For Ogilvy, mere pars were enough to hold off world's best at Doral

By Helen Ross, PGATOUR.COM Chief of Correspondents

DORAL, Fla. -- Geoff Ogilvy didn't think nine pars would do it. Not on your life.
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With five of the top 10 players in the world chasing him as the final round of the World Golf Championships-CA Championship finally came to a conclusion, the talented Aussie wouldn't have given you a dollar for his chances if he parred in Monday.

That's exactly what happened, though, and as a result, Ogilvy claimed both the Gene Sarazen Trophy and a check for $1.35 million. The victory made him just the third player to win more than one World Golf Championships title, although he and Darren Clarke have a ways to go to catch Tiger Woods' total of 15.

Ogilvy shot 17 under to finish one stroke ahead of two-time U.S. Open champion Retief Goosen, three-time major champion Vijay Singh and 2003 U.S. Open winner, Jim Furyk. He also ended Woods' PGA TOUR win streak at five, as well as Tiger's Doral streak of four.

"Holding off the group is pretty nice," said Ogilvy, who started Monday's play on the 10th hole and holding a two-shot lead. "There was a fair bit of some talent on the top 10 of the leaderboard. It's pretty nice to come in in front of them (and) ending the streak.

"It was going to end at some point. I'm very glad that I did it. It's a nice place to do it, too, because (Woods has) obviously owned this place for the last few years."

Usually a player can point to a birdie, or, if he's even luckier, an eagle, that was pivotal in the victory. But Ogilvy, who carded just one bogey in 72 holes on this long, wet and weary week that was extended an extra day due to bad weather, probably saved the day, literally, with a clutch par at the 13th hole.

The Aussie hit his 2-iron on the 245-yard par 3 into the rough on the left side of the green. He had to move several cables, so there was no grass directly behind his ball. Ogilvy swung hard but chunked the chip and didn't even reach the green.

"It's a weird kind of a lie," Ogilvy said. "It would be easier if it was just grass everywhere because you know you have to swing hard at it. This one looked like I could hit the ball first or not. I obviously didn't read the lie very well the first chip, and then the second chip was traveling. I guess that's why you want to hit it straight."

Ogilvy's second chip came out hot, but hit the flag and bounced in the hole for the unlikely par on what he otherwise called a "horrible" hole. He estimated that the ball would have gone 15 feet by if it hadn't found the hole.

"It was probably not that lucky to hit the flag, but it was very lucky to go in," Ogilvy said. "You quite often see guys hit chips like that that slam into the pin and stop a foot away or something. That's quite a common occurrence, but for it to go in is pretty fortunate."

Singh, who was playing with Ogilvy, also missed the green to the left. He said he had the "simplest chip," but the smooth-swinging Fijian didn't get it close, and he missed the 10-footer for par to fall two behind the leader. Still, he wasn't too disappointed.

"It's a good warm-up, or, you can say, a confidence builder towards the big events to come," Singh said. "I'm pretty happy with my results, considering I shot 73 on the first day. Geoff played well. I have to give him credit. He hit a lot of great shots and putted nicely."

Ogilvy said he didn't allow himself to think that clutch par signaled that this could be his week. He did admit to having a bit of a flashback there to the chip he holed on the 17th hole at Winged Foot when he won the U.S. Open, though.

"Whenever you watch people win golf tournaments, you often see something like that happen to the guy who wins somewhere along the way," Ogilvy said. "It happens quite regularly, and so you can't help but think, well, last time I won a big golf tournament I did that on the 17th hole.

"Maybe there's symmetry; I don't know. It was a flash. I didn't think about it for very long, but I'm sure it came into my head for a minute."

Ogilvy followed up the major title with seven top-10s last year, including three in a row starting at the PGA Championship and continuing into the first two events of the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup. Then he and his wife, Juli, welcomed a second child to their family over the holidays.

After playing Mr. Mom for several weeks, Ogilvy started slowly this year. He missed his first three cuts and then lost in the first round of the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship -- a tournament he won in 2006 and in which he reached the finals again a year ago.

Once he came to Florida, though, Ogilvy's game steadily improved. He finished 10th at the PODS Championship and tied for 14th at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard before leading wire-to-wire at Doral and picking up the third win of his career.

"I had a reasonable year (in 2007) but I wasn't that happy with it," Ogilvy said. "I sat down and set about having a better year this year and working on things that I didn't like. Not really rededicating, because it's not like I'm not dedicated, but finding a balance with the family and the golf.

"I really feel like I did that this off season, and feel like I'm playing pretty good. "

And now he has the Gene Sarazen Trophy to prove it.