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THE MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT

June 2, 2005

Joe Ogilvie

DUBLIN, OHIO

JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: Thank you, Joe, for joining us for a few minutes here in the media center at The Memorial Tournament. Great start to the week, and it must be a lot of fun playing so well right here close to home.

JOE OGILVIE: Yeah, it was. I had a lot of friends and family out there, a lot of people I haven't seen probably since high school, 13, 14 years. That was a lot of fun to see. This is a tough golf course, and to get off to a good start, it kind of settles the nerves a little bit.

Q. Did they introduce you on the first day from Lancaster, India?

JOE OGILVIE: No, actually, Lancaster, Ohio. Yeah, I did the clinic yesterday, and it was nice to be invited to do the clinic because obviously last year was kind of I didn't start off I guess the way I wanted my first Memorial to start off.

But Jack said some things at the clinic that were good, and we kind of I don't know if there was a hatchet to be buried, but it was just kind of a nice way to start things off yesterday at the clinic. So it was nice.

Q. For those of us not from Ohio, how far away is Lancaster and how often have you played this course?

JOE OGILVIE: It's about 45, 50 minutes away. Some people from Dublin would probably say it's closer to an hour and a half, two hours away. But I've played the golf course a good friend of mine was a member or is a member, Dick Cochran, who I'm staying with. I probably was up here at least five, six times a year. We had the U.S. Junior Amateur qualifier here. I got to play a practice round and two rounds at Muirfield Village for $12. Pretty much everybody in Ohio and the surrounding States took advantage of that.

So I played probably 20 times, 30 times in high school, which is great. Coming up here, watching the tournament, skipping school on Wednesday, always skipped school on Wednesday and brought the big video camera around here, lugged it all over the hills and videotaped the guys' swings. It was great fun to be in high school and just to see these guys swing. I remember Davis Love reaching the 7th green in two, and I'm like, "how could you ever reach the 7th green in two?" I think Vijay had iron in there yesterday when I played a practice round with him, and I could actually get there.

It's fun to have grown up watching this tournament as a little kid, and now remembering as a little kid, "God, I could never do that." And now I'm sort of doing it, which is kind of fun.

Q. What did Jack say to you?

JOE OGILVIE: Well, he said he introduced me, "Joe Ogilvie from Lancaster, Ohio. It's good to have Joe here, he earned it this year. He kind of felt like he was a little slighted this year, but it's good to have him." That's all that really needed to be said. I said "thanks." I wasn't going to say anything. No India comments (laughter).

So it was good. I've got to admit, I was really nervous to do a clinic with Jack Nicklaus, telling him how I hit 6 irons. I mean, I thought it was some of the most probably the most absurd thing I've ever done in my life, but it was kind of funny, the last time Jack told this sorry, last time Jack saw me hit a 6 iron we were playing Annandale, the last tournament of the year in Jackson, Mississippi, and I was choking my guts out, I had a chance to keep my card. I think I finished 137th on the Money List that year and I looked at my caddie and he looked at me, and you could just see fear in my eyes. Jack was watching Gary play because Gary was in my group, and my caddie said to me, "this is probably the first time in your life and probably the only time in your life that you actually want a spectator to hit this shot for you," and it was so true (laughter).

I think yesterday was a big key for me today just because I felt very comfortable, I felt like I could go out here and play golf, and I started hitting the ball pretty well at the clinic. I was concentrating on being a little bit slower. When I get quick that's when I start hitting the ball terrible, and I didn't want to hit the ball terrible in front of the Presidents Cup captain.

Q. Did you hit the shot better than a spectator could have?

JOE OGILVIE: I kind of hit a heel blade and somehow caught the green. He would have hit it better.

Q. This is probably a pretty simple if not stupid question, but talk about the times you've played it, the 20 or 30 times, and then playing it for the first time this week obviously in tournament conditions, and just how big of a difference is it, beyond the extra yardage?

JOE OGILVIE: It's obviously a big difference. The first time I played at the U.S. Junior Amateur, to tell you how short I hit it, there's a walkway on No. 2 that no one ever notices, but there's a stream short of the fairway, and the only way I could carry the stream was to hit it really well, hit the cart path short of the stream and one hop it over. That's the start of my Muirfield experience.

Q. That stream?

JOE OGILVIE: Yeah. I mean, it's pretty short. I think I was carrying it 140 maybe at the time when I was 12, or maybe I was 13.

Then the last time I played it in competition before last year was in college, and I shot I think I shot 88 with four quads. So I played thank God it was match play. I actually beat the guy I was playing, and he shot 77, which is kind of funny.

So yeah, I've run the gamut here. In the last year I struggled. This is a golf course that's not real precise off the tee, but you've got to hit pretty solid iron shots, and that's what I did today.

Q. You said outside that obviously the scoreboard is bunched; why is that today?

JOE OGILVIE: I think the par 5s. Every par 5 is reachable, even for me. I don't hit it real, real long, but 5 is very reachable. 3 wood, 5 wood for me today. 7 I didn't reach because I hit it in the right rough, but I certainly could have reached it. Scott McCarron reached it, Tim Herron reached it. 11 was reachable with iron today, which never is reachable, and 15 I hit a 5 iron into.

I think whenever you get your par 5s downwind and reachable, scores are going to be bunched because there's a lot of times you're going to make mistakes, but at the same time you've got four holes that you can kind of make up for your mistakes on. You have to hit precise shots, but you know it's out there. I noticed that the last couple of years I've played I've really noticed whenever the par 5s are downwind you're not going to see a lot of separation.

Q. Was it an unfamiliar wind that you were playing with or was it swirling so much that you

JOE OGILVIE: It wasn't swirling, it was pretty direct.

Q. It was straight out of the south?

JOE OGILVIE: Yeah, I think so.

Q. And that's not a usually it's southwest or northwest here.

JOE OGILVIE: Yeah, I don't know my directions very well. If you get the opposite wind, all of a sudden you're into the wind on 10, you're into the wind on 11, which is no it's not an easy par 5 to hit 3 wood into the wind. You're into the wind on 5, you're into the wind on 6. It becomes a totally different golf course.

You know, those final holes are playing tough, 16, 17, 18, but the golf course can be scored upon when the wind is downwind on 10.

11 is downwind sorry, 12 is downwind. You get 12 into the wind and it's a pretty scary shot.

JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: Thanks, Joe.

End of FastScripts.

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