Three players have separated themselves from the field at the Tour Championship. Only one of them, however, will show up bleary-eyed for Saturday’s early tee times at East Lake.
Geoff Ogilvy’s Australian Rules team, St. Kilda, plays for the Grand Final — the equivalent of the Super Bowl — Saturday in Melbourne against the favoured Collingwood Magpies, who are a cross between the New York Yankees and Dallas Cowboys.
“Collingwood is like the best team to beat in the premiership, and it would be the worst team to lose to,” Ogilvy said. “There is no one who doesn’t support Collingwood who can stand them.”
All of that’s fine except the game starts at 12.30 a.m. ET.
“It’ll finish about 3 a.m.,” Ogilvy said. “It’s less than ideal, but I’m not going to miss watching this game.”
“St. Kilda is the hard-luck club of the league. It’s won one (championship) in 140 years. There’s a lot of people that will be crying when they walk out of the (Melbourne Cricket Ground, which will be filled with 100,000 fans) if they win.
“There’s a lot of people who have lived their whole life and not seen St. Kilda win a premiership.”
He’s one of them, going to every game the team played since he was a boy growing up in Melbourne.
Ogilvy’s devotion to his team is such that he was left speechless when asked whether he’d rather win the Tour Championship or watch the Saints win the Grand Final.
Is it really worth $1.35 million to him?
“That’s not a fair question,” he said, “I’m not going to answer that question.”
Ogilvy goes into Saturday’s third round at 7 under par, one shot back of the leaders, Jim Furyk and Luke Donald.
Furyk, at least, won’t have a problem not getting enough sleep. He won’t be watching the Aussie Rules Grand Final.
“I can’t tell you who’s playing,” said Furyk, who'd be more interested in the Notre Dame football game, which NBC accomodated by moving up Saturday's tee times. “I watched the Miami-Pitt game last night.”
He also won't be oversleeping, not after doing so before the FedEx opener and being disqualified from The Barclays.
''Hundreds of people told me that I was going to get alarm clocks for Christmas,'' Furyk said.
On Friday, Furyk shot the low round of the tournament on another difficult day, shooting 5-under 65, though it wasn’t plain sailing.
“I was a little wild off the tee but managed to get the ball around the green or on it, get up-and-down or make a long two-putt and get out of Dodge with a bunch of pars today and also six birdies,” he said.
Furyk’s had his chances at the Tour Championship, three times in the reckoning on Sundays without having claimed the trophy. He sounded like a man who liked his chances this time, however. Maybe it’ll be fourth time lucky.
“I like the position of being a front-runner and being in control a little bit and trying to keep pushing, make the other guys catch you rather than being the guy doing the chasing,” he said.
Donald was steady again in carding a second straight 66, but needed two long putts to save his round.
Just as Paul Casey — who fell back with a 71 — has been motivated by being left off the European Ryder Cup team, Donald’s been energized by being one of Colin Montgomerie’s three picks.
“Monty had confidence in me (and) that gives me confidence in itself,” he said. “Saying that, I feel like I’ve had a pretty solid year and I’m just kind of continuing that trend.”
Phil Mickelson, who needs to finish in a tie for second to unseat Tiger Woods as world No. 1, fell off the pace, turning in a disappointing round of 72 after hitting only four fairways and nine greens in regulation. He’s at 1 over for the championship.
If last year’s any harbinger, Ogilvy’s lack of sleep might help his campaign to have book-end wins on the Tour. He won the season opener in Maui.
Last year Ogilvy watched the Saints lose a heartbreaker to the Geelong Cats, who’ve been like the New England Patriots over the past decade.
“After about two hours of sleep, I had 64,” he remembered of his third round in 2009. “I think you can play golf on no sleep if you haven’t been drinking.
“We’re semi-athletes. I mean, you can play golf off three or four hours of sleep.”
