GOLF: Geoff Ogilvy was a runaway winner at the season-opening Mercedes-Benz Championship in Hawaii yesterday which earned him a cheque for $1.12 million (€840,000) and cemented his status as one of the game's strongest players.
The Australian has notched up five victories since joining the PGA Tour in 2001, and to some that may appear a meagre return for a player blessed with such talent, but he has made sure his wins come at high-profile events.
The 31-year-old Australian clinched his first major trophy at the 2006 US Open and has also claimed two prestigious World Golf Championship titles on US soil.
"I feel like I'm a pretty good player, in the top-15 guys out here probably," Ogilvy said after completing a wire-to-wire victory by six shots at the Kapalua Resort's Plantation Course.
"Since La Costa, I felt like I've been one of the guys who can consider himself a chance coming into big golf tournaments. I've tended to play decent at the bigger ones."
Ogilvy won his first WGC title in the 2006 Accenture Match Play Championship at La Costa before claiming his second in the CA Championship at Doral last year.
His Doral triumph was achieved in illustrious company. Vijay Singh, Retief Goosen and Jim Furyk finished one stroke behind in a tie for second, one ahead of fifth-placed Tiger Woods.
"That was satisfying because it was such a great field," Ogilvy recalled of his fourth PGA Tour victory. "Everyone was there so that was really satisfying to kind of hang on.
"But this one is probably more satisfying from a golf perspective because I wasn't feeling super about myself after the eighth hole," he added, referring to his latest victory.
Ogilvy went into the final round at Kapalua six strokes ahead of the field and had his lead trimmed to one after making four bogeys in the first eight holes before regaining control.
"I've watched lots of people go away and win tournaments and just keep going and going and going," he said after covering the last 10 holes in seven under par. "It looked like quite a lot of fun, actually.
"So I'll look back on that and be pretty proud of the last 10 holes I played today."
He eventually signed for a final round 68 and 24-under-par 268 winning aggregate. American pair Anthony Kim (67) and Davis Love III (67) shared second some six shots back.
Ogilvy believes he is poised to join the game's top flight, players such as Woods and Singh who generally win multiple titles each season.
"I feel like I'm closer to that stage now but there's still probably a gap there," said the Australian, who climbed to sixth in the world rankings today. "It's more a consistency thing. If I played like this every week, I'd be all right.
"I didn't play great in '07 but last year I had a period there from about the start of Florida to the US Open where I felt if I had made a few more (putts), I could have won three or four.
"I won one (Doral), but I felt like I was there or thereabouts and then it dropped off, which those top players don't tend to do. Vijay and Tiger, especially, have been on leaderboards for the last 10 years."
Collated final round scores & totals in the USPGA Tour Mercedes-Benz Championship, Kapalua Plantation GC, Hawaii, United States of America
(USA unless stated, par 73):
268Geoff Ogilvy (Aus) 67 68 65 68
274Anthony Kim 71 68 68 67, Davis Love III 69 70 68 67
275Sean O'Hair 69 70 71 65
276Justin Leonard 74 67 65 70
277Kenny Perry 68 71 68 70, Zach Johnson 71 75 64 67, Ernie Els (Rsa) 68 69 73 67, D.J. Trahan 70 66 70 71
278Johnson Wagner 68 71 70 69
279Dustin Johnson 72 72 68 67
280Will MacKenzie 72 70 69 69, Camilo Villegas (Col) 74 67 66 73, Chez Reavie 75 70 68 67
281KJ Choi (Kor) 71 71 66 73, Boo Weekley 70 70 69 72
282Carl Pettersson (Swe) 72 72 70 68
283Adam Scott (Aus) 73 67 73 70, Brian Gay 72 70 70 71, Ryuji Imada (Jpn) 69 70 74 70
284Richard S Johnson (Swe) 72 72 71 69, Trevor Immelman (Rsa) 72 74 69 69
285Cameron Beckman 76 73 66 70
286Steve Lowery 69 75 70 72, Stewart Cink 74 67 71 74, Parker McLachlin 77 69 69 71
287Daniel Chopra (Swe) 79 69 67 72, Vijay Singh (Fij) 73 73 71 70
288J.B. Holmes 74 75 72 67, Greg Kraft 72 73 68 75
291Ryan Palmer 78 75 72 66
295Andres Romero (Arg) 78 74 71 72
296Marc Turnesa 79 73 70 74
