Is Ogilvy the man with the answers?

Back to the Australian PGA Championship for the first time since 2012.

Back to competitive golf after four months without playing "with a dashboard in your pocket".

And more importantly for golf in this country, returning to live full time in Australia for the first time since the late 1990s.

The 2006 US Open champion no longer lives up to his gaming abilities, but the Victorian will add interest and prestige to every local event he chooses from. To organize from his new base in Melbourne. And the value of Ogilvy goes well beyond domain building.

One of the most respected voices in professional gaming, the Golf Australia Magazine The editorialist could very well be the perfect soundboard and the perfect source of ideas for game administrators in this country as they try to defeat the disappointing pitch of the Australian Open and the permanent place of our greatest golf program in the world.

Ogilvy with the Kirkwood Cup after his victory at the 2008 Australian PGA Championship. PHOTO: Cameron Spencer / Getty Images.

At his press conference at the Royal Pines of Australia, in front of the Australian PGA, Ogilvy made it clear that he did not wish to be a director, but acknowledged the extent of his knowledge, having played at golf tournaments around the world while designing golf courses during his free time. , gives him a unique vision of the game at the highest level.

"There are players and companies," Ogilvy told the badembled media. "I understand what makes golf tournaments work and everything else, from my point of view, whether driving a car, parking, entering the locker room, hitting bullets in the golf course facilities, etc. I understand from top to bottom what good tournaments around the world do and what bad tournaments do in the world and what makes it work and does not work.

"There are a million little things, I know it. But on the paper side of the track, I have no idea at all. I have an idea, but I have no idea. It is sometimes miraculous to organize golf tournaments in Australia with the economic conditions, so I understand. So, administration, I do not like that word, but on the golf side, I think I would have a bit to offer, but from the outside, I do not know.

Although he did not hesitate to commit when he asked if he was ready to lend a hand to the governing bodies of the game, Ogilvy has already directed much of the conversation about the game. summer golf. His story in the November issue of Golf Australia Ogilvy felt that the resulting discussions would have a positive impact in recent weeks.

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"Generally positive, I must say," he said of the returns he has received since arriving home to set up his base in Melbourne last week. "I'm sure there are people who are annoyed about it, but the timing was interesting. I thought it went well.

"Just observations. I mean it's just that you want the Australian Open to be the thing of choice, you know, all the respect you owe to the Australian PGA. It's the same thing in the United States. The Majors are the Majors, that's right, and the American Open is always the American, regardless of whether it's the only USGA tournament, it's still a big tournament.

"So, you want the Australian Open to be what it is. And the more the Australian Open grows, the bigger the PGA grows, and the more the Open grows, the bigger it grows. So, I do not know, I've created a bit of conversation, I guess. Conversations are where good things happen.

Part of the controversy surrounding Ogilvy's view of the Stonehaven Cup, a trophy he owns, and stands alongside the Kirkwood Cup that he won 10 years ago among the major achievements of the Australian PGA : Lakes two weeks ago.

But the reason why Ogilvy missed his national opening, a trip to Disneyland promised his kids before finally leaving America, adds even more weight to the case, allowing him to make decisions for the future of the match . His balance between life and golf is surely one of the keys to his longevity and his obvious disappointment at having missed the event is reason enough to forgive and forget.

Ogilvy plans to honor his friend Jarrod Lyle at an annual event in Melbourne. PHOTO: Michael Dodge / Getty Images.

"It was horrible. It was brutal; is not it? Ogilvy said he missed the event during a clbad that helped reshape him. "But the Open Australia is Thanksgiving week in America since, for example, I do not know how long. As long as I play, and I think for a longer time, because I feel as if Greg used this excuse from time to time; right? But it's been a long time. It was on the Internet, it was originally posted, it's the original date, and I'm like, perfect, we can do it.

"Disney, end of America almost for my kids. They all reached the age and it was perfect. We're going to lock this up, it's perfect. There's nothing this weekend, I'm going to play, then they've changed and I'm not going to tell my kids that they can not go to Disneyland. All those who are willing to do it, congratulations, but I will not do it, so we had an amazing week. It was one of those dreamy family weeks and it opened my eyes to the fact that there were more tournaments to play, and that opened the option for here, because I said I had to go back to get organized, to get the trip here, and things can happen for a reason sometimes, so here we are. "

The fact that Ogilvy is at Royal Pines augurs well for his commitment to Australian golf, at least as a player, in the future. And while he may not be on the list of absolutely golf-based courses, he has once again demonstrated his innate ability to look beyond his personal preferences for the greatest good game, tournament and players.

"I played 16 holes … look, it's a good venue for a tournament," said Ogilvy about his first look at the Gold Coast course. "Everyone knows that this is not in the top 50 world, Royal Pines, but it welcomes the tournament. It's great for RACV, and if people like to play here, it's great, and it's a course big enough for us to welcome pros. Coolum was getting too small to see where we hit him. It's big enough. This is in good shape. Good players have won here. And that's all you can ask for. Good form, good players win here, and it's a good environment and a good week, so for a tournament like this, it's perfect, and the last tournament of the year , being in Queensland, from the point of view of the player, it works very well. "

Ogilvy's first look during his practice session also allowed him to evaluate his slightly rusty game, which pleasantly surprised him, especially around the delicate and grainy greens of Graham Marsh's drawing. And while he may not be a favorite, it's never possible to have a major champion. The potential status of some European Tour tournaments is therefore a good motivation to play well and open up even more options for 2019.

Ogilvy once again followed this idea, claiming that his skills were an invaluable and unselfish resource for football.

"There is nothing concrete about us, of course, but consider playing at Vic Open, maybe in New Zealand, in Perth maybe a little more here. I made sure to pay my affiliation in Europe, so it works if I earn a little money, and I have a previous champion status in Europe, believe it or not because of the World Golf Championships and the US Open, etc. I think I can come up with smaller ones anyway, so I could probably put together a reasonable European schedule if I could put some money here, so that might be an option as well.

"This European co-sanction is huge for Australians, it is really big, especially for young people. It's really important and it's certainly maybe the best carrot we have for guys to be in the middle, whether I come or not, well, it's Europe. so I better leave. It's an important thing, I think, for us. "

As part of his first participation in the Ogilvy PGA Championship in nearly 10 years, he will participate in the event turning yellow for the first round of Thursday in tribute to fellow countryman Jarrod Lyle, Victorian.

Ogilvy and Robert Allenby hope to push the idea even further in the future, with the possibility of a tournament paying tribute to the lovable larakin, perhaps the perfect way for Ogilvy to dive his foot in the organizational waters of golf and to help not only the Lyle. family, but the game and the country he clearly loves.

"I think it would be very appropriate that there is room to create a new tournament in Australia, the Masters is over. There could be space. Obviously, the PGA is a lot of things but the badumption is perhaps a good idea to organize a Jarrod Lyle tournament, "said Ogilvy.

"Be it a big or a small tournament, but honor Jarrod every year. This is a non-profit tournament that raises money for all the projects of the Lyle family, probably the Challenge, I would expect it. And I think you could create a feeling that could spark a lot of enthusiasm behind the tournament, and you have a lot of players playing because everyone liked Jarrod, and he had such a bad deal, and that would be appropriate, as it was a great golfer from Melbourne, and that would raise money for Challenge and I think in that context, there are obviously a million different checkboxes for that to work, but Robert and I have loved the idea immediately.

"We'll see these things are not easy to organize, I think conceptually it's a good idea, it would be great if we could create a legacy tournament for Jarrod, which would do a lot of good and would actually help the alternative motive, that maybe you could organize a great new tournament in Melbourne, we talked about the idea and we both loved it.