Geoff Ogilvy, the Australian golfer, is a great company to have if you are stuck in your car for more than two hours.
Ogilvy and I, along with Matthew Gibb, the PR/wheelman, discussed his move into the golf course designing business.
Ogilvy is not the first person to suggest this. It’s still early in his architecture career, but he could be the next Ben Crenshaw. Crenshaw made the transition from a Masters champion to a highly regarded designer of golf. OCM the next Coore and Crenshaw? We can only wish for such luck.
Ogilvy became a professional in 1998 at the same time Tiger Woods began to dominate the game. Ogilvy won eight times on PGA Tour, plus another four on DP World Tour, including the 2006 U.S. Open. He has served as vice captain of three Presidents Cup teams and was part of the International Team three times. It is inevitable that he’ll get to be the captain (and the U.S. could finally meet its match at that time).
Ogilvy has been reducing his playing in recent years and even moved back to Australia for a while. He is now starting to establish himself as a designer with his work at Shady oaks Country Club in Fort Worth Texas, at Peninsula-Kingswood in Melbourne and he is currently completing an extensive re-do at Medinah No. The 2026 Presidents Cup will be held at the 3 near Chicago. He also mentioned that the company is building a course in Georgia, but refused to reveal the name.
The conversation continued at lunch and between visits to the site. Here are a few highlights.
