Sponsored by:
So at that point you thought you had a chance?
Yeah, I refreshed my thoughts about having a chance. I don't know how different it would have been if I knew I was one shot in front, if I knew I had to make par. But I played those last four holes thinking about winning the U.S. Open. It would be nice to win another one day and come down the stretch five shots in front, so I'd get more credit.
In retrospect, of your chip-in at 17, your pitch shot to six feet at 18 and the ensuing par putt, which shot was most clutch?
Each one was big at the time; all three of them had to happen. The chip-in is what really put me back in the tournament. I was walking up to that shot thinking I was gone. Monty had just holed a 50-footer in front of me to go one in front and if I make bogey I'm two behind. But I still thought if I can just get this up and down and birdie the last I have a chance. But then came the chip-in, and I thought, "If I can birdie the last I might win this."
How did you remain so poised when everybody around you was self-combusting?
Playing a golf course that difficult helps to distract you from the reality that you're actually contending in the U.S. Open. You say to yourself, "This is a pretty tough hole. I've got to just play this hole. It could end right here." That helps — though it didn't feel as smooth as it looked probably. [Laughs] It always looks better than it feels.
Does Oakmont sound like a good setup for you?
I don't know. I wouldn't have thought any U.S. Open would set up well for me. I thought Winged Foot was the last place I was going to win. But they get so narrow [with the fairways] sometimes that it almost gives the advantage to guys like me who don't hit it straight. [Ogilvy finished 119th in driving accuracy in 2006.] That sounds ridiculous, but the guy who hits 80 percent of his fairways hits only 50 percent in the U.S. Open, so he's in the same position as me. In other words, the stronger, not-so-accurate hitters are almost at an advantage at the Open because everybody misses a lot of fairways.
That hardly sounds fair.
They've probably gone overboard a couple of times, but I thought Winged Foot was perfect. With the graduated rough, at least there was a relationship between the quality of the tee shot and the ease of the second shot, which I think sometimes is a bit too black and white — it's perfect or completely dead. Rough's always more exciting to watch if guys can get out of it and move it up the near green. I don't agree with [having to hit] wedge back to the fairway.
Do Aussies see your win as redemption for all the misfortune Greg Norman suffered in the majors?
I don't know if my win was any redemption for Norman, but I think Australia has been hungry for majors, and hopefully I've recaptured the Australian public's imagination. They got used to seeing Norman up there every year. Whether he was winning or losing, they still had something to watch at the majors. Now there's a whole bunch of Australians who can do a lot.
Can you fill Norman's shoes?
No chance. Norman's larger that life. That would be like trying to fill Tiger's shoes or Arnold's shoes. Norman's Norman — there's never going to be another. Scotty [Adam Scott] could come close. He's got the whole package, and it's only a matter of time before he wins a big one.
2006 was a brilliant season for Australians in general. Much of that is attributable to Australia's state-funded golf institutes, like the one you attended in Melbourne. Is your farm system better than America's?
The system I went through is the only one I know, so I don't know if it's better. But Australia seems to be maximizing its potential at the moment — maybe not maximizing it, but at least more so than the U.S. We should only have about four people on Tour because we've only got 20 million people in Australia. [Twenty-one Australians have PGA Tour cards in 2007.] The U.S. has 300 million people. So we must be getting more out of our players than the U.S.
How do the institutes work?
No stone is left unturned. You're not pushed into anything, but you're given the opportunity to [learn about] nutrition, fitness, psychology. You've got great coaches for your technique. There are seminars on every single aspect of life — financial planning, travel, relaxation, everything to do with golf. It's unbelievable. They say, "This is here. If you want to take it, you have the opportunity to do all this stuff."
