everywhere except Europe) against the United States in the Presidents Cup at Medinah, it will represent one of the biggest honours of my professional career - a moment which has been “part of the plan” for the last six years.
Ogilvy: The one time I played well enough at Augusta to actually win
Which is maybe why I never missed the cut in any of my appearances there. Still, the one which stands out in my mind is the 2011 Masters, the sixth of my eight starts. I had been feeling good about my chances for a few months beforehand, having won the Australian Open at the end of 2010. I found something on the range just before that event; a feeling in my swing which had me excited about how I was hitting the ball. And that sensation carried me all the way to Augusta the following April.
Ogilvy: I’d like to see a series of global swings
Which isn’t too hard on this occasion, as it happens. Like just about everyone else, I suspect, I’d like to see the entry of common sense into the situation which has put professional golf worldwide into something of a state of limbo since LIV Golf came into being. That is the easy bit. The hard thing for me is figuring out exactly what I would like the hopefully brave new world to look like. Here goes anyway.
Ogilvy: Holes that have always struck a positive chord with me
What follows are the holes that have always struck a positive chord with me, which is why they are my favourites. Royal Troon GC 8th hole, 123-yard par-3, (Postage Stamp) The 8th hole at Royal Troon (pictured here), where this year the Open Championship will return, the Postage Stamp comes at a stage of the round where, down the prevailing west wind, a good player is typically two or three under par. But this iconic hole is the first hint of what is to come on the way home into the breeze.
Ogilvy: The players that impressed me the most
The word “special” has been getting used a lot in reference to the young Swede, which is not surprising given the quality of his play and his results immediately after turning professional. Anyway, the rise and rise of Ludvig got me thinking. I’m like most tour pros in it takes an awful lot to really impress me. But a few players have over the years. The different ones. These are the special ones. The ones that make you stop, look and listen. Here then are the few who have done all of that for me.
Ogilvy: "We cared more about the money-list than world ranking"
Okay, it would have been nice to reach No.1 – No.3 was my highest-ever – and I know I was in the top-10 for a bit. But I didn’t really care. Not much anyway. When it came to the rankings, I took the view that I knew what I knew. If I arrived at a tournament and saw Ernie Els was, say, No.7 in the world, I never took it even remotely seriously. I still thought he was No.2 behind Tiger. If someone had said to me there were six players better than Ernie I would just have laughed.
Ogilvy: What I've learnt returning to the Tour
So, there was clearly a bit of a gap, almost exactly four years in fact, between my 396th appearance at the 2018 Barracuda Championship and my 397th at the same event in 2022. Given that length of time, you won’t be surprised to hear that things on the PGA Tour, while largely the same, have seen some change over the course of what were 47 months in total. The first thing I have noticed this year – which came as no surprise – is that there are more and more good players out there.
Ogilvy: “I’m still a player at heart.”
Turning up at the course, registering, seeing the equipment representatives on the range, practising Tuesday and Wednesday; it felt like I hadn’t been gone more than a week. In that respect at least, the Tour is like riding a bike; you never forget. In other ways, of course, my time away from the competitive element was all too evident. As we all know, golf with a scorecard in your pocket is a lot different from playing a casual game with your mates.
Ogilvy: “Par is just a line in the sand …”
The Andalucian Masters at Valderrama was won by Englishman Matt Fitzpatrick with a six-under-par score. And across the Atlantic, Rory McIlroy won the CJ Cup at the Summit Club in Las Vegas, shooting 25-under-par to do so. As many people know already, Valderrama is a difficult golf course, very fiddly and narrow. Missing fairways invariably leads to problems. The greens are small and, in places, a bit crazy, if my memory of the place is correct. It tends to get a bit windy there too.
Ogilvy: ‘We will showcase the Melbourne Sandbelt, something we haven’t really done for the last 20 years.’
Many times over the years people have talked hypothetically about how great it would be to have a 72-hole event played on four of Melbourne’s world-famous courses. Which is not to say that Mike was not the catalyst this time round. He was the one who made the initial calls to Royal Melbourne, Yarra Yarra, Kingston Heath and Peninsula Kingswood. He was the instigator. So, he deserves a lot of any credit going for that, as do the clubs for their positive reactions to what we are trying to do.
Ogilvy: The mental health challenges of pro golf
Playing competitive sport at a high level is certainly a stressful thing to do for a living. Indeed, anyone who has played golf has felt that same stress. It can be a frustrating business. The harder you try, the more your performance can deteriorate. More effort when things are going badly is such a human instinct, but invariably all it does is feed the beast. That aspect of golf has always been part of the game and I imagine it always will be.
Ogilvy: Can our rising young stars make it post-pandemic?
That was the time when I moved into playing elite amateur events all over the world, then progressed even further when I entered the professional ranks. There is no teacher in golf who could have beaten the experience I got from competing in bigger and bigger tournaments against better and better players. That’s where the fastest learning comes from, trying to beat guys who are better than you are. The opportunities to gauge myself against others increased during that period too.
Ogilvy: “Not many work harder than Hideki.”
I’ve been around Hideki a couple of times at Presidents Cups, occasions that have given me some insight into the psyche of not just him but every Japanese player. Their culture is just so different from the rest of us. They seem to carry such a feeling of responsibility, one that is really obvious in Hideki and his compatriot, Ryo Ishikawa. It’s a heavy weight, one that seems to be especially burdensome in team matches.
Ogilvy: Why match-play is the best version of the game
I’m not going to say match-play is a better form of the game – that would be going a little too far – but it is certainly the best method of identifying the best competitors. Or, to put it another way, locating the best and most versatile golfers in the field. The oldest amateur championships, those in Britain and the United States, today tend to be a mixture of stroke-play and match-play.
Ogilvy: The alliance between Europe and the U.S. makes both Tours stronger
There have always been rumours that the European Tour is very reliant – some might say over-reliant – on the revenue generated by the Ryder Cup matches. And at some point, in order to keep pace with the prize funds expected at the top level these days, the guys at Wentworth were inevitably going to need some help in that department. Some under-writing was always going to be required. In contrast to the European Tour, the PGA Tour is a behemoth.
Ogilvy: Dustin Johnson is a transcendent, “freak show” talent
My primary interest was in how the course would be presented so late in the year. I was less occupied by how the tournament would look without spectators. In fact, my mind wandered to how the town of Augusta must have been and how easy it must have been for the players and everyone else to get around without the normal traffic issues. Normally chaotic during Masters week, the contrast this year must have been obvious. Incredibly so. Having said that, it was the course that held most of my interest.
Filthy tempers aren’t necessarily a bad thing
Like so many Tour players I know, Tyrrell has a short fuse. But the great thing about him is that he doesn’t try to hide that aspect of his character. It’s a fact that maybe 90 percent of the players you watch on television every week have a tipping point when it comes to temper. There are a few who seem to be immune to frustration – Dustin Johnson is a classic example – but they are the outliers. Most people reach a stage where they have to let it all out.
Ogilvy: Why DJ is one of the best players I’ve ever seen
That is, of course, only one of the ways to measure greatness in golf. Another is, “who is the best today?” And that, as has been argued many times, is a different player almost every day. You only have to look at the tournaments around the word to figure that out. No one shoots the lowest score every day. Here’s another thing. In my view, Tiger Woods is the best golfer in the world right now. At his best. Still. And he will be until he can’t do it anymore at the highest level.
Ogilvy: The importance of course set-up
Okay, let’s eliminate pro events for a minute. The greatest “normal” course set-ups are those found at Royal Melbourne, Augusta National and the Old Course at St. Andrews (pictured). They are all in the top-10 in the world and all three have wide fairways. But they can have those wide fairways because the turf is typically firm and the angles into the greens matter. As a result, there are hardly any lost balls. And people can putt from well off the greens.
Ogilvy exclusive: How 30 mad minutes changed my life
And the question that comes up most often is, “what’s the first thing that comes into your head when you are asked about what went on at Winged Foot back in 2006?” The answer is simple: the whole thing. It’s odd really. When you have memories of something as I have of that day, am I actually remembering it as it happened? Or am I remembering it just because I’ve told the story so many times? Have I distorted the details over the years?
Ogilvy exclusive: Golf in the coronavirus era
I actually just beat the lockdown regulations when I flew home from New Zealand, where I had been playing in the Tara Iti member-guest. It’s an incredible course, by the way. I’d heard so many wonderful things about it before I went, but Tom Doak’s design exceeded even my most elevated expectations. It’s a legitimately great links course built on pure sand. Anyway, I arrived back in Melbourne 12 hours before Australia’s 14-day quarantine rules came into effect. So I was lucky.
Ogilvy: My perfect course
We’ve come close a few times though, with the Old Course at St Andrews the nearest so far. Ironically, that might have something to do with the fact that the Home of Golf is the course that has seen the least input from humans. It just evolved into the ‘perfect’ course, which is, by its very nature, the way of evolution. Sadly, the Old Course isn’t perfect any more. Not for leading professionals anyway. We hit the ball too far these days. So the definition of ‘perfect’ has changed.
Ogilvy: “What should a world Tour look like?”
It comes up a lot. Or at least now and then. Talk of a “world Tour”, that is. And the latest incarnation is the Premier Golf League that surfaced – at least publicly – only recently. All of which got me thinking. If we are going to have a world Tour, what should it look like? Smaller fields are a good idea. But 48, as proposed by the PGL, might be a bit too small. I’m coming at this from the premise that it would be better if more of the world saw more of the world’s best players more often.
Ogilvy: “The International team is in a better place than ever before”
It was such a great week for me as an assistant to International Captain Ernie Els. Disappointing too, of course. Losing is never fun. But, on the other hand, I see great hope for the future of the event. At least in my experience – I played in three Cups against the United States – this was the best performance by an International team. It was great to see how invested everyone was in doing well.
Ogilvy: “I can’t help feeling it has 'dumbed me down' as a golfer”
At least for those playing at the top level, golf clubs have been getting easier to use for some time now. Which has allowed us to hit shots that are miles better than those we grew up hitting. A high draw that carries at least 250 yards through the air is just one example. I couldn’t imagine doing that as a teenager – it was a fantasy shot – but it became routine when I made it onto the Tour. And yes, it is fun to smash a driver as hard as you can and produce that high draw.
2020 Geoff Ogilvy ISPS Handa Vic Open
I’ve always been a fan of the women’s game but not to the degree I am now. I couldn’t watch the LPGA Tour, LET or ALPG that much throughout my career because I was playing at the same times as the women. I would always catch the ANA Inspiration, the old Dinah Shore, out in the California desert because it felt like The Masters for the LPGA Tour. It was fun to settle in and watch because it always aired later in the day on the East Coast.
Ogilvy: Rory would swap his year for Tiger’s but not Koepka's
Is it Rory, who also won The Players Championship and the Canadian Open? Or is it Brooks Koepka, whose three victories came at the CJ Cup in South Korea, the US PGA Championship and the World Golf Championship-FedEx St. Jude Invitational? No one else is really part of the conversation. There are those who will automatically go for Brooks. He won a major championship in a year when Rory did not add to his total of four.
Ogilvy: Major win means major decisions
At least for me, things changed overnight. Suddenly, I had bigger expectations of myself. Mentally, I put myself on a more elevated level. I had higher standards for my game. Now, in a lot of respects that is a good thing. Accepting second-best is never the best way to go in competitive sport. But, on the other hand, that also placed a new level of pressure on myself. Inevitably, I went through a period when I didn’t live up to the new standards I had set, at least subconsciously.
Ogilvy: A special Open invitation
Every five years or so, the United States Golf Association hosts a reunion of champions during US Open week. It started at Merion in 2013, where the likes of Bill Casper, Arnold Palmer and Jack Fleck – all no longer with us, sadly – were in attendance. This year we headed to Pebble Beach for a game of golf at nearby Cypress Point and a dinner – which 32 of the 36 surviving champions attended. You won’t be surprised to hear that I had a great time.
Ogilvy: Koepka is leading golf’s evolution
Bobby Jones was long. So was Sam Snead. Jack Nicklaus was the longest of anyone. So was Greg Norman. And so was Tiger Woods. They all created the most clubhead speed because the way they swung was the most efficient way to do so. Today, the best players have all grown up smashing the ball from day one, which is not a bad way to find your technique. You’ll find the most efficient way to swing the club. Which is generally the best way.
Ogilvy: Get as mad as hell if it helps
This isn’t a bad thing necessarily. Having a boiling point works both ways. You can’t have the intensity and desire you need to play well without having a temper too. That is certainly true in my case. If I’m not getting at least a little mad, I’m probably not “into” the round as much as I need to be. Having said that, temper is almost always a negative. But the headspace I’m in when I get mad is still better than the headspace I’m in when I don’t get mad. That’s no good. It’s flat-line.
Ogilvy: Have too many cooks spoiled the rules broth?
I must admit the process didn’t get off to a great start when I saw someone taking a drop from ‘knee height’. I thought it looked ridiculous. “What,” I thought to myself, “is wrong with anywhere above the knee? How does anyone have a problem with that? And what was wrong with what we were all doing before?” All of which brought me immediately back to the notion that the idea of simplifying rules almost automatically makes them more complicated.
OGILVY: Appearance Money … Golf’s Necessary Evil
You’re either accepting of appearance money in professional golf, or vehemently against it. There is no in-between position that sees both sides. No grays. Just blacks-and-whites. So what do I think? For me, appearance money is a necessary evil. The clue is in the title. “Professional” golfers play the game for cash. That’s the job. Even the prize-funds in tournaments are nothing more than merit-based appearance money. That’s what they are, just a fair way to hand out appearance money.
OGILVY: My Scottish Pilgrimage
Cameron had caddied for me when I won both the Australian Open and PGA titles. And, much more impressively, he once spent nine months or so on the bag of Seve Ballesteros, a time that included a Masters Tournament at Augusta National. Anyway, the plan was for us all to take a golf trip to the home of golf – six from Australia, six from the US, where Cameron now lives. So we met at Edinburgh Airport and drove to St. Andrews, where we played the New Course. That was perfect for me.
Ogilvy: Tarnished - How the Stonehaven Cup lost its lustre
But, looking back now, that our Open was hailed as the fifth most important event in the game is hard to imagine. We believed it then though, because Greg Norman played every year and so did so many other iconic names of that era. It all made sense. The Australian Open, after all, was the biggest event in a country that has produced so many good and great golfers. It was one of the tournaments everyone wanted to win.
OGILVY: Tiger’s Cubs - Taking the game to new levels
On a final day when just about everyone wanted Tiger Woods to win and complete one of the most remarkable comebacks in sport never mind golf, Brooks showed himself to be clearly the better player in almost every respect. Which was a weird thing to watch for those of us who grew up watching Tiger win just about everything. But in winning at Bellerive, Brooks drove the ball amazingly well. And his iron play was just about as good. What a golfer he is turning out to be.
Ogilvy: Why the cream rose to the top at Carnoustie
Which is not to say Carnoustie wasn’t a brilliant test and didn’t illustrate all the things that make golf by the seaside so special. I’m betting that a high percentage of the field – and many of the contenders on Sunday – had never before played a course quite like that. But that’s when you find out how good guys really are – when you put them in situations they haven’t seen before. It was fascinating to see who adapted best to this “new” and wonderful form of golf.
OGILVY: Where the USGA continues to get it wrong
Not so this year. Shinnecock Hills is a wonderful course and I would love to have been there. Opens at places that are so special almost get more attention and carry with them a bit more credibility. But once I started watching, my initial envy turned quickly to interest. I ended up watching more golf than I have in many years. It was just so enjoyable. I loved seeing how the course played. I was keen to see how the USGA would present each hole.
Ogilvy: Why only the greats win at Carnoustie
Sadly, that feeling didn’t last. It ended up being – still – one of the most disappointing weeks I’ve had in my career. And it remains, by a distance, my least favourite Open. Only a couple of holes into my first practice round, I sensed something was wrong. I’d seen enough Opens on television over the years to know the course set-up was far from normal. There was rough everywhere. When I got to the famous par-5 6th – known as Hogan’s Alley – I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
The National Golf Tournament
Time 1 Tee 10 Tee 7:20 a.m. Kevin Tway, Dominic Bozzelli, Tyler Duncan Alex Cejka, Whee Kim, Brandon Harkins 7:32 a.m. David Hearn, Trey Mullinax, Martin Piller Robert Streb, Derek Fathauer, J.T. Poston 7:44 a.m. Sung Kang, Cameron Percy, Corey Conners Ben Crane, Chad Campbell, Shawn Stefani 7:56 a.m. Brian Stuard, David Lingmerth, Kevin Na Andrew Landry, Rod Pampling, S Francesco Molinari 8:08 a.m. Chris Stroud, Peter Malnati, Charles Howell III Kyle Stanley, Billy Hurley III, Nick Watney...
OGILVY: Patrick Reed’s past buried the lead
Almost none of the post-tournament coverage concentrated on the golf. That didn’t seem quite right to my way of thinking. And it certainly wasn’t what I wanted to read. I get that when someone wins his first major the world needs and wants to know where the new star came from.
OGILVY: We need to embrace golf’s balance
No one on either side ever seems to come up with a winning argument. And everyone on both sides is convinced that their vision of the future is best for the game. But that’s not enough. I get both sides of the argument. I get that the PGA Tour has maybe never been more interesting to watch than it is now. Tiger is back. Phil is winning again. And there are so many great young players. Why mess with it?
OGILVY: Bubba Watson is a misunderstood genius
He certainly has a “love him or hate him” sort of image, which is something I have always found both understandable and unfair. I know Bubba better than most guys on Tour – we share the same management – so I am pretty well qualified to analyse his quirky personality. I’ve spent a lot of time with him and played many practice rounds in his company. At first, I must admit, he was a little strange to deal with. Bubba tends to hold himself back until he knows you are genuine.
OGILVY: The Rules of Golf can be an ass
Like just about everyone, I would agree that it is something that has been needed for a long time. We started with 10 rules – which was probably about right – but, as humans tend to do, we then started asking questions. And for every answer we got two more questions. Which is why the “decisions book” is now about three-feet thick. One of the craziest aspects of tour golf is that our officials don’t make their on-course rulings out of the rule book.
OGILVY: The things taking fun out of golf
The first is obvious and one that will no doubt resonate with all of you: Slow play. It is the one thing that affects me most during an event. Everyone has a natural pace, so some people are just naturally slow in everything they do. My father is one of those. But even if that is the case, there is – at least to me – little excuse for playing golf slowly. If you do all the little things between shots quickly, you can almost take as long as you want over a shot and not fall behind.
OGILVY: Golf really is a game of opposites
One in particular resonates with me: The longer I play, the more I realise that golf conspires against you right from the beginning. None of us can change the fact that we live our lives by reacting instinctively. We can’t override our natural instincts. When we fall forward, our hands and arms automatically attempt to cushion our impact with the ground. Our bodies react before our minds kick into gear. It’s a survival instinct born of a time when we lived in caves.
OGILVY: Too easy to “blame the ball” in distance debate
And, to a large extent, what dictates the content of those practices and preparations are the playing fields on which I do my job. As a group, we pros have to be adaptable. We have to adjust our games each week so that, by the time we reach the final round on Sunday, we are more suited to the prevailing conditions than when we arrived. Our swings and strategies must evolve into what will help us shoot lower scores. That is an undeniable aspect of tour life.
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