Ogilvy takes aim at changes to St.Andrews

Geoff Ogilvy makes known he disagrees with the recent changes to St.Andrews Old Course.

The recent course changes to St.Andrews took everyone by surprise. Not just because everyone thought it was sacred ground that no one would dare alter, but because of the deceitful, underhand way the R&A went about making the changes, with little discussion among the wider community.
The general consensus is that the committees at St.Andrews and the R&A are trying to protect par. Making the course a little more difficult in preparation for when The Open Championship returns to the Old Course in 2015.
Golf course critic Darius Oliver from Planet Golf alerted us to an interview with Geoff Ogilvy in the Hong Kong Golfer Magazine where Geoff Ogilvy goes to town on the changes.

It’s been fine for 400 years, in the form it’s in it’s been fine for a hundred years. It’s fine! 

I mean, if they get crazy wind and you can’t put a pin up the back left on 11 then, oh well. Or, you just have that green running two feet slower than the others. We’re the best golfers in the world, surely we can work out that the green is slower. We’re not that precious.

and…

Surely they know they’re doing something wrong if they have to sneak it in under a bigger announcement? You’re not that confident about what you’re doing are you, surely? It was the process rather than the reality. The reality is not very nice but the process was horrible.

Ogilvy also talks about his recent poor form towards the end of the article that finds himself out of the WGC Match Play Championship this week, an event he has won twice, and currently without an invitation to the US Masters.

I could have played more in the last three months of last year but I really needed a break, and every time I’ve played extra tournaments when I felt like I needed a break, I’ve paid for it later on. So I took a bit of a risk and I just missed. It was basically a case where one shot better at any tournament last year and I would have made it. It was like a 200th of a point, it was ridiculous how close it was. 

Not getting the [invitation] letter in the first week of January – it’s the first time I haven’t had it in a while, so it’s a little disappointing but hopefully I can get it soon.

Do yourself a favour and read the whole article, and check in to Planet Golf from time to time too. Good stuff there. 

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