2014 Australian Masters: Geoff Ogilvy, Jarrod Lyle, Stuart Appleby press conference audio

Players have begun arriving at Metropolitan Golf club ahead of this week’s BetEasy Australian Masters, but in Geoff Ogilvy’s case he’s been spending a bit of time with family in the lead up to the event.

2014 Australian Masters: Geoff Ogilvy press conference audio

As always, Ogilvy is worth listening to and we particularly loved his memories of being a course marshall when the tournament used to be held at Huntingdale Golf Club.

What’s your earliest remembrance of the Masters?
Yeah, it was definitely Huntingdale. I actually marshalled the Masters a couple of times. I was a member at Cheltenham Golf Club, and they used to get the second at Huntingdale, and I did that a couple times. At the Masters, used to wear pink shirts and I’d do the quiet sign on the second tee or be up hitting a second shot, I did that a couple times.

And then probably the best memory from doing that was like on Sunday, I don’t know if they still do this, but quite often they would get a few of the
marshals from each of the holes to when the last group comes, just keep following. This isn’t the Greg Norman days when there’s like ten deep on every hole. They needed more than just the five or six marshals on each hole when Norman came through.

So, I just followed. Carried my quiet sign inside the ropes and followed. It was Greg and Peter Senior — did Pete hit it on the 18th fairway, on the practise
fairway? And then he hit it on the green and won the tournament. And I walked basically from the whole — from second tee that whole round with them, that was probably the oldest for me, fantastic. I mean, inside the ropes with Peter Senior and Greg Norman when I was 12 or 13 — would have been 12, 14 maybe. It was great fun.

And his comments on how far professional golfers are hitting the golf ball these days:

The last tournament I played was the ’97 Australian Open which was I think the last time anyone played here, right, maybe? Oh, yeah, I was in that field. That seems like a really long time ago. I was an amateur. I remember Westwood flying driver to the fence at the end of the range thinking, it’s just ridiculous how far he hits the ball. Now I understand we aren’t even allowed to hit drivers on the range because we all just go; and it was a joke how far he was hitting it, and he was hitting the fence. Now we all just hit 3-woods over the thing.

And twelve months on from his emotional return to professional golf, Jarrod Lyle is back in the field at the Australian Masters. In contrast to last year when Lyle’s comeback was deemed a success by making the cut, Lyle has much high expectations this year.

2014 Australian Masters: Jarrod Lyle press conference audio

“Last year to, make the cut, it felt like a victory for me but now I feel like I’m back to where I need to be to be competitive. So you know, I want to be there every Sunday afternoon, every golf tournament and I’m trying to do everything I can to make that possible. So, it’s a completely different scenario than it was last year. Now last year, play two days would be great. Play four days was huge, but this year, it’s completely different mind-set now. I’m here to compete.”

Stuart Appleby is back in Melbourne and in some pretty good form after a strong finish in the FedEx Cup playoffs. He begins by loving the state of the fairways at Metropolitan Golf Club.

2014 Australian Masters: Jarrod Lyle press conference audio

On the fairways at Metropolitan: “They don’t even make carpet as uniform and as smooth as this.”