Geoff Ogilvy resisted the Easter Monday challenges of a quartet of Major champions to secure the weather affected WGC – CA Championship at the Doral Golf Resort and Spa in Miami.
The Australian’s final round of one under par 71 was good enough to hold off one of modern golf’s most intimidating chasing packs in the form of Jim Furyk, Retief Goosen, Vijay Singh and Tiger Woods as he recorded the winning score of 17 under par 271 to pick up the trophy and first prize of US$1,350,000.
Furyk, Goosen and Singh shared second place on 16 under, while Woods’s remarkable winning run of seven consecutive victories came to an end in fifth place on 15 under.
“It was good to hold off the group that were behind me – especially that group,” smiled Ogilvy. “You just look at those names – they are all major champions and there is a lot of talent there so it probably gives it something extra.
“In terms of ending Tiger’s winning streak, well, that was going to end somewhere but I’m glad that it was me that did it. Doing it here was nice as well because he has pretty much owned this place for the last three years.”
Of the four men hunting Ogilvy down, Furyk, Goosen and Singh were the most likely to catch him as they pushed the champion all the way to the 72nd hole.
While the chasing pack made birdies and bogeys coming down the final stretch to provide a truly exciting finish, Ogilvy kept his nerve superbly, playing par golf all the way through the back nine.
The standout hole for the champion was surely the par three 13th, where he saw his tee shot drift into a horrible lie to the left of the green.
A poor pitch left him still with a wedge in hand, but he fired his ball straight at the pin and into the hole for a par three to keep his neck out in front in the race to the finishing line.
As Ogilvy celebrated his victory, Graeme Storm, Europe’s best performer of the week contented himself with a share on sixth position after holding his own amongst the world best over five days of tournament golf.
“I’m generally satisfied with the result,” said Storm who played with Ogilvy and Singh in the last match of the fourth round.
“I was really nervous and jumpy today but I played those last nine holes in one over par and it was just great experience playing in the company of these players. It just shows you how far that I have come in the last few years.
“The talent I was playing alongside, Vijay and Geoff, you get a real idea of just how good these guys are and how much they believe in themselves. Hopefully I can get to that sort of standard and progress even further.”
