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Challenges Welcomed
Here
Defending champ Clay Ogden enjoys facing a
stern test
By Paul Ramsdell, PNGA Media
Clay Ogden doesn’t shy away from the issue, which is maybe why
he had the most success in dealing with it.
“She is quite possibly one of the better things to ever happen
to me,” Ogden said about facing Michelle Wie in the quarterfinals
of the 2005 U.S. Amateur Public Links.
Ogden will be back in the U.S. Amateur Public Links as the defending
champion July 10-15 at Gold Mountain Golf Club in Bremerton, Wash.
Ogden, who just finished his senior year at Brigham Young University,
was the one who knocked Wie off her dream train to Augusta National
and the Masters last year. And after beating the teenage phenom from
Honolulu, Ogden went on to win two more matches at Shaker Run Golf
Club in Lebanon, Ohio, to win the title and gain the entry into the
2006 Masters.
“I’ve played in the PubLinks before and it gets some publicity,
but then she plays in it and it became a pretty big deal,” Ogden
said.
Now, Ogden is a much bigger deal than ever before because he posted
the 5-and-4 victory over Wie after she had already defeated three
men, proving that the first female to play in a men’s championship
conducted by the United States Golf Association could be competitive.
Ogden almost didn’t make it to that point, because he was the
sixth player to make it out of a 10-for-7 playoff to fill the 64-player
bracket for match play. With that, he came in as the 63rd seed in
the bracket.
“Right before I played my first-round match I look,” Ogden
said about the bracket. “I noticed I could play Michelle and
thought, ‘Oh, that could be fun.’”
2006
U.S. Public Links Championship
July 10-15, 2006
Gold Mountain Golf Club, Bremerton, Wash.
www.goldmt.com
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While others dreaded the thought of playing a teenage girl and all
the attention that would go along with that, Ogden thrived on the
idea.
“I thought it was going to be something fun, and it turned out
to be a lot of fun,” he said.
One reason it was so fun was because he was 3 under after the first
four holes.
“I was really looking forward to playing in front of the crowd,
and playing the type of player she is, someone of that high caliber,”
Ogden said. “The distractions, or whatever, didn’t really
bother me at all.”
Still, it wasn’t the normal atmosphere for the U.S. Amateur
Public Links.
“It was a little different because they were so many people
out there watching Michelle and I’s match, then when I played
later that afternoon there were maybe 10 or 15 people,” he said.
Ogden won that semifinal match 4 and 3 over Garrett Jones of Rewey,
Wis., and then won the 36-hole final 1 up with a comeback victory
over Martin Ureta of Santiago, Chile, who plays at the University
of North Carolina.
There are two things that come with winning the U.S. Amateur Public
Links title. One is a spot in the Masters.
“I honestly didn’t even think about it, really,”
Ogden said. “I knew it was something you would get if you won,
but I never jumped ahead of myself and thought about it. That was
something I never got caught up in. I just focused on each match.”
The other thing that comes with a USGA title is the reputation that
you’re a national champion, and suddenly you’re the player
to beat every time you tee it up.
“I think that’s something every player would love to have,”
Ogden said, once again not dodging the issue. “If everybody
wants to beat you, that means you’re one of the better players.”
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