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TARGET WORLD CHALLENGE


December 17, 2006


Geoff Ogilvy


THOUSAND OAKS, CALIFORNIA: Final Round

DAVE SENKO: Geoff, thanks for joining us. You finished 12-under, 71 today. Maybe just take us back through your day real quick and then we'll get some questions.
GEOFF OGILVY: Yeah, well, first hole I played nice, just missed the putt. Second hole -- a few times today I had mud on my ball the second shot. I really had to go for the green. Because I had mud on it I didn't want to aim for the pin, I aimed to the middle of the green and it squirted to the right, and I shouldn't have made a bogey but I three-putted from a long way because it bounced into a bad spot.
After that it was just kind of scratchy. I wasn't hitting it as good as I did yesterday. I hit a couple of awful shots, especially the one on the ninth, which was close to a shank.
On the back nine I played okay. I had my chances. I had a bad three-putt on what was it, 14; I thought I'd have a chance at 14, especially with 16 coming up. And then I got a mud ball on 16 and ended up getting away with it.
All in all I didn't play as well as I did yesterday, but not too bad. I would have had to have a pretty good score. I knew starting the day I would have to shoot 5- or 6-under to win. Maybe that's why you never play well when he's there because you try too hard to shoot a score. Golf is very hard when you're trying to shoot a low score.

Q. You said yesterday if you beat Tiger, you're going to be in good shape, or if you're even close to him, and of course you beat everybody but Tiger.
GEOFF OGILVY: Yeah, well, I mean, that's financially I guess a success, but still not a victory. It would be nice. I'm sure if I play well, I'll have lots of opportunities to try to beat Tiger in the next ten years. Every opportunity you get is enjoyable. I mean, it wasn't enjoyable while I was doing it. I wished I had played better, but that's all right. Second is definitely better than third, but I would have liked to get closer.

Q. The mud ball that early in the round and then suddenly you're two and three adrift, is it pretty hard in your head to try and make up that kind of ground?
GEOFF OGILVY: Well, no. I mean, I still thought I had a chance on the 14th to be honest with you. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't -- no, honestly on the 14th hole I still thought I had a chance. If I had made that putt instead of three-putting it, I'm one behind. It was a tricky putt out of the shadow and it was really far, but it doesn't put you in a great frame of mind, especially bogeying a par 5.
It was a pretty smelly way to start. All week I've been under par after two holes and today I was over par, and that was tough. That's just the way it goes.
Again, maybe it was just trying too hard or something on the first few holes to get off to a good start.

Q. Were you two back when you played 14? Did you see a board?
GEOFF OGILVY: I was 12. I was figuring that he was 14 or 15 at that point. I was at 12. I thought 15 wouldn't be a bad number. What did he end up, 16? So what are you going to do?
When I had a putt to go to 13-under, which at the time I thought was one behind him, I thought I had a chance to still win the tournament. But when you're three -- even on 15, I thought if I can birdie 15, eagle 16, you never know.

Q. Did you three-putt 14?
GEOFF OGILVY: Yeah.

Q. Can you talk about the front nine, and early on you have that one leaderboard I think at No. 4 and that's pretty much it on the front nine until 9. Did you have a pretty good idea where you were at because of the loud noises? Did you feel like he probably birdied a couple? Is it hard to know exactly where he is without them?
GEOFF OGILVY: I saw him hole a putt on the second which you could tell was for birdie, and then on the third he made something or other. He made a -- I don't know what he made there. He made birdie on -- he made a long putt anyway because they all went crazy. I figured he was 2-under after three.
It's pretty easy to tell what the guys in the group in front of you are having. You kind of lose them a little bit. You can't watch on a few of the holes because they disappear, but most of the time you can see them putting on the green when they get there, and you can tell by the reaction if it's a bogey putt or a birdie putt. We had a reasonable feeling that he was 2- or 3-under for the round for most of the day. He ended up having, what, 6-under.

Q. You said you had your break when the baby was born, but is it hard to imagine in 17 days you'll be teeing off at the Mercedes?
GEOFF OGILVY: It is hard to imagine because it still feels like the 2006 season, which I guess it fundamentally is today. Yeah, in two weeks we're going on -- less than two weeks I'll be in Maui and then on -- 17 days. It comes up quick. We don't have to play, you know (laughter). We choose to.
As I said yesterday, Hawaii is a pretty nice spot to go. It's a pretty good way to start the year. I'll probably have a couple of weeks off after Hawaii. Maybe I'll have a little break before and after it. Hawaii is almost a break anyway. It's not, but it's a pretty relaxing place to go.

Q. There is this growing expectation in certain quarters that Tiger should or will win all four majors in 2007. Do you think that's an unfair expectation?
GEOFF OGILVY: He always seems to play well under expectation. I think Tiger should win all four majors in a year. It was only ten years ago people were thinking it was absolutely far fetched to win two, now you've got him winning four. Augusta obviously sets up well. He's a great scrambler. Carnoustie, he did all right last time at Carnoustie in that fiasco. He's the best player in the world and he's going to have a chance every week he tees it up. But a lot of the right things have to happen for him to win four.
When he did it, when he won all four, was it 2000? 2000 and 2001, wasn't it? He was playing some pretty decent golf. I don't think he's actually playing as good as he was then now.
I don't know. Let's see if he wins The Masters then see if he can win the U.S. Open. I don't know.

Q. You went in pretty quick span today from being one stroke up to a couple down. How much if at all does that change your mindset in terms of what you were trying to get done? Tiger said yesterday he felt like he had to make a bunch of birdies. Did you take that same mindset going into today?
GEOFF OGILVY: You figure he's going to play well because he doesn't have many bad Sundays, and Chris is a great player and you knew he was going to have a few birdies.
Look, obviously -- the ideal is to get off to a good start and I didn't, and it's always hard when you do that, when you don't. In my mind I knew I was going to have to shoot 5- or 6-under today to win. In hindsight I would have had 5-under for a playoff. I knew I had to, it's just harder to do that, especially when you're not in your best frame of mind after bogeying a par 5 on the second hole. It's a frustrating way to start, really.

End of FastScripts…


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