	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

BOB HOPE CHRYSLER CLASSIC

January 29, 2005

Joe Ogilvie

LA QUINTA, CALIFORNIA

JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: Thank you, Joe, for joining us. Let's begin with the 72-hole leader, Joe Ogilvie, the winner of this week's Crestor Charity Challenge. In his name, a donation of $50,000 will be given to a health care facility of your choice. In addition, the Desert Classic Charities will receive $50,000 from the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic and Crestor. Congratulations.

JOE OGILVIE: Thank you. I won one of these in New Orleans last year, and I gave $25,000 to Duke and $25,000 to our hospital in Austin. It's a great thing.

JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: Let's start with how you played today.

JOE OGILVIE: Yesterday I drove it extremely poorly. Today I drove it extremely well. Yesterday I hit a lot of good iron shots and putted well. Today I hit no decent iron shots and hit a lot of good putts but didn't give myself a lot of opportunities.

I made a birdie on -- two birdies on the par 5s and an eagle. I probably made it from ten feet on No. 6 maybe.

I birdied No. 6 from ten feet.

I knocked a 3-wood on No. 11 to about, I'd say, 12 feet, made that putt.

Then I knocked a 5-wood on the 13th hole to probably 16, 17 feet, and just lipped out that putt.

I probably had about four or five lip-outs, but they were all from 15 to 20 feet. Probably closer to 18 to 25 feet. So I really didn't hit the ball great with my irons, which kind of surprised me.

Q. Just wondering if there's any truth to the rumor you're petitioning to make this a four-day tournament (laughter).

JOE OGILVIE: You know, I'd do a rain dance tomorrow, but I don't think we're going to have a freak storm in Palm Springs, so I think that's out. It's going to be fun tomorrow. This course, PGA West, there's a lot of rough. It plays -- if you hit the ball in the fairway, there's a lot of birdie holes. I don't know how many shots Duval was back when he shot 59, but I think anyone from 17 under and up, which is probably about 30 people, have a chance to win tomorrow.

If I play well and I play the way I've been playing, I putt decent enough, you know, I can eliminate a lot of guys. But tomorrow is still going to take -- I'm 26. I figure the winning score is still going to be close to 32-under, somewhere around in there. When you think about it, it's a joke. I certainly didn't think that I'd be the one putting up these numbers.

I said at the beginning of the week, my goal at the beginning of the week was to try to shoot under par, under par being -- par is probably 67, so hopefully I can play well tomorrow. If I can shoot my par or better, which is 67 or better, I think I should have a pretty good chance.

Q. Was there anything in particular that you lost the crispness on the irons from yesterday?

JOE OGILVIE: Yeah, it was funny. It was cold in the morning or chilly in the morning, and then it really warmed up. So the desert, I think the inflection point of the temperature is probably somewhere around 68 or 69 or something. Anything less than 68 or 69, the ball doesn't go anywhere. Once it gets over 68 or 69, it probably got to 75 today, the ball seems to really fly.

When you come to the desert, even though it's perfectly at sea level, you're still used to that extra two or three percent because there's no humidity here, the ball pretty much flies through the air. It seemed toward the beginning of the day the ball wasn't going anywhere.

I had a lot of good shots right at the pin, but 20 feet short. I hit a lot of my shots right at the pin, I just didn't have the right -- I just didn't figure out the yardage properly. I mean, I knew the yardage, just didn't play it properly.

That's the thing that you run into. When you play early here, you just don't know how well that ball is going to fly, and it takes you a couple holes to get used to it. I'm happy with the way I drove the ball. If I can drive the ball the way I did today tomorrow, I'll be in pretty good shape.

Q. You were in this position at New Orleans last year. What did you learn from that experience that you think will help you tomorrow?

JOE OGILVIE: You know, I guess that no lead is safe, and I think I had a four-shot lead going into the last nine holes. Especially here, once you get past No. 10, 11 through 18 are birdie holes, with the exception of maybe 13. But 13, you're still going to have a 7-iron, so that's a birdie hole, as well.

There's a ton of birdie holes here. There's a couple good holes. 10 is a good hole, 9 is a good hole, 7 is a good hole, 5 is a good hole. But if you can navigate those properly, pretty much every hole is have at it.

I'm going to have to go low tomorrow. I think that's the biggest thing I took away from New Orleans. If this was a U.S. Open I'd realize "steady as she goes, pars are good and play conservative," but there's not going to be a whole lot of conservative play out of me tomorrow.

Q. You talked about the conversation that you and Phil had after that round last year.

JOE OGILVIE: Right.

Q. He told you he thought maybe you needed to be a little more aggressive, so is this now this new attitude the result of that?

JOE OGILVIE: I think you pick your points. You know, I know I'm not going to go for the green on No. 14 tomorrow, no matter what I'm doing. I'm not going to go for that green. It just doesn't set up properly for me.

But other than that, I'll pick my places to be aggressive. There's no point in being aggressive if you can't pull off the shot. Right-hand pins for me with anything more than a 7-iron, I try to fade the ball, and the more I think I can fade the ball, I realize I'm not going to be able to fade the ball. I can if there's a tree in front of me, but put me in the fairway, I'm not going to go for it. Fortunately I'm putting well enough that I don't have to.

There's places to be aggressive and places to be conservative, and hopefully I'll find a happy mix tomorrow.

JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: Thank you for joining us, Joe.

End of FastScripts.

About ASAP Sports • FastScripts Archive • Recent Interviews • Captioning • Upcoming Events • Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297