GEOFF OGILVY, who won the Mercedes-Benz Championship last week, is hoping to put an end to the curse of Kapalua by grabbing another PGA Tour victory as soon as possible.
Australian Ogilvy picked up the first winner’s cheque of the year last weekend when he won the season-opening event for 2008’s Tour champions, heading the 33-man field by six shots from Anthony Kim and Davis Love in Hawaii at Maui’s Kapalua Resort.
He will tee off today in the first full-field event of 2009 at the Sony Open at the Waialae Country Club in Honolulu, fully aware that past winners at Kapalua have not always translated their opening win of the year into sustained success. In the 10 years since the tournament moved from La Costa to Kapalua’s Plantation Course, just four golfers have gone on to score further wins that season, with Tiger Woods in 2000 the only player to follow up with a major success.
Ogilvy, the 2006 US Open champion, intends to break the pattern in 2009. “Hopefully that’s not true with me,” he said. “Hopefully I can change the trend.”
Ogilvy was also reminded that his win last week had been in another high-profile, big-money tournament, just as had his previous four victories – the US Open, two World Golf Championship titles and last month’s Australian PGA Championship.
Again, he found it difficult to explain why. “People have asked me that and I’m not really sure actually,” Ogilvy said.
“I think maybe I enjoy the challenge of the bigger tournaments – for sure especially on the tougher golf courses. I seem to enjoy the challenge and the big fields, I guess. I don’t know.”
Ogilvy is looking forward to 2009 after his decision to return to the European Tour for the first time since 2000. Aside from the huge increase in prize-money on offer with the inaugural Race To Dubai, the Australian said he was looking forward to the variation in courses and destinations he would encounter playing both in the United States and Europe.
“I’d lie if I said money wasn’t a reason,” he added. “I’m not saying that’s the only reason, but I’m saying that’s one of the factors.
“More diversity. My schedule had kind of got very similar every year, just going to the same cities, playing the same tournaments. I wanted to add a little bit more of a dimension to my schedule, a bit more cosmopolitan, and play a few more international tournaments, which I think is really good for your game and really good for golf.”
Ogilvy will face six other players ranked in the world’s 20. Tenth-ranked Ernie Els is back at the palm-fringed venue where he triumphed in 2003 and 2004, along with Americans Kenny Perry (14th), Steve Stricker (15th) and Stewart Cink (16th), South Korean and defending champion KJ Choi (17th) and Australia’s Adam Scott (18th).
Sony Open of Hawaii
Course: Waialae Country Club, Oahu, Honolulu, Hawaii.
Field: 144.
Punters' leading lights: Ernie Els (9/1); Geoff Ogilvy (9/1); Davis Love (16/1), Steve Stricker (16/1).
Length: 7,068 yards. Par: 70.
Prize-money: €4.1 million (€740,000 to winner).
Course records: 72 holes: 260 John Houston (1998) and Brad Faxon (2001). 18 holes: Old course 60 Davis Love (1994); New course 61 David Toms (2006).
Defending champion: K J Choi led from pillar to post after an opening round of 64 set him up for a three-stroke victory over Rory Sabbatini.
Other course winners: Ernie Els, Corey Pavin, Paul Goydos, David Toms, Brad Faxon, Paul Azinger, Jeff Sluman, Jerry Kelly, John Houston.
On TV: Live on Setanta Golf all four days, starting at midnight tonight.
Weather forecast: Sunny start but rain is forecast as well 15mph winds. Weekend will be sunny with showers.
