Frustrated Ogilvy critical of PGA of America's course setup

CHASKA, Minn. — Sunday marked the end of a frustrating season for Australia's Geoff Ogilvy. A winner at the season-opening Mercedes-Benz Championship and the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship, he was never a threat in the majors.

Asked to grade his year, he said, "I'd give myself a D, for Do Better."

However, before flying home to Scottsdale, Ariz., on Sunday afternoon with his family and Phil Mickelson's caddie, Jim Mackay, he took a few parting shots at the PGA of America and Hazeltine National.

"In 2010 we're going to be playing on real golf courses, so..."

The host sites for next season's majors are Augusta National (Masters), Pebble Beach (U.S. Open), St. Andrews (British Open) and Whistling Straits (PGA Championship).

Ogilvy said that the 2004 PGA Championship at Whistling Straits was the most enjoyable PGA Championship he's ever played.

"It's probably the least likely place where we play where they could ruin the setup," he said. "There are some very long tees we didn't play last time, but as far as propagating and harvesting absurd rough, which they seem to have done the last two years in the PGA, I just don't think Whistling Straits is a place where they are going to do that. I really enjoyed that PGA, but the others ones have been harder to enjoy because if you miss the green by a foot, you can have nothing."

In an era of extreme this, and high-octane that, Ogilvy is an old-school purist when it comes to golf course design and setup. A traditionalist in a time when more and bigger are almost always considered better.

"The difficulty of your shot should be the position the ball is in, not the lie that the ball is in. Some shots that bounce next to the green, yet don't get into a bunker, are in this," he said, holding his hands six inches apart to show the depth of the rough.

His argument is that a slight miss is often more penalizing than a shot that flies farther away from the intended target.

"I think you should have hard shots from good lies, not easy shots from bad lies," he explained. "So if your greens are not good enough to defend themselves without six inches of rough, then the greens aren't good enough. You don't need six-inch rough at Augusta, or at Oakmont, although they grow it. You don't need it at Pinehurst, or Royal Melbourne, or Shinnecock Hills. And if you don't have greens like that, then just let the guys make birdies."

The Aussie feels that the PGA of America would do well to follow the new philosophies of the USGA when it comes to preparing a course to host a major. "The U.S. Open seems to be going in the right direction; the PGA Championship seems to be going in the other direction," he said.  "Last year at Oakland Hills the story was all about the rough. I'm sure everyone is not as pissed about the rough this week, but it's not very nice. It's odd that the PGA hasn't changed but the U.S. Open has."

Just before going wheels up, Ogilvy wrote on his Twitter page, "I am thinking we should all pool together and buy the PGA a lawn mower for Christmas."

I wonder what the PGA of America will be buying him?

Thoughts on British Open weather, Steve Marino, Geoff Ogilvy and more

More random musings from Turnberry ...

• Hooray, the weather finally got nasty. This is what a British Open is supposed to feel like. On Thursday guys were sweating in short sleeves, and that's just not kosher. Aside from the aesthetic reasons, Turnberry simply needed more bite, and the testy conditions have already begun to separate the men (Goosen, Cabrera, Kaymer, Calc)  from the boys (Curtis, Senden, Mahan, Gay). I hope the weekend brings more wind and rain and punishment. At least outside the press room.

• Steve Marino is not going to win the first British Open he ever shows up for but he's a very legit player. A couple of veterans have told me they think Marino is the best player on Tour who has not yet won a tournament. He has a lot of firepower off the tee and very soft hands and more imagination than most, which has been evident during his two stellar opening rounds. The best shot I've seen so far at this Open was his 5-iron at 17, from 227 yards out. Marino hit a big, high, slinging cut that rode a stiff left-to-right breeze, falling out of the sky 20 feet from the hole for the eagle that keyed his 68. Pretty macho.

• Turnberry is sometimes called the Pebble Beach of Scotland because of the beautiful holes that hug the craggy coast but the similarities don't end there. Both courses are in a remote spot accessible only by a two-lane road. The drive into Turnberry is such a lovely way to start the day. It winds through green hills dotted with sheep and meadows exploding in wildflowers. The majestic ruins of two old castles are an evocative reminder of all of Scotland's ancient history. Just when you're getting antsy to arrive at the Open the road reaches the crest of a steep slope and then plunges downhill, revealing the course and coastline below. It's breath-taking, and sure beats the Long Island Expressway.

• I'm officially off the Geoff Ogilvy bandwagon. Dude made exactly zero birdies Friday en route to a sporty 78. For the week he had more double bogeys (5) than birds (3). Good thing he stole that U.S. Open a few years ago because he's looking increasingly star-crossed in the majors. The only positive for Ogilvy is that he finished one stroke ahead of Ian Poulter, a popular pick to win coming in. (That means you, D. Hack.) After his strong runner-up finish at last year's Open I think Poulter got Andymurrayized, which is too say, overwhelmed by the crushing expectations of being Great Britain's best hope on the home soil.

• One of the pleasures of being at the Open is getting to read the prose of the Euro golf writers. Ian Chadband in the The Telgraph had this to say about Woods's uneven first round: "He drove like a sizzled learner…He has that John McEnroe knack losing his rag -- the cry of 'Godamit!' after a shocking drive at the third had been replaced by something rather shorter and more Anglo-Saxon by the 13th." Can't wait to read what Chadband's brethren have to say on Saturday morning. As jingoistic as the press is over here, the loudest spontaneous eruption of the day was when T. Watson made his ocean-goer on the 16th hole. Just goes to show that more than country, all reporters love a good story.

• After watching a couple hundred fans fail to find Tiger's ball in the weeds on the 10th hole I suddenly don't feel so bad at failing to locate a couple balls in the Royal Troon rough during a glorious twilight round last night. Every fairway over here should be framed in red stakes because once a ball buries in the long grass it's a lottery as to whether it ever gets found.

• Fearless weekend prediction: Retief Goosen plays the best golf but, as has become a habit, lets it get away late on Sunday, handing the Claret Jug to... drumroll ...  Stewey Cink. Tweet, tweet.

Las Vegas has Woods as huge favorite to win British Open

For bettors who like value, this year's British Open is like Christmas morning, according to Las Vegas sportsbook insider Chuck Esposito.

Tiger Woods, currently at 2 to 1 at Las Vegas casino sportsbooks, is the favorite by a wide, wide margin. If you think Woods will win, Esposito says you should grab him now. "Those odds will drop pretty quickly," Esposito said. "My guess is Tiger will be at 8 to 5, 6 to 5, or even before the British Open starts."

The odds are so skewed toward Woods--especially with his only near rival, Phil Mickelson, not competing at Turnberry this year--that the next player on the board, Sergio Garcia, is a 12-to-1 bet to win. Other contenders drop even further: Defending champion Padraig Harrington is 20 to 1, Henrik Stenson is 20 to 1, Paul Casey is 20 to 1, Rory McIlroy is 25 to 1, Geoff Ogilvy is 25 to 1, Ian Poulter is 25 to 1, Ernie Els is 35 to 1.

"There's real value there in players in that 20 to 40 group," Esposito said. "In fact, with those short odds, the house ends up rooting for Tiger because if one of those long shots come in the casino can really get burned."

The house also ends up rooting for Woods because he creates excitement around the casino when he's near the top at a major, Esposito said.

"We do really well at all the majors, and we'll have the British Open on all the big screens," Esposito said. "But if Tiger's in the lead, we get tremendous crowds."

The only real competitor to Tiger Woods on the board in Las Vegas is "The Field," currently at 8 to 5 odds. Keep in mind that "the Field," in the form of Lucas Glover, won the U.S. Open and paid off at 10 to 1.

Follow Michael Walker Jr. on Twitter.

Woods struggling to regain form, Ogilvy says (carefully)

Bloomberg News' Michael Buteau catches up with Geoff Ogilvy at a development project in South Carolina and the 2006 U.S. Open champ has an insightful take on the post-knee-surgery Tiger Woods.

“I think, whether he has admitted it or not, he’s probably not quite as right as he wants to be,” Ogilvy said at a news conference in Six Mile, South Carolina, where he attended the opening of the International Institute of Golf at the Cliffs.

One of the smartest guys on Tour, Ogilvy knows it doesn't pay to criticize the thin-skinned Woods, and he was quick to add that Woods will be "all right."

“Whatever Tiger does is right,” said Ogilvy, who will also play at Quail Hollow. “It would be hard to find anything critical about the way Tiger goes about it.”

The subject of Woods' struggles -- and only with Woods would a first place at Bay Hill followed by T6 at the Masters be considered "struggling "-- came up in The U.K. Telegraph's excellent roundtable discussion in South Korea last week with Graeme McDowell, Ernie Els and Fred Couples.

Ernie Els: I played with Tiger in the final round at Doral this year, and you could see the shape of his shots has changed a little bit - he now has this big draw.

Graeme McDowell: He is hooking the ball quite a lot.

Els: Tiger's short game is unbelievable. He chipped in once when I played with him and he made a bunch of putts, although afterwards I heard him say that he had not made enough putts! He shot 68 – it was the easiest 68 you have ever seen in your life. So it's all there, and after the injury I think what he did at Augusta was quite unbelievable. I remember when I came back from injury in 2006 and I finished 27th, but Tiger almost had a chance to win the Masters this year. He is not too far away, but he is still thinking about the knee a little bit, and he will keep thinking about the knee for another five or six months. Even so, I expect him to be competitive in the next couple of majors.

Fred Couples: If Tiger was sitting here right now he would tell you he was playing pretty mediocre, but when Tiger is playing mediocre he can still hit the ball around and play, and as Ernie says, there's always his short game.

Geoff Ogilvy let Thursday at the Masters get away

AUGUSTA, Ga. – On a day when Chad Campbell made nine birdies, Jim Furyk carded a 66 and 50-year-old Augusta native Larry Mize shot 67, Geoff Ogilvy walked off the 18th hole fuming.

A bogey-bogey finish left a bitter taste in the Australian's mouth.

Ogilvy had plenty to be happy about as he walked to the 17th tee. He made a tap-in birdie on the sixth hole and then followed a bogey on the tough 11th with birdies on the 12th, 14th and 15th, moving to three under.

But after driving into the tree on the right side of the 440-yard par 4 17th, Ogilvy tried to fade an iron shot around a tree and to the green, but the ball flew straight and landed in the grandstand. Ogilvy was forced to drop just left of the seating area and missed a 12-foot par putt after chipping on the green.

On the 18th hole, after hitting a perfect drive into the middle of the fairway, Ogilvy blocked his approach shot into the bunker on the right side of the green. He tried to use the slope on the side of the green to his advantage, but his sand shot hit the bank and stopped 25 feet away from the hole. Another bogey.

Known for a calm, easy-going demeanor, Ogilvy's lips were pursed and he quickly denied requests by the media for interviews after completing his round. "Not right now guys," he said as he quickly strode to the clubhouse.

No one is going to be named the winner of the 2009 Masters on Thursday, but if Ogilvy wants to slip into a green jacket on Sunday, he's got a lot of ground to make up.

(Photo by Tim Sloan/AFP/Getty Images)

Forget Orlando, smart PGA Tour pros live in Scottsdale

You'll hear a lot next week about the many Tour pros that call Orlando home (Tiger Woods, Ernie Els and Trevor Immelman) as the locals play in the Tavistock Cup, which pits Isleworth Country Club against neighboring Lake Nona Country Club. It's easy to understand why Tour pros like Orlando (no state income tax, nice weather, good transportation, private gated communities for the super-wealthy, no state income tax), but the smart guys are in Scottsdale, Ariz. Whisper Rock club members (Geoff Ogilvy, Paul Casey and Aaron Baddeley) would probably welcome a shot at the Tavistock Cup winner. Phil Mickelson's a Whisper Rock member too, though he now call Rancho Sante Fe -- north of San Diego -- home.***

Having spent time in both Orlando and Scottsdale this winter, I can say without question that if I were a wealthy tour pro, Best Buy would be delivering my 103-inch plasma TVs to Scottsdale. Orlando is a great place, if you're a 10-year-old, but Scottsdale has nicer restaurants, better nightlife and a much higher concentration of beautiful women. It's really one of the country's hot-chick meccas, along with Miami, Los Angeles and certain areas of Manhattan. Don't believe me? Just ask Paul Casey, who explained his own move to Scottsdale from the UK -- a hot chick dead zone if there ever was one -- at a news conference Wednesday.

I felt very lucky to eventually end up at [Arizona State University], which is a long story, which we won't get into. But there were a few friends of mine who had played college golf. One of them said that Scottsdale was the greatest place he had ever been, which eventually I got the chance to visit it; I could see why, for the golf, the weather and all of the other assets. (Laughter) What? I said assets.

***The Rancho Sante Fe-Del Mar region of Southern California, where Phil lives, is one of the nicest places I've ever seen, but Phil pays a premium to live there. California's state income tax for earnings of more than $40,346 is 9.3 percent. Arizona residents are taxed 5.03 percent on income of more than $150,000.

Here come the old guys

KAPALUA, Hawaii -- For all the talk of young guns Anthony Kim and Camilo Villegas heading into the season-opening Mercedes Championship, the leaderboard after round one was more notable for its familiar, veteran names.

There's Kenny Perry, 48, who had three wins last year and says he's liable to run off another two or three in a row. He shot a 5-under-par 68 despite two loose front-nine bogeys and lurks a shot behind leader Geoff Ogilvy.   

"You know what, y'all may think I'm crazy," Perry said before the tournament began, "but I want to get 20 wins. I've got 12. Somehow I've got to win eight more times. I turn 50 in a year and a half. And is that a realistic goal? I think it is. I still think I can play well up into my mid-50s and be successful out here."

Tied with Perry was his playing partner Ernie Els, who is only 39 but already answering questions about the impending "big 4-0" next October. Els looked like his old self Thursday, the guy who won his first major back in 1994.

Then there's Davis Love III a shot back. He's 44. Joining Love at 4-under was Steve Lowery, 48. Ronald Reagan was in the White House when Love turned pro in 1985. The now pathetic San Francisco 49ers actually ruled the NFL. (It's true. Look it up.)

"I want to make Freddie's Presidents Cup team and get back to being competitive in the majors," Love said. "I had a taste of it at the British where I felt like I was close. And then, you know, I want to make it to the Tour Championship. I didn't make it to the Tour Championship the last couple of years, and I want to play for the FedExCup. Been kind of boring watching other guys play for it (laughter)."

When it comes to his career outlook, Love sounds a whole lot like Perry, who caught fire in his 40s and, not surprisingly, says he takes inspiration from Vijay Singh (46 next month).

"Somebody, I guess in the pro-am [Wednesday], said, 'The way you are hitting it, you could play out here for ten more years,'" Love said. "I said, 'Yeah, exactly.' That's what I want to do. I want to stay on this Tour competitive longer than anybody of my generation. I want to keep on playing."

And from whom does Love take inspiration? That would be his mother Penta, who followed him on foot for every shot of his round Thursday, despite the fact that Kapalua's Plantation Course, built into the side of the West Maui Mountains, is the undisputed hilliest, hardest walk on the PGA Tour. She's 83.

Ogilvy: Majors are 'easier' than regular events

OK, so Geoff Ogilvy didn’t exactly say this week that it’s easier to go low at the U.S. Open than the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, but he did offer an unusual take on the majors, typically four of the season’s most taxing tournaments.   

“Whatever anyone else says, there’s a part of a major that’s slightly easier than a regular tournament because so many people aren’t really comfortable playing them so maybe people don't quite play as well as would in a normal tournament,” Ogilvy said in Melbourne, where he is home preparing for the Australian majors.

“I’m not saying they’re easy to win but there’s a bunch in a field in a major that isn’t quite comfortable when they’re playing in it.

“It always seems to be the same 20 guys who pop up on top of a major leaderboard.”

It’s an intriguing theory from the ever-intriguing Ogilvy, with one inherent flaw: Ogilvy. If the Aussie truly finds majors easier than regular events, he hasn’t exactly proved it. Though he won the 2006 U.S. Open, looking unflappable at Winged Foot, his overall major record is shaky. Ogilvy has consistently showed up at the PGA, with three top-10 finishes in the last four years, but has never finished in the top 15 at the Masters and at the last two British Opens he missed the cut.   

Hardly sounds like a comfort zone.

Not G'Days for Aussie Majors

This just in from the other side of the world: Big-time tournament golf in Australia is in trouble. TV ratings are in the toilet and two of the three Australian majors are without sponsors, including the 104-year-old Australian Open.

Geoff Ogilvy acknowledged the crisis while in Sydney this week to promote the Aussie Open, which begins Dec. 11. “It seems harder and harder to find money for professional golf and sporting events in general in Australia really,” Ogilvy said. “… Hopefully we ride it out until it gets good again and then it’s back to one of the biggest [events] in the world.” 

At the root of the problem is 7,000 or so miles, or the distance from Australia to California. The American stars have little desire or incentive to make the schlep, which leaves the burden on the Aussie A-listers — guys like Ogilvy, Adam Scott and Aaron Baddeley. Most of them live in the States, but the Aussie press isn’t sympathetic. If Ogilvy and Co. forego a major to play in another event, or, in the case of Scott and the ’07 Australian Open, to be the best man at their friend’s wedding, they’d best be prepared for a media thrashing. It’s kind of like what Kenny Perry went through went he opted out of U.S. Open qualifying this year, except much worse.    

“Over the years the press has given all of us a bit of a hard time,” Aussie Robert Allenby told me a few months ago. “They had a go at Stuey [Stuart Appleby] a few years ago when he went down to Sun City [South Africa] instead of playing the Australian Open, and did the same with Geoff and Adam. And they’ve done that for years with [Greg] Norman. It’s a shame. They’re blaming us because we don’t have sponsors for the tournaments because they’re saying we need to perform better. You can make whatever you want of that.”

Whoever is to blame, this much is clear: without an injection of celebrity, the future of televised golf Down Under looks bleak. Darren Clarke has committed to play in this year's Australian Open, which should help the PR cause, but what the event really needs is a visit from golf's biggest star. Ogilvy was asked what it might take to lure Tiger Woods to play in Australia.

“A lot of encouragement,” he said.

He meant the green kind.

Open cut relief for some, cruel for others

SOUTHPORT, England — Friday is the cruelest day in major championship golf. Tonight half the field earned a passport to the weekend and a shot at winning the British Open. Everyone else will be handing over their passport as they check in for the flight home.

The low 70 players and ties will play the weekend at Royal Birkdale. That puts 83 players inside the cut line at 9-over-par.

Among those breathing a sigh of relief is Ernie Els, who made bogey on his last hole earlier today to fall to 9-over. The easy-going South African slammed his putter angrily into his bag as he walked off the green, then slammed the door of the scorer's hut after signing for a round of 69. Also surviving at that 9-over mark are Davis Love III and England's hope, Lee Westwood.

Phil Mickelson secured his place for the weekend with a second-round 69 that left him at 7-over. Masters champion Trevor Immelman and Colin Montgomerie are also assured to a weekend tee time at 8-over.

For others there will be no reprieve. Stewart Cink and Tom Watson (both 10-over) are finished. Joining them on the boulevard of missed birdie putts are Vijay Singh, Geoff Ogilvy,  Mark O'Meara and Charles Howell III, all at 11-over. Former U.S. Open winner Angel Cabrera and Rory Sabbatini missed by a mile at 14-over.

Also missing the weekend action is former champion Paul Lawrie, Miguel Angel Jiminez, Aaron Baddeley, and a handful of young American prospects: Brandt Snedeker, Hunter Mahan, and J.B. Holmes.

In a category all of his own, dead last in the field, is John Daly. The former champion-turned-train wreck finished 29-over par after rounds of 80-89. He didn't make a single birdie all week. And there isn't even a Hooters in Birkdale for him to spend the weekend in.