I rarely blog about golf, but those who know me, know that I am a fanatic about the game. So a brief departure from the usual to blog about PGA pro Geoff Ogilvy.
Geoff Ogilvy won last weeks Accenture Match Play Event. He is a member of a club where I am a member as well. That he won is tremendous, but HOW he won is the real story! Following is an email that was sent to the members of the club. I thought you golfers would enjoy reading the whole story!
Congratulations to fellow Whisper Rock member, Geoff Ogilvy, for winning the 2006 WGC Accenture Match Play Championship by defeating Davis Love III in the 36-hole final (3 & 2)! With the win (and a smooth $1.3 million), Geoff moved up 27 spots in the Official World Golf Ranking to #26. (I think it’s fair to say Geoff is buying the beer the next time he’s at the Rock!)
Here’s how he got to the finals:
Round #1 – Defeated Michael Campbell (19 holes)
Round #2 – Defeated Nick O’Hern (21 holes)
Round #3 – Defeated Mike Weir (21 holes)
Quarterfinals – Defeated David Howell (19 holes)
Semifinals – Defeated Tom Lehman (4 & 3)
Here’s some other interesting facts about Geoff’s win:
§ This is the first time that Geoff has qualified to play in this event and he is undefeated. The only other person to start out 6-0 is Jeff Maggert.
§ Last year on this week, Geoff was ranked #83 in the World before he won the Chrysler Classic of Tucson.
§ Ten times during this championship his opponent had a putt that would have sent him packing (including a 5-footer that Nick O’Hern missed on their 20th hole).
§ Mike Weir was 4-up on Geoff with four holes to play in the third round before Geoff came back to beat him.
§ Geoff set a tournament record by playing 129 holes.
§ He also set a tournament record by winning four consecutive overtime matches to start the week.
§ He was the #52 seed – the third-highest to win the event behind Kevin Sutherland (#62) and Steve Stricker (#55).
§ Geoff defeated a Grand Slam list of players to capture the title: Michael Campbell (U.S. Open), Mike Weir (Masters), Tom Lehman (British Open), and Davis Love (PGA Championship).
Oh yeah, Geoff, one last thing…we are considering changing the format of our Club Championship to match play next year so you have a better shot at winning (seeing as you’ve played it in twice and came away without the hardware both times)! And you thought we were going to be nice the whole time…
