Geoff Ogilvy wins the U.S. Open
June 25, 2006

The 16th hole at Victoria Golf Club is a long uphill par three demanding of the most perfect of long irons. It is probably the one hole on the course where anything less than the ideal shot misses the green.

The skyline green sits at the highest point of the hill and behind the green is a steep drop down to the 17th tee. Good players often miss long here and the pitch back is the most feared short shot on the famed Melbourne sandbelt.

Peter Thomson honed his adolescent skills as a member at Victoria and one can imagine him practicing at the 16th, testing those low running long irons that took him to five Open Championships on the bouncy British links.

The perfect shot bounces at the front of the green and finds its way toward the middle of the small green and Thomson must rarely have committed the cardinal sin of going over.

Thomson is a life member of Victoria, which now can boast on another member that has won a major championship.

Geoff Ogilvy learned his golf at 'Vic' and like every other kid at the club he must have hit hundreds of shots from over the back of the 16th green.

Photo: © Marc Feldman/WireImage Geoff Ogilvy pitching up to the 18th green for an up and down par which help him win the U.S. Open.

The relevance is that this shot looked about as difficult as the pitch from the front of Winged Foot's final green and with everyone around him suffocating from the strain of trying to scratch their name on the trophy, Ogilvy hit the shot of his life.

America seems to be is a state of shock that their man Mickelson lost the tournament and Ogilvy is in danger of being known as the winner who was simply bequeathed the championship by both Mickelson and Colin Montgomerie.

Golf World, the finest golf magazine in the world has even put Mickelson on the front cover. I mean seriously, you cannot be serious. I'm willing to bet that it's the first time in history the winner hasn't graced the cover.

In Australia we are celebrating the Victorian's win and for a country of less than twenty million, a major championship is not something that comes along every day. From the fateful day at Augusta in 1996 when we realized our man, Norman was destined never to win an American major; we have been searching and hoping for our next star.

Photo: © Nick Wilson/ALLSPORT Many thought that Aaron Baddeley would take the mantel away from Greg Norman as the best Aussie player with his win at the 1999 Australian Open.

In one of his first events as a pro at the 1999 Australian Open at Royal Sydney, Ogilvy partnered nineteen-year-old Melbourne amateur Aaron Baddeley over the first two days and he later described it as 'some of the best golf I have ever seen. Baddeley won that championship, beating Norman and Montgomerie, and was anointed as our next champion.

Ironically Baddeley and Ogilvy were coached by the same man, Dale Lynch, but whilst Ogilvy has stuck with his childhood teacher, Baddeley changed coaches a few years ago in search of 'another level.'

Adam Scott appeared not long after and his beautiful game is one that will some day reach the heights most have predicted. Thomson is not a fan, arguing Scott is too much like Tiger Woods in his approach and method but never mind, Peter has, on occasionally been wrong before!

No one really noticed Ogilvy except a few true believers and to them his win is no surprise. He has a great wife, a great teacher, a great caddy (an ex of mine!) a fine education and a family who support but not too loudly - and he has a great game.

For what it's worth here is my view of what transpired in that mad half hour on a course with its dimensions so distorted by long grass both lining the fairways and all but encircling the greens that no one was even close to par for 71 holes.

One hundred and fifty six players start the week at the biggest championships (Augusta excepted) and maybe twenty or thirty have realistic hopes of winning although the course set-up at the U.S Open has conspired to unearth a few unlikely winners over the years.

Photo: © Sam Greenwood/WireImage Geoff Ogilvy celebrated his U.S. Open victory with his wife Juli back at their hotel after winning at Winged Foot.

By Sunday morning most had predictably played their way out contention and perhaps ten had reasonable hopes.

By the time they got to the 72nd hole only four of the best players in the world ­Mickelson, Montgomerie, Jim Furyk and Ogilvy ­ had a chance.

Furyk, the champion of 2003 took an eternity to stroke his final five footer to finish at five over and it wobbled low and fell off the right edge of the cup and he posted 286.

The Scot came next and after a perfect drive, one of the best iron players in the history of the game hit one of the poorest shots of his career. Worse, he somehow managed to take four more for the edge and the scorers added his name to Furyk's at six over.

Ogilvy stood on the 18th tee at plus five and ripped a high draw into the left third of the fairway to earn him the perfect line into the pin tucked into the back right corner of the famous green. From there and out of a sand-filled divot he almost hit a wonderful shot but it came all the way back off the green leaving him the pitch he had played hundreds of times from over the back of Victoria's 16th green.

'Actually it wasn't quite that difficult' said the champion but amid the chaos he played the perfect soft armed shot Lynch had worked on with him for years. It's a shot everyone has to learn to play in Melbourne because the steep banks at the backs and sides of the greens at Royal Melbourne, Kingston Heath, Metropolitan, Victoria and Woodlands are not

Photo: © Nick Laham/Getty Images Geoff Ogilvy after he salvaged par on the 72nd hole which would prove to be the winning stroke after Mickelson made a double on the same hole.

covered in long grass, as is the fashion in America, but with short grass that sweeps the ball far away from the greens and leaves shots that can be realistically played with almost every club in the bag and not just a lofted wedge.

Then, he made the sliding downhill six footer that many a wonderful player would have missed ­ 285.

Finally the hero of the New York crowd came to the hole Hale Irwin hit that awesome two iron thirty-two years ago and couldn't hit a drive within seventy yards of where he was aiming and from there he proved incapable of making a sensible decision.

Mickelson ­ now in danger of becoming the modern-day Sam Snead - has proved himself a champion at Augusta and Baltusrol but at Winged Foot, Ogilvy's play on that final terrifying 450 yards showed he is more than a worthy champion who deserves full credit for his win ­ and the cover of Golf World.

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