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THE INTERNATIONAL

August 5, 2004

Geoff Ogilvy

CASTLE ROCK, COLORADO

TODD BUDNICK: Geoff, finished your first round with 15 points. Outside of your first hole and last hole, it was a pretty good day.

GEOFF OGILVY: Yeah, middle 16 were pretty good. Yeah, I played well. I started kind of boring, I bogeyed the 10th, and until I got to 17, I was going along which is normally pretty good but not on this one. I hit it close on 17, which is one that you really have to take advantage of. I hit a 5 iron in to a couple feet. You really can't afford to make any more than birdie there.

Then I went along and played great on the front nine. I got lucky, I holed a wedge shot on the third.

Q. Is there any sense of camaraderie among the Australians, you see a lot of them on the leaderboard a lot of weeks, especially a guy who may be younger than some of the Aussies out there?

GEOFF OGILVY: Yeah, we obviously all know each other pretty well. I guess when you're in a foreign country you tend to gravitate to your countrymen. I think that's the same of any race of people that's in any country, they tend to hang out with their home countrymen. There is a little bit. We all want to see each other do well.

There's a feeling in Australia that we're small fish in a big pond when we come over here. But Greg paved the way for everyone, and Elk, and we are all pretty good mates. We all have dinner together off the course and we all play practice rounds.

Q. You played well here in the past, is that just because of your ball flight, or maybe you take advantage of the altitude a little bit?

GEOFF OGILVY: Well, maybe. The course suits my game. I guess it suits the higher guy because you can get advantage it's hard to predict how far it's going to go when you hit it high. But I think the format suits me more than anything. I think I've always been a guy who makes six bogeys and six birdies and shoots even par, rather than shoot 18 pars and that's the name of the game here. Probably a couple eagles, which are a double bonus, and that's huge, one eagle and you're five points, that's pretty good. You've probably got to have a couple two or three in a week to really be there at the end in this tournament. Hopefully I've got a couple left in me.

Q. It's been a real breakout year for you. What's been the difference in your game this year to the prior couple?

GEOFF OGILVY: To be honest with you, it's about the same as it was last year, it's probably no better. I actually think I was doing better at this point last year than I am now. More consistent. I'm probably I missed a lot of cuts on the West Coast, but I don't read too much into that because I never play good on West Coast. But since Florida I've played pretty solid. I'm more consistent. I'm better at turning a poor finish into a decent one, turning a 35th into a 15th now; whereas before I probably turned a 30th into a 50th, I don't know.

So I'm just better at doing, I think. So instead of making 15,000 or 20,000m you pop off $60,000 or $70,000 and that moves you up the Money List I guess.

TODD BUDNICK: You have 11 Top 25s in 19 events this year.

GEOFF OGILVY: There's a lot of money any time you make the cut, but it really seems to drop off from about 25th down. That's a pretty good measure, 25th. Because if you finish 30th, you might make 20,000 or you finish last, you make 8,000. But if you finish 20th, you might make 60,000. So it seems to really drop off after the 25th. So that was really my goal whenever I'm having an average week trying to really grind to get into that top 20 spot, is pretty valuable out here.

Q. What's your theory or explanation on the success of the Aussies of late, is it that you guys are able to adjust to American courses really easily, maybe some similarities to some courses over there? Other quote,unquote foreign players may take more of an adjustment period. You guys seem to be ready to go?

GEOFF OGILVY: Probably a combination of a few things. I think our courses are not very similar really to here. Our courses on a day to day basis, the tournaments we play down there would be more like Shinnecock, bouncy, chip and runs and that sort of stuff. I think it's easier to adapt from that to this sort of golf than it is from this to that. I also think , and you guys probably know, we have 16 or 17 Australians I think back in the old days it was tougher because Greg was probably the only one and then Elkington came along. It's a lot easier when you've got guys that you can beat at home doing well over here.

I guess it's a good measuring stick, you kind of know where you stand straightaway. Whereas these other guys, Carlos from Paraguay, that's a tough deal coming from Paraguay to here.

It's probably a combination of a few things. We play some pretty firm, bouncy, windy golf courses and I think it's probably easier to come to this than the other way.

End of FastScripts.

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