World number five Geoff Ogilvy is hoping to once again fly under the radar at the US Open.
Australian chasing second US Open title at Bethpage
Geoff Ogilvy is hoping to once again fly under the radar at the US Open.
Ogilvy, the world number five, claimed his maiden major title when the event was held at Winged Foot in 2006 and has since established himself as one of the most consistent performers on the PGA Tour.
The Australian's win was considered a surprise at the time. Even in the final round, although he led by two shots at one point, most expected Phil Mickelson to go on and claim victory, having won the Masters twice - including just two months earlier - and also the 2005 US PGA Championship.
But Ogilvy made successive pars at the final two holes to set the clubhouse mark at plus five and both Mickelson and Colin Montgomerie collapsed with double bogeys at the 72nd hole as Ogilvy emerged victorious by a stroke.
The 31-year-old concedes he will not arrive at Bethpage for this year's US Open as such an unknown, having now won six times in the United States including a second Accenture title earlier this season, but he is nevertheless hoping to again avoid the limelight until the final-day reckoning.
"Tiger (Woods) has won his second tournament for the year and Phil's had an up and down last month off the course, so that's going to be a very good story, so media attention-wise I think it won't be too crazy (for me)," Ogilvy said.
"My own expectations have probably gone up a little bit from back in 2006, you can't help but have raised expectations after you win a major. So I go in there I guess considering myself more of a chance than maybe I did before.
"They're (Woods and Mickelson) going to be the stories so I'll just go along and play the bit part and hopefully play well in the tournament and get the attention at the end of the tournament instead of the start."
Rest
Ogilvy will not play at the St Jude Classic, preferring to put his feet up at home in Scottsdale with his family and also do a little bit of fine-tuning, having last week had his first look at Bethpage Black.
The Victorian, who broke his duck on Australian soil last December when he won the Australian PGA Championship, had the course all but to himself as a USGA official was the only other person playing at the time.
And while he did not finish his last outing at the Memorial tournament as well as he would have liked - climbing into contention with a 63 on Saturday only to derail his chances with an eight at the 14th on the way to a 75 on Sunday - Ogilvy is pleased with his form and sees parallels with 2006.
"Last week was a funny one. The first few rounds I didn't play that great and then I had a pretty good round in the third round which was getting back to some really good form there," he added.
"Sunday I actually played okay, I just threw in a horror number on the 14th hole. All in all my form was pretty decent, that hole is a tricky hole and traditionally there's always a couple of guys who mess it right up and I was one of those guys last week.
"The rest of it I was really happy with. Saturday was the best score I've had on a pretty tough golf course for a while. I think I can pretty much disregard one bad hole and take quite a lot of confidence out of last week.
"I would've thought that it's (my form) very similar to 2006, I'm pretty happy with my game. I feel like I'm capable of playing well enough in a week's time, but golf is a funny game and it comes and goes so I'll get there and I'll do the best I can this week to be ready and hopefully I get there feeling really good."
