Geoff Ogilvy, Miguel Angel Jimenez share WGC-CA Championship lead at Doral; Tiger Woods two back

From WorldGolf.com News Services

Geoff Ogilvy and Miguel Angel Jimenez shot rounds of 7-under-par 65 Thursday to sit together atop the leaderboard after the first round of the WGC-CA Championship at Doral's Blue Monster Course.

Almost immediately after, the question for Ogilvy became whether or not he thought he'd have to duplicate his first-round performance three more times to hold off Tiger Woods. With three rounds remaining, the 2006 U.S. Open champion said he didn't know.

"You might have to put up 7-under each day to beat someone else, but he has been playing very well, obviously, and he does like this place," Ogilvy told reporters when asked about staying in front of Woods. "He hasn't had too many bad tournaments here, obviously. You're going to have to play pretty well.

"You know starting the week if you want to win the tournament you're going to have to beat him because you know he's going to be in contention come the last nine holes here on Sunday. It's just one of his happy places, obviously."

Woods, the defending champion at Doral, opened with a 5-under 67 to share fourth place with Phil Mickelson, Adam Scott, Anders Hansen and Nick O'Hern. However, the world No. 1-ranked player, who entered the tournament with a five-event PGA Tour winning streak, was anything but pleased.

First, there was a missed birdie putt from seven feet on No. 16. Then, Woods finished his day with a three-putt bogey from 70 feet on No. 18, falling two shots off the pace.

"Yeah, I'm pissed," Woods said in his post-round press conference. "You three-putt 18, you're not going to be real happy."

Woods said he really didn't do anything special with his round.

"I just kind of hung in there and took care of the par-5s and made a couple other birdies here and there," Woods said. "But all in all, just kind of ground it out."

Ogilvy enjoyed a much more stress-free day. He opened with five birdies on the front nine and added two more on the back, including a birdie at No. 18 where Woods made bogey.

The Australian said he drove the ball well and hit his irons crisply, for the most part.

"I gave myself a lot of chances and I made those chances," said Ogilvy, who equaled the best round of the day with a 66 Sunday to tie for 14th at last week's Arnold Palmer Invitational. "I played really well the last round last week and I kind of felt decent coming into this."

Ogilvy, a three-time PGA Tour winner, missed his first three cuts of 2008, but has bounced back with a tie for 33rd at the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship, a tie for 10th at the PODS Championship and the tie for 14th last week. He's making just his second start at the WGC-CA Championship, tying for third, four strokes behind Woods a year ago.

Ogilvy and Jimenez enter Friday's second round one shot ahead of Stewart Cink. Jimenez eagled No. 1 and sandwiched birdies around a bogey at No. 4 before finishing with birdies on four of his last five holes.

"When you're hitting it well and you have some putts, you expect to shoot 65 any time," Jimenez told reporters. "I've been hitting good."

March 21, 2008