Former winner Geoff Ogilvy breathed a sigh of relief after battling his way into the third round of the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship with a Houdini-like escape on Thursday.
The Australian world number eight came from two down after 15 holes to scrape past Japan’s Shingo Katayama on the 19th green at Dove Mountain’s Ritz-Carlton Golf Club.
It was the second match in a row where Ogilvy was taken to extra holes, having beaten 2002 champion Kevin Sutherland of the U.S. after 19 in the opening round.
“In the end, I got lucky but I played kind of well in that little stretch in there before we got to 18,” Ogilvy told reporters. “So I did what I had to do and I got let off the hook a little bit.
“It was a bit of a sub-standard ball striking day for me. I hit a lot of drivers in the desert but I got lucky most times. I had one unplayable (lie) but I had some sort of shot most times.
“I didn’t hit it well enough but I hit some good shots on the last few holes when I needed to. That’s all you can do when you’re a couple down with a few to play, just hit good shots.”
Trailing by two after 15, Ogilvy struck a superb tee shot to nine feet at the par-three 16th where Katayama conceded after overshooting the green, chipping to 13 feet and missing the putt.
At the par-four 17th, Ogilvy’s luck appeared to run out when his approach bounced back off the green with his opponent on the putting surface in two just 13 feet from the flag.
However Katayama’s birdie attempt to close out the match slipped past the left edge and the Australian managed to get up and down from behind the green to square the hole.
“It was just a right-to-left type of putt,” Ogilvy said of the 12-footer for par which he rolled into the cup. “I hit a good putt. It wasn’t a hard putt, it was just a gentle slope.”
Katayama unravelled over the next two holes, bogeying the par-four 18th and pushing his tee shot into the desert scrub at the par-four first, the 19th.
“Hopefully you might get a little help from the other guy as well,” said Ogilvy, who beat veteran American Davis Love III 3&2 to win the 2006 Match Play Championship at La Costa.
“You do good stuff and you put the ball close and it puts pressure on him. Today I got kind of lucky with him bogeying the 18th and then hitting it in the junk on the 19th.”
