Ogilvy seals Hawaii win

Commanding triumph for Australian

Last updated: 12th January 2009   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Ogilvy seals Hawaii win

Ogilvy: fifth Tour win

I've never had a six-shot lead before. It's a pretty uncomfortable feeling, to be honest with you.

Geoff Ogilvy
Quotes of the week

Final leaderboard
-24 G Ogilvy (Aus)
-18 A Kim (US)
-18 D Love III (US)
-17 S O'Hair (US)
-16 J Leonard (US)
-15 E Els (SA)
-15 Z Johnson (US)
-15 K Perry (US)
-15 DJ Trahan (US)

Also see

Geoff Ogilvy closed with a five-under 68 to clinch a wire-to-wire victory at the season-opening Mercedes-Benz Championship in Hawaii.

The Australian began the final day with a six-shot lead and, despite an early wobble, closed out his fifth PGA Tour success by the same margin from Anthony Kim and Davis Love III.

Ogilvy started with consecutive bogeys to give the chasing pack hope and his advantage was down to just one when he followed birdies at the fifth and sixth with another pair of dropped shots.

But the 2006 US Open champion turned the momentum back his way at the 521-yard, par-five ninth by drilling a three-iron to the front of the green and sinking the 30-foot eagle putt.

Crisis averted, he then added another five birdies during a blemish-free back nine, including a run of four in a row from the 12th.

Ogilvy's 24-under-par final total was six ahead of American duo Kim and Love III, who both finished with 67s.

Uncomfortable

"I've never had a six-shot lead before," said Ogilvy. "It's a pretty uncomfortable feeling, to be honest with you.

"I got to the (ninth) green and saw I had a one-shot lead - I figured it was mostly gone - and it felt like a normal tournament again. I just told myself, 'It's a great spot to be after 63 holes, get on with it.'

"From then on, I was a different person. I played almost the best I had all week the next six holes."

Sean O'Hair fired Sunday's best round, an eight-under 65, to move up to fourth on 17-under, a shot ahead of fifth-placed Justin Leonard (70).

South Africa's Ernie Els (67) shared sixth place with Americans Zach Johnson (67), Kenny Perry (70) and DJ Trahan (71) on 15-under.