By Bob Verdi
Photo By Charles Laberge
March 28, 2008
As the fawning and yawning father of an infant son, Geoff Ogilvy has been having more quiet days than quiet nights lately. But his dry patch this spring ended emphatically at Doral's drenched Golf Resort & Spa Monday morning when he fended off a spate of world-class players -- including Tiger Woods -- to capture the WGC-CA Championship by one stroke. An amiable Australian with distant lineage to British Royal blood, he might now be called Sir Ogilvy for stepping up and arresting Woods' recent collection of streaks: five successive PGA Tour victories, seven overall in as many starts, three straight in this event and three in a row on the Blue Monster.
"Too many mistakes," summarized Woods, who battled an estranged putter, yet still made his presence known before bowing out with 68 in the final, rain-delayed round. He finished two shots wide of the lead and one behind three heavies -- Retief Goosen, Jim Furyk and Vijay Singh -- all of whom also posted 68s, as if to announce they are warming just in time for the Masters. Ogilvy's arsenal also seems an excellent fit for Augusta National, especially now that he has rendered it impossible for Woods to plunder everything in his sight with a perfect season.
"Holding off that group is pretty nice," said Ogilvy, who closed his wire-to-wire triumph with a 71 for 17-under 271. "And Tiger's streak, it was going to end at some point. I'm glad I did it." Ogilvy expressed moderate frustration about overviews he reads and hears pertaining to Woods. "He's special," Ogilvy continued. "But when he's winning all the time, it's not like the rest of us aren't trying, or that we're waving the white flag." That isn't Ogivly trash talking. He is one of the more incisive athletes you'll ever encounter, and if you were listening during last year's U.S. Open, Ogilvy issued warnings when it was cool to wonder why Woods was drifting. Ogilvy played the first two rounds with Woods, whose scores were merely 71-74. Yet Ogilvy came away dazzled. He saw what Woods was attempting to do in concert with coach Hank Haney and pronounced the prospect as "scary."
Ogilvy secured his first title since the 2006 U.S. Open by registering nine consecutive pars in Monday's completion of a fractured fourth round. The last threesome was well behind everybody else, and the gallery was sparse, so there weren't many audio clues. The golf was fairly peaceful, too, save for Ogilvy's chip-in for par on No. 13 after his first attempt to exit the hairy rough beside the green pulled up well short. The next ball, the one that went in, was motoring when it clanked the flagstick and disappeared. "That's why you want to hit it straight," said Ogilvy, whose was in far better control of his game than deceptive statistics -- only 25 fairways in regulation -- would indicate.
Despite his only bogey of the tournament on No. 7 late Sunday, Ogilvy went to bed with a two-shot lead through 3½ rounds and no doubts about his ability to shut it down. He started at 9 a.m., stopped at 7:20 p.m., and still didn't play 18 holes for Easter. Besides, son Jasper, born in January, was sleeping like a baby (up every hour) in one room with wife Juli while daughter Phoebe Elizabeth (1½) was sleeping straight through, as usual, next door. "That's the room I'm in," said Ogilvy, who sank a 33-and 40-footer on his back nine for 68 to boost his cushion after 54 holes to four strokes over five players, not including Tiger, who was five behind.
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