Geoff Ogilvy is making his first trip to the Masters, but feels right at home.
April 6, 2006
By CAMERON MORFIT SENIOR WRITER, GOLF MAGAZINE
AUGUSTA, Georgia—Maybe it's a stretch to call Geoff Ogilvy a darkhorse to win the 70th Masters. At the WGC-Accenture Match Play he came from behind to beat Michael Campbell, Nick O'Hern, Mike Weir and David Howell in extra holes before dispatching Tom Lehman and Davis Love III. He nearly won the Honda Classic at the TPC at Mirasol in his next start. Friend and fellow Aussie Adam Scott says Ogilvy's game fits Augusta because he hits it so high, while Mark Hensby adds, "Of course he can win here. It's not like he's never seen the golf course."
But that's just it. Ogilvy has only seen Augusta National on TV, and while he admits he's not a terrible choice to triumph—he'd be the first first-time winner since Fuzzy Zoeller in 1979—he liked it better on TV. He liked it before the Lords of Augusta pulled the tee boxes back and pinched the fairways in, enlarged the bunkers and planted a nursery along the right side of the 505-yard 11th hole. All of which begs the question: Can a man win on a course where he sees glaring flaws around every corner, even Amen Corner?
"I think 11 is terrible, to be honest with you," Ogilvy said as he waited to play in the par-3 contest with Scott and K.J. Choi on Wednesday. "They've halved the width of the fairway. It's not the length. A lot of guys hit it over 300 yards now and the ball is going to run, so most guys out here are going to have only 180, 190 yards downhill to the green. That's only a 7-iron so that's not bad. But the narrowness—it's almost a dogleg to the right now. I don't think it's what Bobby Jones wanted. I don't like it at all. The narrowness is stupid."
In his press conference Wednesday, Augusta National Chairman Hootie Johnson defended the length of the hole, saying Jones intended the approach shot be played with a 3-iron or stronger club. Of the newly transplanted forest, Johnson said he was appalled when Phil Mickelson blasted a drive wide right and wasn't penalized at the '98 Masters.
Geoff Ogilvy isa a golf course architecture buff, and isn't crazy about Augusta's recent changes. Getty ImagesGetty Images
"He had a pitching wedge to the green," Johnson said. "The hole wasn't intended to play like that. I believe Hogan is quoted as saying, 'If you ever see me on that green, you know I've missed my shot.' Well, if Hogan was hitting a damn pitching wedge, he wouldn't have been to the right of the green; he'd have been within three feet of the cup."
Maybe so, but Ogilvy, who is something of a golf course architecture buff in addition to being a heavy-metal guitarist, was blunt about other changes, as well. Of the lengthened, 240-yard par-3 fourth hole, he said, "It's longer than it needs to be." Of the narrow, uphill, 450-hard seventh: "They took away all the choice off the tee, which is what was intended when it was designed. There's no option. You have to hit it hard and straight. I don't like it."
So far Ogilvy's distaste for the new National hasn't crept into his game. He may not like the fourth, but he birdied it in a practice round, hitting a 3-wood off the tee to six feet from the pin. He says of the roller-coaster greens, "they would never be built like that today," but they were built like that at the TPC at Mirasol, home of the Honda Classic, and he has consistently played well there. (T14, T13, T6 and second, from 2003 through '06, respectively.) "There's some stuff in Melbourne, where I grew up, that is quite similar, putting wise," he said. "Royal Melbourne and Kingston Heath are more extreme in slope, and Australia is more extreme speed wise. These greens aren't that fast."
Perhaps he's all talk, or perhaps Ogilvy will prove that the first step toward taming Augusta is refusing to fear it. In any event, he sounds less deferential than menacing, a good sign, perhaps, that someday he'll be fitted for a funny green coat in little Butler Cabin.
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