By Jaime Diaz
Photo By Donald Miralle/Getty Images
December 28, 2007
When it comes to the art of shotmaking, golf has several unofficial spokesmen. Along with Tiger Woods, the leading voice among the younger generation of players is 2006 U.S. Open champion Geoff Ogilvy.
But while Woods practices what he preaches, the 30-year-old Australian, currently ranked 13th in the world, has a hard time actually playing the style that he so favors. The reason says a great deal about why shotmaking is on the wane.
"I have all these romantic ideas about it, but yeah, I definitely don't play proper golf in tournaments very much anymore," said Ogilvy by telephone while visiting family near Royal Melbourne, where the day before he had played a friendly round using hickory-shafted clubs. "I tend to just aim it at the flag and try to hit it there. I don't worry so much about the right shape. Unfortunately."
But Ogilvy's regrets are outweighed by what he has found works best for him in today's competition. "The truth is that hitting it high and straight, with the equipment we have now and on the turf conditions we play, is the simplest option," he says. "It gives you less to think about, and sometimes on the golf course, thinking about less is good.
"But the big thing is that the reward for hitting the proper shot -- on a regular tour course -- is just not as great anymore. Off the tee you just look down the fairway and hit it, because it really doesn't matter where the ball ends up as long as it's in relatively short grass. Coming into the soft green, when the ball stops easily and it doesn't matter what side you miss it on, all of a sudden the perfectly shaped shot loses its relevance and becomes not worth the effort."
However, on those occasions when it is worth it, Ogilvy gets inspired.
"At the majors I think about golf differently," he says. "It becomes more interesting and, in my opinion, more interesting to watch as well. Especially at Augusta and the British Open, golf courses with really firm greens where it's really bad to miss it on the short side of the pin, that's when the reward for shaping is much greater. When the ball actually does something when it hits the ground -- when it rolls a bit after it lands -- that's when shotmaking matters.
"On a seaside links, if you get in a heavy right-to-left crosswind with a right pin and all you can hit is a draw, there is no way you will be able to get the ball within 30 feet of the hole," Ogilvy continues. "At the Masters the slopes on the greens have a similar effect. A great golf course with firm conditions will demand more skills."
Ogilvy admires those players for whom sophisticated shotmaking is the norm, citing Steve Elkington and Sergio Garcia in particular. The exemplar, of course, is Woods. "At the majors Tiger is the epitome of a shotmaker," says Ogilvy. "At a regular tournament he'll hit more drivers off the tee because the penalty for missing is not as severe, and he'll shape the ball a bit from the fairway, but not a lot. He wants to win, and even though a normal tournament is kind of like a test laboratory for him, he's going to play the style that gives him the best chance.
"But in the majors, he goes back to what I call 'proper golf,' " Ogilvy says. "Shaping the ball off the tee with the trajectory and sidespin that's going to give him the best chance to hit the fairway and get the best angle, then drawing the ball into a left pin, fading it to a right pin, coming in high when the pin is in front, coming in lower when it's in the back, hitting fairways, hitting the wide part of the green. In a major he's about the most conservative player in terms of style of play, but he's figured out that if he reduces the mistakes when everyone else is making them, he'll be there at the end. At Southern Hills, he played so smart. At Hoylake, that was a clinic." On the other hand, Woods isn't an easily emulated model.
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