Date: May 24, 2008
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Putter lifts Ogilvy

A hot putter has lifted Geoff Ogilvy within three strokes of the second-round lead at the Crowne Plaza Invitational. Ogilvy reeled off five consecutive birdies mid-round to post the day&aposs equal-best score, an impressive six-under-par 64 in testing winds at Colonial Country Club to jump to four-under overall alongside compatriot Rod Pampling. They trail leader Phil Mickelson, the American veteran posting a 68 to take a one-shot lead over Matt Kuchar, Brian Gay and Johnson Wagner. Ogilby has been missing in action since winning the World Golf Championships event in Miami in March, poor putting preventing him from capitalizing on a good long game. But he turned it around big time on Friday with probably his best putting performance of the year. “I&aposve putted poorly for the past month,” Ogilvy said. “My patience has been pretty bad but I started making putts today. “I worked something out on the greens and started rolling it better. Even the ones I didn&apost make rolled right over the edge of the hole. It only takes one or two to go in and all of a sudden you feel like a good putter again.” Asked what he had worked out, Ogilvy couldn&apost point to anything specific, describing it merely as a &aposcouple of old feels&apos. “It&aposs an intangible type of thing. It&aposs impossible to describe my feel to someone else. You just go through all the things that you&aposve used before until you find one that works,” he said. His birdie run started at his eighth hole, the par-four 17th, where he made a confidence boosting 10-footer. He sank a putt from the same length at the par-four 18th, before picking up another shot with an easy two-putt at the par-five first. A tap-in at the next made it four birdies in a row, and he completed his streak by rolling in a 20-footer at the par-four third, one of the hardest holes on the course. Ogilvy, the 2006 United States Open champion, wasn&apost sure if he would play here, until he missed the cut at the Players Championship two weeks ago. If he had not played this week, it would have been three out of four weeks off going into next month&aposs Open at Torrey Pines. After 36 holes, at least, he was glad he came. Second Round Scores from the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial, Texas -7: Phil Mickelson 65, 68 -6: Matt Kuchar 70, 64, Brian Gay 69, 65, Johnson Wagner 63, 71 -5: Vaughn Taylor 67, 68, Kevin Sutherland 67, 68, Brian Bateman 70, 65, Stephen Ames 68, 67, Steve Lowery 68, 67, Mark Brooks 67, 68 -4: Rod Pampling (Australia) 69, 67, Geoff Ogilvy (Australia) 72, 64 -4: Ben Crane 68, 68, Corey Pavin 67, 69, Richard Johnson 67, 69 -3: Jose Coceres 68, 69, Tag Ridings 69, 68, Tim Clark 68, 69, Bart Bryant 72, 65, Mark Wilson 70, 67, Tommy Armour 111 71, 66 Also: -1: Nathan Green (Australia) 71, 68 E: Nick O&aposHern (Australia) 70, 70, Steve Elkington (Australia) 73, 67, Matthew Goggin (Australia) 67, 73 +3: Mark Hensby (Australia) 73, 70 +4: Jason Day (Australia) 77, 67 +5: John Senden (Australia) 72, 73 +6: Nick Flanagan (Australia) 69, 77 +8: Matt Jones (Australia) 72, 76