Ogilvy deserves to be favourite at Doral
BY Bruce Young | US PGA Tour | 2009 CA Championship | Preview | 11 Mar 2009
The World Golf Championship series moves to Miami this week for the WGC-CA event at the Blue Monster at the Doral Golf Resort and Spa where a field of 80 will contend for the US$8.5 million purse.
Much of the discussion this week will be on the return to stroke-play tournament golf of Tiger Woods but the man who must be considered the favourite to continue his great form in 2009 and to successfully defend the title he won in 2008 is Geoff Ogilvy.
Ogilvy leads the PGA Tour money list following his wins at the Mercedes-Benz Championship and at the Accenture. He won in overtime last year having to return to the golf course on Monday morning and held off Jim Furyk, Vijay Singh and Retief Goosen by one.
Not only did Ogilvy win in 2008 he finished third behind Woods in 2007 and so enters this week deservedly the logical favourite to win.
Six time winner of this event, Woods continues his comeback following his return to tournament golf at the Accenture. He was clearly and understandably not tournament sharp at the Accenture losing in round two to Tim Clark and there will be considerable interest in how he copes with four consecutive rounds of tournament golf.
With no cut this week, Woods will enjoy the opportunity to continue his preparation for Augusta National as, with this and perhaps only the Arnold Palmer Championship in his schedule before the Masters, he will need to be showing something.
Steve Stricker appears capable of winning this event. He is certainly playing well enough. He finished 3rd at the Bob Hope then finished runner up at Riviera. The last time he played Doral he produced a stunning final round of 63 to finish 6th twelve months ago.
Sergio Garcia has played this event well in each of the past two years it has been held at Doral. He has been 3rd and 15th and his 13th place finish last week at the Honda gives every indication that he is primed for a good showing.
Aside from Ogilvy, the Australasian contingent is made up of Aaron Baddeley, Adam Scott, Robert Allenby, Stuart Appleby, Rod Pampling and New Zealander Mark Brown whose own national open is on this week in Queenstown.
