Geoff Ogilvy nearly won Open by ‘faking it’

‘I nearly won the Australian Open playing shit,’ is Geoff Ogilvy’s succinct summary of what happened at last year’s tournament.

Geoff Ogilvy describes the Australian Open as ‘the fifth major’

“I nearly won the Australian Open playing shit,’’ is former champion Geoff Ogilvy’s succinct summary of what happened at last year’s tournament.

Ogilvy, the 2006 US Open winner who has struggled to find his game in the past few years, led his nation’s tournament, the event he calls the fifth major, by two shots at the end of the third round at Royal Sydney last year and was still leading as he teed up on the 16th hole, with three to play on the last day.

But he dumped his drive into the trees, made a double bogey and ended up tied for fourth as fellow major winner Jordan Spieth fought off all comers to win a playoff and claim the title for the second time in three years.

But in truth Ogilvy was not that disappointed that the tournament got away from him because, in his mind, he never had it. He felt he had been struggling to wrangle his game all week and if he had won he would have been “faking it’’.

“My swing was ... I’d completely lost it by Sunday, and I was just trying to find a way to get it done,’’ he said, describing his back nine as “ambulance’’ golf.

By the time he finished his round he was sanguine about the result. “I walked away thinking I nearly won the Australian Open playing shit — not shit, but that was the feeling,’’ he said.

“That was a really good effort, how you were playing, let’s see if you can play better next year and score that well. I actually got positives out of last year, weirdly enough because from the outside looking in it probably looked awful.’’

One of the game’s deepest thinkers, Ogilvy has had plenty to ponder in this, his 40th year of life.

After chronic struggles with his swing he was forced to rely on his career money exemption to retain his full US PGA Tour card for the 2016-17 season, and he was in serious danger of losing it altogether in the last tournament of the season in August.

Greensboro, North Carolina, is not an obvious place for a last stand but that is where Ogilvy had to make his. He went into the Wyndham Championship ranked 125th in the standings (only the top 125 retain their full card for the next season) and was in danger of missing the cut until he put together five birdies in the last seven holes of the second round and made the cut by one.

He went on to finish in a tie for 16th and move to 116th on the list, securing his card for the season that has just begun.

In hindsight, Ogilvy said facing that situation gave him the mental reboot he needed at this stage of his career.

“I was uncomfortable at Greensboro,’’ he said. “It’s not a comfortable feeling, that Q-School type pressure … That is ‘job or no job’ kind of. It wasn’t that black or white for me but it pretty much is and that’s a headspace of trying not to mess up as opposed to trying to do great stuff. It’s a completely different style of pressure.

“It’s a job interview, you’re trying to not say the wrong thing as opposed to try to say the right thing. But saying that, it just obviously makes me pay attention properly because when I pay attention properly, I play really well. It’s uncomfortable and you’re nervous, but I seem to play well doing that. You can’t fake that sort of pressure, so the key I think for me is finding how to get into that headspace without that situation.

“I think 30 tournaments a year for 20 years, they start blending in a little bit. It’s hard to be quite as excited. It’s very easy to get excited for me here, this is the national Open, but we have massive tournaments every week over there.’’

Part of the reason that Ogilvy is excited to be back in Sydney this year is that he feels like his game is in much better shape.

“I’ve been dabbling way too much probably, but I’ve really come to terms with my golf swing properly,’’ he said.

“I understand probably at a level where I probably should have understood the whole time. I get my swing a bit better, not the swing, my swing. My putting is coming around, my short game has always been decent, so I feel ready to play well more often.’’