OGILVY: 30 minutes, three career shots

Three of Geoff Ogilvy's best-ever shots led to a US Open title a decade ago.

EXCLUSIVE BY GOLF AUSTRALIA COLUMNIST GEOFF OGILVY

Last month I talked about the three shots I’d most like to hit one more time. Hopefully, it struck a chord with anyone who read it. Let’s face it, if you play golf long enough you are inevitably going to hit that really awful shot at just the wrong moment. We’re all human and we all make mistakes, especially under pressure.

I’m reminded of the commentary the late Dave Marr provided during the 1984 Open Championship at St Andrews. Just after Tom Watson struck his approach to the 71st hole – the infamous Road Hole – against the wall behind the green, the 1965 US PGA champion summed it up by saying: “The wrong shot with the wrong club at the wrong time.”

I couldn’t have put it better myself. But there is, of course, another side to this particular coin. So, to be fair at least to myself, here are the three shots I’m most proud of. Or remember most vividly. Remarkably – or not, given that they led to the biggest victory of my career so far – they all happened within 30 minutes of each other. I can’t separate them.

1. After three shots on the 17th hole at Winged Foot during the final round of the 2006 US Open, my ball wasn’t on the putting surface. But I made par, chipping in from the back left corner of the green. I have to be honest, though. It wasn’t the best chip of my life. But it was certainly my most timely hole-out. It was just a nicely hit shot in which the hole got in the way.

The run began with this chip-in par at the 71st hole.

2. Standing on Winged Foot’s 18th tee minutes after I had just chipped in, my mind was racing. There was a delay up ahead, as Vijay Singh needed a ruling before he could hit his second shot, and that didn’t help either. It certainly didn’t help his playing partner, Colin Montgomerie, who ended up hitting a very poor approach into the greenside bunker from the perfect spot in the fairway.

We also had a great view of the group behind. As Ian Poulter and I stood there, a huge crowd was rushing past watching Phil Mickelson. He hit an amazing shot onto the green from the trees and the spectators were going crazy. And, because of their proximity, I could feel their excitement. None of which was helping me focus on the shot in hand.

Take my word for it, the drive on that hole is one of the most intimidating in the game. Even in a Tuesday morning practice round under no pressure, just hitting the fairway takes a really, really good shot. The dogleg seems to come at just the wrong point and the trouble is on the outside of the corner. Everything seems to get pushed towards the bunkers on the right. It is, by a distance, the hardest fairway to hit on the course. From a narrow chute, the perfect shot is a slight right-to-left draw to set up the approach.

All of which is what makes the shot I produced so special. In fact, I would go so far as to say it was the best tee shot of my life. I striped it. I flushed it, one of those drives I knew was perfect right after impact. It was long, it was straight and it finished exactly where I had to hit it. At that stage I was one shot behind and thinking I had to make a birdie to have a chance. That drive was the first step to giving me that opportunity.

As a measure of how difficult that drive is, I was the only guy in contention – other than Monty – who found the short grass off the tee, which was a little ironic. At the time, my driving was maybe the weakest part of my game. As a kid I got worse the farther I was from the hole. That only added to the satisfaction I still feel when I think back on that drive. The first time I had a real chance to win a major championship, I hit the best shot I could when I absolutely had to hit it.

A deft pitch from short of Winged Foot's final green saved a winning par.

3. Walking up the 18th fairway I was feeling quite proud of myself for all the reasons I just described. But that lasted only until I got to the ball, which was lying in a sandy divot hole, a horrendous spot. I actually hit a pretty good shot from there, but almost inevitably it came up short. The ball finished right in line with the green at the bottom of the “false front” maybe six feet below the level of the putting surface. Under any circumstances – but especially in my situation – the chip was never going to be easy.

Just as I got to the ball, I discovered that Monty had made a double-bogey. So now I needed to get up-and-down to beat him and hope that Phil dropped a shot on the last. If all that came to pass, I’d be in a play-off the next day. For the first time all day, I thought I had a real chance to win.

It would have been easy to hit my chip to 15 feet or so. There was a bit of a backstop behind the pin. I could have hit the ball hard, knowing it wasn’t going to go too far past. But that wasn’t good enough. And to get really close I had to hit the perfect shot. It had to land in the right spot. It had to have the right flight. It had to spin just the right amount. All off a really tight lie, the grass cut almost at green-height. That’s very difficult do well if your technique is less than 100 percent.

As it happens, I had been working hard on my chipping and pitching for about three years leading up to that event. My coach, Dale Lynch, was telling me my action was no good for playing in America. I needed to move away from the ‘one-skip spinner’ I used at home and get a higher flight on the ball.

I have to admit I worked on that shot grudgingly. But after three years I was almost convinced he was right. And after I hit that chip I knew he was 100 percent correct. I could not have hit the shot I hit three years before, maybe not even six months before. I did need that shot if I was to win a major.

Anyway, from where I was I couldn’t see the surface of the green and only the top-third of the pin. So the shot had to go up, over and down to the hole from maybe 30 yards. I had to fly the ball maybe 20 yards, land it on a downslope – while spinning to alleviate the size of the first bounce – and have to trickle down to the hole. The height was also key. It is very difficult to hit a really high chip with spin. So the trajectory had to be just right too.

In the end, it was stupid how well the shot came off. It is easily the best shot I’ve ever hit. It would have been hard under any circumstances, but in the position I was in the tournament it was much more so. Even if the ball had somehow ended up ten feet away I would have been happy because I played the shot so well. As it was, I finished maybe four feet past. And not long after I made the putt for par – and Phil made six on the 18th – I was US Open champion. It doesn’t get any better than that.