Date: December 08, 2008
Author: Steve Orme, Sportal

Ogilvy relieved with Coolum win

A delighted Geoff Ogilvy has expressed his utter relief after claiming an elusive maiden win on home soil with a two-shot victory in the Cadbury Schweppes Australian PGA Championship on Sunday. The 31-year-old overcame a slow start on his way to a three-under 69 in steamy conditions to see off playing partner Mathew Goggin in a tense back-nine showdown. “It feels pretty good,” Ogilvy beamed after claiming the Joe Kirkwood Cup. “Obviously it&aposs a pretty good week for me it&aposs been a long time coming in Australia it feels like.” “I came back playing well – I mean I&aposve hardly played in the last two or three months – but I played in China and I played really well about three weeks ago so I knew I was playing quite well and felt really good about it all week.” Asked what significance his breakthrough win in Australia holds in the context of his career, the world No.14 said: “It&aposs a pretty nice trophy there&aposs some pretty solid names on this one.” “It&aposs obviously one of our most historic trophies it&aposs being going since 1929 this trophy and the tournament&aposs been going longer than that (1905).” “So it&aposs nice and I don&apost have to answer any more questions next week.” Ogilvy&aposs bogey-free final round capped an impressive weekend that included a single blemish at the 16th hole on Saturday. “I even missed a few putts really and still felt confident and solid out there, I knew I was going to make birdies because I was playing well enough,” he said. “To finish like that and then the weather looked like it was going to turn on us but then it went away for us, so it was pretty nice.” The 2006 US Open winner said he was unfazed by his slow start on Sunday having rattled off seven consecutive pars to trail Goggin by three shots. “I guess I&aposve played in enough last groups where I haven&apost won golf tournaments and you go back and look at it and very, very often they don&apost go out and birdie the first three or four holes,” he said. “They just chip away and chip away and very rarely do guys run away on a Sunday so I wasn&apost really too concerned about it.” He made up for his stuttering start on the back nine and it was ultimately a crisp nine iron from 129m on 16 that sealed the win for the Victorian. “It was a perfect number … you play golf all the time and very rarely you&aposve got a perfect distance, it&aposs always (a case of) you&aposve got to take a tiny bit off it or you&aposve got to hit it a little bit more,” Ogilvy said. “Normally it doesn&apost matter because the pin&aposs in the middle of the green and you just hit it normal and it goes a couple (of metres) past or a couple short, but that green in particular it&aposs really nice to be happy with the club you&aposve got in your hand and as soon as I got the number I was just happy with it.” “I felt like it was the right time to go for it, I knew it was going to get over bunker, it was aggressive but I knew it&aposs only a nine iron so you&aposre supposed to hit those ones close.”