GREG Norman, Adam Scott and Geoff Ogilvy have just been announced as confirmed starters for the 2010 Australian Open.

The famous trio are the first big name players to confirm their participation in the prestigious tournament which will be played at The Lakes in Sydney from December 2 to 5.

For the second successive year the tournament will form the penultimate leg on the OneAsia Tour and offer a purse of US$1.3 million.

Norman has been in Australia in recent days looking after his various interests and here’s hoping there will be no repeat of the shoulder injury that kept him out of the event last year.

Scott is the defending champion and is back in form – touch wood – after winning the Valero Texas Open on the US PGA Tour a couple of weeks back.

Ogilvy didn’t fare too well at the Open last year at the stunning NSW Golf Club but has often expressed his strong desire to win the event.

Scott won his first Australian title claiming the Australian Open by five shots over compatriot Stuart Appleby after a tense final round.

Winning the 2009 Australian Open was one of the great highlights of my career,” Scott said today.

“Having dreamed of that moment since I was a kid it was a wonderful feeling to have Greg Norman hand me the trophy and to see my name next to the greats in golf is something to cherish.
“I’m sure this year’s Open at The Lakes will be another great event and I will be hoping to have the engraver add my name again to the Stonehaven Cup!”.

Scott’s victory in Texas was his seventh on the PGA Tour and came on a course designed by his hero Norman.

Ogilvy, the 2006 US Open champion, is still in search of his first Australian Open and is particularly looking forward to playing The Lakes course.

“As always I am looking forward to our year ending events in Australia,” he said.

“Returning to Sydney for the Australian Open at The Lakes will have special significance for me. The golf course was remodelled by Mike Clayton with whom I am forming a new golf course design company, Ogilvy Clayton Golf Design. Appreciating Mike’s design skills, I am sure the new layout will provide a fitting test for our national Open.”

Two-time Major winner Norman last lifted the Stonehaven Cup in 1996. Shoulder surgery meant he was unable to compete last year but he is excited about the prospect of returning this December.

“I look forward to my return to Sydney and my participation in the 2010 Australian Open at The Lakes. Both The Lakes as a venue and the Australian Open as a tournament are special to me in that they are both an integral part of my career,” the 55-year-old said.

Other star players will be confirmed over the coming months including a wealth of talent from OneAsia which this year boasts 11 events, offering a total of over US$12 million in prize money.

NSW Minister for Tourism Jodi McKay said tens of thousands of spectators were expected to attend the 2010 Australian Open.

“More than 30,000 visitors came for the Australian Open Golf last year, including significant numbers from overseas and interstate.

“Global golf stars like Greg Norman, defending champion Adam Scott and 2006 US Open Champion Geoff Ogilvy will guarantee another great crowd in 2010.”

The Australian Open was first played in 1904 and has been won by the biggest names in the game, including Gary Player with a record seven wins and Jack Nicklaus with six.

Stephen Pitt, Golf Australia CEO, suggests the new Lakes Golf Course design will be a great test for our national Open.

“The Australian Open is one of the most prestigious titles in world golf and fittingly, Norman, Ogilvy and Scott will lead another very strong field. The course at The Lakes will be a great and unique challenge for the players with some demanding holes mixed with some holes that offer scoring opportunities.”

BOOKIES have installed Arizona local Geoff Ogilvy as one of the favourites to win the $US9 million Accenture World Matchplay Championship at Dove Mountain this week.

Ogilvy is the defending champion and has reached the final in three of the four years he has played and won it twice.

He has a 17 – 2 individual match record, putting him on equal footing in most betting markets with number one seed Steve Stricker.

Ogilvy is also on a high after wife Juli gave birth to their third child this week, a baby boy named Harvey Jack.

Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson are both absent for the event but with such a high quality field there are some delicious looking match-ups.

There are four Aussies taking part,  including Ogilvy first up playing Swede Alexander Noren,  Robert Allenby facing  Swede Peter Hanson, and Australian Open winner Adam Scott facing US Masters champion Angel Cabrera.

The fourth Aussie is rising star Michael Sim, who will feature in one of the matches of the day against the young Japanese superstar Ryo Ishikawa.

Extensive Australian free to air TV Coverage

Channel Ten’s One HD channel will provide a massive 28 hours of live coverage of the championship over five days this week.

On Thursday, Friday and Saturday there will four hours each day from 6am to 10am and on Sunday and Monday the live coverage will be eight hours each day starting at 2am. 

The first round of match play, featuring 32 head-to-head matches, begins Wednesday (US time) at The Ritz-Carlton Golf Club.

(For latest betting markets you can click through from the SportingBet graphic at right.)

GEOFF OGILVY has again launched Australia’s golfing year off to a great start by winning the SBS Championship in Kapalau, Hawaii.

Ogilvy won the season opening title last year but this time around believes he can keep the good form going.

“I think I forced it too much (last year),” the Australian said after shooting a final round six-under-par 67 to storm home and seal a one-stroke victory over a fast-finishing Rory Sabbatini.

Ogilvy went on to win the World Golf Championships Match Play Championship in February last year but his efforts for the rest of 2009 were largely forgettable.

Apart from a respectable tie for 15th at the US Masters, he went missing in the big tournaments.

“I played so well here last year, and I played really well in the Match Play, played great at Houston (and) played alright at the Masters,” Ogilvy said.

“After that I think it goes awry. Before you know it, it’s the middle of the year and I am still struggling for two months, and I hit more balls and I chased it too hard as opposed to letting it come back.”
“I wasn’t happy with the way I was playing until after the Presidents Cup (in October).

“I had a moment of clarity when I played (Steve) Stricker in singles, (thinking) what are you trying so hard for? It’s a ball and there is a hole. Just hit it that way.”

Ogilvy has vowed to take a break this year if his game starts deteriorating, believing a cycling or surfing holiday is more likely to fix his game than grinding on the range.

“I think I’m a slow learner, but a pretty good learner. I think it’s taking me a long time to work stuff out that I probably should have worked out earlier, but at least I’m working it out.”

The PGA Tour will now head to Honolulu for the traditional first full field event of the season at the Waialae Country Club, where a number of new recruits, including the likes Australian’s Cameron Percy, will test their games at the highest level for the first time.

The SBS Championship is restricted to winners of the previous year’s PGA Tour events.

GEOFF OGILVY, Adam Scott, Aaron Baddeley, John Senden and Greg Chalmers have all confirmed they will be joining Greg Norman when the Australian Open takes to the cliffs of La Perouse in December.

It should be a magnificent tournament with Ogilvy, current world number eight, heading the charge for the Stonehaven Cup.

Former world number three Scott could also play a big role.

His form has been improving of late and he will be gunning to do well after missing the Open last year due to a beach incident knee injury.

The Shark has been thereabout of late and we at least know he has been getting some consistent big tournament conditioning with three back to back appearances at the British Open, Senior British Open and US Senior Open.

John Senden (2006 Winner) and Greg Chalmers have also recently shown their class, taking the fight up to Tiger Woods as both finished in a tie for second place at the Buick Open at the weekend.

Ogilvy is keenly chasing his first Open title, but broke through to claim his maiden win on home soil at the Australian PGA Championship last year.

”I am looking forward to returning to Sydney in my quest to win the Australian Open,” he said from the US.

“It’s great to have Greg (Norman) playing again as he adds so much to the championship. The NSW Golf Club will certainly test the players with the strong ocean breezes.”

Golf Australia CEO Stephen Pitt says there are now 11 Australians in the world’s Top 100 and this will give the 2009 Australian Open incredible depth and added excitement for the fans.

Pitt said it again proved that the hottest talents in Australian golf wanted to compete at their national open.

“We are committed to having our best Australian golfers play at New South Wales Golf Club on the stunning cliffs at La Perouse.”

The Open will be held at the NSW Golf Club from December 3-6.

Australians in World Top 100 as at Tuesday 4 August, 2009:

1. Geoff Ogilvy 8
2. Robert Allenby 42
3. Adam Scott 44
4. Matthew Goggin 49
5. Brendan Jones 61
6. Aaron Baddeley 75
7. Michael Sim 81
8. Rod Pampling 83
9. John Senden 89
10. Stuart Appleby 90
11. Richard Green 95

Round One

Australian golfers Geoff Ogilvy and Stuart Appleby are just one behind the leaders after the first round of the US Open Golf at Torrey Pines in southern California.

Ogilvy and Appleby were two under par at 69 behind the joint leaders, little known Americans Kevin Streelman and Justin Hicks.

Ogilvy, the 2006 champion, recovered from two bogeys in his opening three holes, to finish with five birdies.

Robert Allenby, who finished just one stroke further back, was earlier threatening the leaders and at one stage had five birdies in six holes.

It was also good to see two time champion Ernie Els back in contention. He finished one under along with Allenby, Vijay Singh and Crazy Phil Mickelson, who left his driver at home in favour of a three wood and an extra wedge.

World Number 3 Adam Scott was the next best Australian at two over, with Aaron Baddeley and Rod Pampling a further shot back at three-over.

The much hyped teaming of Tiger Woods-Crazy Phil-Adam Scott attracted huge galleries in the sell-out crowd (and the sort of blanket US network hyperventilating we predicted below).

The Woods-Crazy Phil-Scott show will be much better for free to air Australian television audiences Saturday morning, with the threesome scheduled to tee off 36 minutes after the Channel 10 coverage begins at 6am (EST).

That will be just after lunch San Diego time and the beverage fuelled afternoon crowd might not be as polite and cultured as they were for the group’s morning tee off today (Fri).

Galleries up to five deep surrounded every hole, producing a repeated chorus of “Lets go, Tiger” and “C’mon Phil.”

 ”I thought it was great,” Mickelson, who lives nearby, said of his home town crowd. “There were not any derogatory remarks. Whether they pulled for any of the three of us, everybody was really cool today. I was very proud to be from here.”

Mickelson acknowledged that there was not as much banter between the three competitors.

“I know it’s a big pairing,” Adam Scott admitted after the round. “There’s a lot of hoopla about it. But … I played with Phil a lot in majors. It seems like I get drawn with him a lot. But I enjoy playing with Tiger, as well. I find it is a lot easier to focus, because I think I’ve got to be a lot more disciplined.”

Scott - who corrected that it was a bone in his hand broken in a car door recently, not his little finger - was overall happy with his game. He just wanted to sink a few more putts.

That little finger, undamaged as it was, had a fair bit of media attention, but nothing like Tiger Wood’s knee.

Coming back after surgery, Woods hit his first competition shot - and his first shot of the US Open - into the rough, leading to a double-bogey first hole. He had another double bogey on the back nine and three putted the par five final hole to finish one over at 72.

“To make two double-bogeys and a three-putt and be only four back, that’s a great position to be in,” Woods said. “Because I know I can clean that up tomorrow.”

US Open first round scores:
-3: Justin Hicks 68, Kevin Streelman 68
-2: Stuart Appelby (Australia) 69, Eric Axley 69, Rocco Mediate 69, Geoff Ogilvy (Australia) 69
-1: Robert Allenby (Australia) 70, Ernie Els 70, Ricki Fowler 70, Robert Karlsson 70, Lee Westwood
E: Patrick Sheehan 71, Joe Ogilvie 71, Phil Mickelson 71, Carl Pettersson 71, Andres Romero 71, Vijay Singh 71, Luke Donald 71

Others:
+2: Adam Scott (Australia) 73
+3: Rod Pampling (Australia) 74, Aaron Baddeley (Australia) 74
+4: Craig Parry (Australia) 75, Jarrod Lyle (Australia) 75
+6: Mathew Goggin (Australia) 77
+7: Michael Campbell (New Zealand) 78

Preview

Our prediction for the US Open is that the American television networks will be in an ecstatic frenzy of self pleasuring over the opportunity of having Tiger Woods and Crazy Phil Mickelson paired together for the two opening rounds.

Even some US commentators are suggesting there has already been too much hype about the coupling, especially considering Tiger’s dodgy knee and Crazy Phil’s form at the event, even though it is virtually a home town course for him.

Still, it will be fun to watch and the other good thing about the pairing is that it is actually a threesome, with World No 3 Aussie golfer Adam Scott intruding on the party.

Even the US networks won’t be able to ignore Scott completely in their frenzied focus on the Woods-Mickelson juggernaut, and we should at least get some passing glimpses of Adam - at least by accident.

Scott, nursing a broken right pinkie finger, (good opportunity for a non Woods-Mickelson close-up there) is one of nine Australian golfers competing at this year’s Open, to take place at Torrey Pines, San Diego, starting early Friday morning (EST).

It is a measure of the health of Australian golf that as a nation it has the third most starters behind the US (too many to count) and the UK (11 starters). Sweden has eight, Canada seven and South Africa six.

As well as Scott - still waiting to win his first major but at 27 has plenty of time - a number of Aussies have been mentioned as possible winners.

(And as for the experts’ picks, as one US golf writer suggested, hands up all those who predicted Argentinean Angel Cabrera would win the 2007 US Open at Oakmont, Aussie Geoff Ogilvy at Winged Foot in ‘06 or Kiwi Michael Campbell at Pinehurst in ‘05?)

As a former champion with a long game that is said will suit the punishing Torrey Pines south course, Ogilvy has been pushed as a contender.

Then there is Aaron Baddeley, who don’t forget was leading into the final round last year before imploding on the first few holes. He learnt a lot from that experience and is back with renewed confidence.

“I feel like my game is at that level,” Baddeley said this week.

“If I can play my game I definitely have a chance to win. You have to drive it straight. I can do that. I know I can putt well,” he said.

“Last year it was one of the hardest, if not the hardest, golf course in America. I was leading after 54 holes.”

Robert Allenby is another entering the tournament in a positive frame of mind after finishing equal second behind American Justin Leonard at the Stanford St Jude Championship.

Tasmanian Matthew Goggin is a 300/1 longshot, despite his recent hot form, and isn’t phased by the fact that at 6988m, Torrey Pines will be the longest ever US Open course by more than 300m. Goggin was surprised during his first practice round to encounter playable rough and soft greens.

“They’re obviously trying not to have the rough unplayable, to try to tempt you to go for the greens if you miss fairways,” Goggin said.

“I wouldn’t say this is the toughest course in America, but I guess we’ll find out. As a par 71, it’s going to be long and demanding but Oakmont (site of last year’s Open), I’ve never seen a course that hard.”

The other Australian entrants are Stuart Appleby, Jarrod Lyle, Rod Pampling and Craig Parry.

At 42, “Popeye” Parry is an ASG favourite. We are not saying he is going to win, but he does boast the best ever US Open round of any of the Australians competing this year - a 66 at Baltusrol in 1993. And, as well as bolting to win the Australian Open last year, he does have the added advantage of definitely not having been picked by any of the US pundits this week.

Note: Australian free to air television coverage of the US Open begins on Friday 6am - Midday (EST) on Channel Ten. By our (suspect) international time conversion calculations, that’s about five hours after the Woods-Crazy Phil-Adam Scott tee off.

We predict you can catch them teeing off for the second round at 6.36am on 10 on Saturday morning. Daily Foxtel coverage begins at Midday.