Ogilvy stays steady in second round

AUGUSTA -- Geoff Ogilvy hasn’t really ever played poorly at Augusta National Golf Club.

The Australian hasn’t played really well at the famed course throughout his career, either.

Ogilvy, however, pushed himself in the direction of putting together his best-ever Masters finish with a consecutive 69s heading into the weekend. The 33-year-old is tied with Alvaro Quiros for fifth place at 6 under heading into the third round.

“This is the first time I’ve come here really happy with how I was playing probably,” he said. “I mean, it’s nice to play well.”

Ogilvy has made the cut in all five of his trips to Augusta. He has finished in the top 20 twice but never better than 15th. His two 69s this year equaled his career-best Masters round, a score he carded in 2009 and 2010.

“This is the first year we’ve seen lots of red scores the first day,” Ogilvy said. “A few guys have always gone low the first day, but I’ve always found it pretty tricky.”

Ogilvy didn’t appear to be headed for a career-best round with a woeful start Friday.

He hit a chip that rolled far away from the hole on the par-5 second hole -- a hole that yielded an eagle and 46 birdies Friday and played as the second-easiest hole on the course -- and ended up four-putting for a double-bogey.

“While I was walking the third fairway, I was less than pleased,” he said. “Nobody goes 72 holes without doing something silly out here.”

After dropping back to 1 under, Ogilvy bounced back with a birdie on 3. He followed that with birdies on the sixth and seventh holes and had one more bogey on 8.

Ogilvy called the mishap at the second hole a “distant memory” after his birdie on the third hole.

The back nine was impeccable with Ogilvy making three birdies and no bogeys. After the rough start on the front nine par 5s, Ogilvy birdied both on the back nine.

“I felt like my preparation was really good; had a couple of great rounds here on the weekend,” Ogilvy said of some early practice rounds last weekend. “I don’t know. ... It’s really nice to play two good rounds and obviously be in contention for the weekend.”

The strong rounds were welcome after Ogilvy’s struggles this season.

He has competed in just seven events and has only one top-20 finish in a stroke-play event. He did advance to the quarterfinals of the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship before losing to Bubba Watson.

Ogilvy didn’t have a great 2010 season either, putting together two top-10 finishes in 19 events on the PGA Tour. He did, however, win the SBS Championship and finished 14th in the final FedEx Cup standings.

This story was originally published April 9, 2011 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Ogilvy stays steady in second round."