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JOHN DEERE CLASSIC

July 14, 2006

Joe Ogilvie

SILVIS, ILLINOIS

JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: Thank you, Joe, for joining us for a few minutes in the media center at the John Deere Classic. Good start to your week and good position looks like going into the weekend. You've kind of been up there on top of the leaderboard lately. Last week you led off the first round.

JOE OGILVIE: Led after the first round and the second round and then I threw a quick 79 at them on the weekend and they didn't even flinch. Hopefully this weekend will be a little better than last weekend.

Q. How will you make it better than last weekend?

JOE OGILVIE: Well, I played with Trevor Immelman the last day of the tournament at the Western, and watching him I rarely watch the guys I'm playing with. Watching him, he's a lot younger than I am, but the way he carried himself, just the way he played, his confidence, the way he kept in his routine, he's going to be a world beater. He already is. But he was just very impressive, and I was off in left field. I was all over the place.

I think I'll be a little more patient, I think I'll slow down a little bit on the weekend. I think I'll just stay in what little routine I have, I think I'll stay in it. That's the goal anyway.

Q. What did you learn more last weekend, more about yourself from the falter on Sunday, or more from watching him and how he handled himself?

JOE OGILVIE: Well, I've had a knack throughout my career of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory (laughter), so I've done that plenty of times. I think I learned more from watching him. That was certainly more impressive because I've shot plenty of 79s on Sunday (laughter).

Q. Why do you suppose that is? How do you take care of that this year?

JOE OGILVIE: I don't know, I've also shot bogey free 68s and bogey free 67s when I've had a chance to win, too. Guys have just shot lower.

You know, it's golf, unfortunately. It's the sport that we play. Unless your name is Tiger, you're going to have some issues on Sunday. He's pretty much the only guy that doesn't.

Q. Does the pulse race a little more, sleeping difficult?

JOE OGILVIE: Yeah, I think everything, all of the above. Everything changes a little bit on Sunday. You try not to let it affect you. Sometimes it doesn't, and it could be as simple as what you eat for breakfast or whatever. I mean, I don't know what it is. I wish I did. I could put it in a pill and make a lot of money, then I wouldn't have to play on Sunday.

But I just think that it's something I wish I could put my finger on. I do know there's a trend that whenever I get quick and whenever I all of a sudden get out of my routine, that's when it goes pretty quick downhill. It's happened a couple times.

After you have rounds that are high, you kind of after you get over the initial two hours of beating yourself up, you kind of get a little more introspective and say, okay, what happened, what was wrong, replay the round in your head. I drove from after I dropped my kids and wife off at the airport (and went into the gate with them so you guys don't think I'm a bad dad), I drove down here, and when you drive for two and a half hours you can pretty much figure it out.

So I replayed the round, figured out what I did wrong, obviously besides hitting the ball wrong. But when you shoot 9 under for three rounds, you just don't shoot 79 because you have poor skills or you're hitting it poorly, you shoot 79 because something happened mentally or something happened that you got out of your routine. That's what you kind of try to learn from.

Q. What did you learn watching Trevor, and what did you see that would make you characterize him as a world beater?

JOE OGILVIE: Well, I've played with Trevor now probably 72 holes, and I still can't tell you if he hits a fade or a draw. He doesn't he hits it about as straight as anybody. I guess he probably tends to play a fade.

But he also has length, his irons he just doesn't hit the ball off line very often. Even the best players in the world I guess Trevor is one of the best players in the world, but even the guys that you see up top on the leaderboard, Phil, Tiger, Ernie, Vijay, those guys can still hit it off the map.

He doesn't hit it off the map. I mean, he's very, very straight and very, very solid. It seems like every shot he hits is solid. Very similar to, I guess, I heard Fred Couples say that he never mis hits the ball. It might go left or right but he never mis hits it. Trevor doesn't seem to mis hit it. He's solid with the putter, solid with the wedges. He's got all around one of the most solid games I've seen out here.

Q. These past few weeks what particular aspect of your game has been the most effective for you?

JOE OGILVIE: I think I have more confidence in my putter. When you have confidence in putting it doesn't put as much pressure on other parts of your game. I'm hitting a lot of fairways. I'm hitting probably over 70 percent of my fairways these last couple weeks. My stats may not show that, but I'm hitting a lot of first cuts. You keep it out of that long grass, I think that's the key.

Q. You said if you could make a pill you wouldn't have to play on Sunday. I saw where you turned $3,000 into $100,000.

JOE OGILVIE: Well, that was one time if I sold at the right time it would have been a lot more.

Q. I guess the question is, is this still your day job?

JOE OGILVIE: Yeah, it's 100 percent. I make a lot more money out here than I do in stocks, especially when the market goes down 10 percent. But no, I enjoy following the markets. It's something I do when the sun goes down, something I'll do when I get out of here because I'm not going to practice when it's 100 degrees.

No, it's just something I like to do and something that's kind of intellectually stimulating, something that I just like it. I've always followed them and will continue to do that hopefully long after I am done playing golf.

Q. If you're home and you have a week off and say it's Friday morning, will you look at the stock tables first or the PGA TOUR scores first?

JOE OGILVIE: Oh, I won't look at the scores. I mean, I might flip on pgatour.com maybe at night, maybe. Very rarely at night. But no, I'll look at stocks exclusively. I don't watch golf when I'm not playing golf, unless it's a major. Players Championship included.

Q. What if it's the FedEx Cup?

JOE OGILVIE: FedEx Cup I'll watch it. It depends on who's playing. If Michelle Wie is playing, I'll watch. If Tiger Woods is playing, I'll watch. I'm just like everybody else. I want to see who you guys like to see. Is that bad?

JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: It's your opinion.

JOE OGILVIE: It's my opinion. But no, I like watching what everybody else likes to watch. Michelle is very fun to watch, Tiger is very fun to watch. If I'm at home, I might watch them, but generally speaking, I'll watch stocks.

Q. Speaking of Michelle, if you were her manager, what would you advocate for the next year for her as far as looking at Tour events? Would you say let's go get some trophies on the LPGA Tour, or would you say, you know, dabble a couple times a year and it's okay? How would you advise her?

JOE OGILVIE: Well, it's inconceivable that she's not going to win on the LPGA Tour soon. I mean, it's just not. Under no scenario will that not happen; she's too good. The scary thing is when she starts to win, she's going to win everything. It may not even be fun to watch an LPGA Tour event, that's how good she is.

I think if I was her manager, I think they've erred on not I would have played The Colonial and I would have tried to get in the Memorial and I would have tried to get in invitationals, Hilton Head. I think when you play 144 man fields out here, 156 this week, I think it's more difficult to make I mean, she's trying to make a cut right now, and she can say she's trying to win, but she's just trying to make a cut.

One, I think that's a negative on her because she's way too good to just try to make a cut. She's extremely good, and she's going to be extremely good for a long time. She's better than Tiger was at 16. I played with Tiger, and Tiger wasn't this good.

But when you play Memorial you've got a 105 man field, when you play Colonial you've got a 114 man field. It's a lot easier to make the cut when you only have to beat 30 guys as opposed to beating 78 or 80 guys. So that's the first thing I'd do.

Second thing I'd do is I'd tell her to play more Tour events. I was out here when she teed off at 10:45, and it looked like Tiger Woods was teeing off on No. 10. I mean, it's wall to wall, all the way down the entire length of the par 5, 10th hole. It was great to see. It's great for Moline, it's great for the PGA TOUR, it's great for Michelle Wie and it's great for Joe Ogilvie.

I guess that's about that's all the superlatives I can really say. She's going to win on the LPGA Tour. Everybody is like win, win, win. She's 16; chill out. Once she gets to winning you'll get sick of her winning.

Q. Golf course today, how did it

JOE OGILVIE: It's good. It's wet, very soft. You don't have to worry about the ball rolling and releasing on the greens. I thought that it played a touch more difficult I couldn't get to No. 2 today, which normally you can get to pretty easy. 17 is playing a little bit longer. But in the afternoon that may all change, a little bit different wind than we normally have.

JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: Let's go through your round.

JOE OGILVIE: Birdied No. 1, made about a 14 footer, 15 footer.

No. 2, about the same putt, 18 feet maybe.

Bogey on 5, I hit an 8 iron, 165 and hit an 8 iron, flew the green and made bogey.

Birdie on 7, knocked it about 15 feet.

10, that was a good putt. That was about an 18 footer probably.

And then 12, I came real close to making a 1. I hit a 5 iron to about say eight feet.

Q. You said she's ahead of where Tiger was at 16. Can you expand on that a little bit?

JOE OGILVIE: Well, most girls are more ahead of boys at an early age. Girls just develop quicker. But I think she's Tiger didn't do I could be wrong on this, but I'm not sure if Tiger made a cut until he was

Q. 19.

JOE OGILVIE: 19, on the PGA TOUR. You know, at 14 or whenever she was at Sony two years ago, she was 15, she almost made the cut. That's not an easy golf course. It's her own golf course but it's not an easy golf course.

She hits it plenty long. I think she's more in control of her game than Tiger was. Tiger was a much better putter, but I think Michelle is she's got all the shots. Michelle is probably in control more of her wedge game than Tiger was.

Q. You said she should play more Tour events. Would that mean more exemptions or she should start Monday qualifying?

JOE OGILVIE: If someone has a problem with Michelle Wie getting a sponsor exemption, they don't understand what we're about. Our job is to entertain. That's why we're out here. We're playing golf, but at the same time it's entertainment. Sports is to entertain the public. We're not curing cancer out here, we're just trying to get the ball in the hole.

Q. But the guy who's 130 on the Money List isn't thinking he's an entertainer, he's thinking about making his living.

JOE OGILVIE: He is 100 percent right, but when Tiger got his exemptions people were saying he should be Monday qualifying. He's out of the zero to the left of the decimal point of his earnings. So the guy at 130, instead of finishing 130 and making $500,000, he'll be finishing and making $700,000, so at the end of the day his wife will understand if Michelle Wie gets an exemption.

Q. I'm not arguing, I'm just saying you know there are guys out here

JOE OGILVIE: 100 percent, there are guys that will complain. I'm sure there's people on the LPGA Tour in fact, I'm sure the majority of women on the LPGA Tour are very angry that Michelle plays on the LPGA Tour sometimes, but they just don't get it. They just don't get it.

Q. How do you account from her going from a 79 to a 68 to a 77? How do you account for that fluctuation?

JOE OGILVIE: Well, I mean, you know, I did it last week (laughter).

Q. I had a feeling that was coming.

JOE OGILVIE: I think, one, it's golf. Two, she's 16. You know, I don't know. It seems like her higher rounds well, I don't know. I haven't followed her scores well enough. Maybe it's an easy as she's gotten some bad breaks.

Q. Could I just follow up one more thing? When you get going bad, what's the thing that goes bad about your game that would explain maybe how that can happen to anybody?

JOE OGILVIE: I think doubt. I think doubt creeps up. When I'm going good, I don't think. Everything is just fine. But when I go bad, I think I'm just probably like another hacker that says, God like the 18th hole today, I'm hitting it well, but I had this shot that was a pretty difficult shot, and I got right about here (indicating th downswing) before I struck it and said, "I'm going to chunk it in the water," and then I also said, "If I chunk it in the water, I'm not talking to any of you guys at the end because I'll be too ticked off." That's what I thought about.

Q. Going back to what you learned last weekend, what did you learn specifically and how do you apply it this weekend here in contention?

JOE OGILVIE: Just routine. Stay patient, stay in the routine and don't deviate from the routine regardless of how great or how poorly I'm doing.

End of FastScripts.

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