Tour player Geoff Ogilvy says he’s excited to finally have the chance to play Lake Karrinyup in the third playing of the ISPS Handa Perth International, starting Thursday.
The 2006 US Open Champion is one of the headline names in a strong field at this year’s event that also features major winners Jason Dufner and Charl Schwartzel as well as local favourite Brett Rumford.
Ogilvy said he has had the event pencilled in since its inception, but could only find room in his schedule for the trip to Western Australia on the back of a very successful season at the PGA Tour.
“I’ve been looking forward to playing here for a while,” said Ogilvy at Tuesday’s press conference at Lake Karrinyup.
“This is the first year it's actually really worked where well for me. My exemption status in America has not been as good in the last couple years. This year, as soon as I won in Reno, this was slotted in, because I wanted to come back.”
Ogilvy credited his resurgence in 2014 to a three week break he took in the middle of the year to recharge and collect his thoughts.
“In the middle of the year I was ready to kind of write the year off.”
“Then all of a sudden I was pretty desperate to get back. I missed it. I guess that's the whole point. You got to stop playing until you miss it.”
Two weeks after his return, Ogilvy won his eighth PGA Tour title at the Baracuda Championship, his first since 2010. A second place the following month at the Deutsche Bank Championship helped consolidate his position in the Fex-ex, where he placed 29th in the end of season rankings.
“Finishing second at the Deuche Bank got me to the top 30, which is probably one of the best exemptions in the sport except for winning a major. For the next 12 months, you pretty much get into everything you want. “
For Ogilvy, this will be his first appearance at Lake Karrinyup since his amateur days, where he played the Australian Amateur in 1997.
“I'm pretty excited. I've always liked Karrinyup. It's been changed a little bit, improved a little bit I think since I was here last time.”
Those improvements may give Ogilvy some insider knowledge into the course, as they were implemented by Mike Clayton, a business partner with Ogilvy in their golf course designing business Ogilvy-Clayton.
“I was pretty aware when he (Mike Clayton) was doing it what he was doing here. I knew the course quite well before I came here and have seen all the pictures of before and afters and stuff.”
“He told me how he thinks I should play the course, so I guess he'll take credit if I play well!”
Ogilvy helped launch the Perth International yesterday, having a hit at the goals and kick of the footy at Paterson’s Stadium with Jason Dufner and Brett Rumford.
“We got to hit tons of balls this morning. It was slamming into the seats.
I think we got Jason kicking the proper drop punt. He was trying to do the NFL spiral thing. It was good fun.“