Ogilvy Victorious at PGA Tour Opener

Sunday, January 18, 2009 -- Geoff Ogilvy takes on his fifth PGA Tour Victory at the PGA Tour Opener – the Mercedes-Benz Championship. It was an unexpected, yet well deserved win for the Australian professional golfer when he started out with a six-shot lead into the final round, only to end up with leading only one point ahead of Anthony Kim. According to Ogilvy, it was quite an uncomfortable feeling to be leading by six shots and then go back to almost being tied.

However, Ogilvy had little time to panic because in the next round, he birdied five of the next six holes to win a 5-under 68 six-shot victory. Although, they were almost tied, Kim had a hard time keeping up with Ogilvy after that. Kim was only able to make one birdie and then finished with a 3-wood that stopped just inches from the cup. Kim tied with Love for second place.

After making this win, Ogilvy joined Ernie Els and Vijay Singh as the only wire-to-wire winners at Kapalua since the tournament was moved in 1999. Ogilvy finished at 24-under 268, earned $1.12 million and moved up to number 6 in the world rankings.

Although it seemed like Ogilvy was playing well, he made one too many bad shots. This was due to the softening of the Plantation course from overnight rain that lasted until morning. However, after seeing Kim making his way up to the top spot, Ogilvy turned into a new man, playing the best he could in the next six holes.