Ogilvy could add international flavor
Geoff Ogilvy of Australia has a chance to be a small part of history on the US PGA Tour, even if he thinks history is against him.
Ogilvy is among five players on this year's 16-member Player Advisory Council who has been nominated to be a chairman of the PAC. The chairman serves one year before he is elevated to player director on the tour's policy board.
There has never been an international player serve on the board.
"I don't think I'll get voted in because I'm an international player," Ogilvy said this week. "I guess there's more international players every year. I think their position - the current board and Ponte Vedra, if you like - think if the tour is 25 percent international players, maybe of the four player directors there should be one that's an Americanized international. You can't just bring someone from another country and put them on the board. But once you've been on tour for a certain amount of time, you get a feel for it."
Roughly one-third of the tour consists of international players.
Steve Stricker and Paul Goydos are in their final year on the board, so there will be two chairmen elected from the PAC. The other four candidates are Joe Ogilvie, Mark Wilson, Bo Van Pelt and Jason Bohn.
Ogilvy is respected among his peers for his clarity and his insightful thoughts on the game, particularly his outlook on golf course architecture and how courses are set up. He has served on the PAC a few times before, without any interest in being a chairman.
"It would be interesting to be on the board. This is an interesting time for the tour," Ogilvy said. "I'm not inclined that way, but I am interested in the operations of the tour."
The former US Open champion, who also has three World Golf Championships to his credit, is not about to campaign for votes.
He's not even sure what players want in a chairman and future board member.
"I would have said at least 50 percent of the players don't mind who the board members are and really don't care about the operating of events. As long as they get $6 million to play for 30 times a year, they're happy -and they like the way the courses are set up. That's pretty much the interest of half the tour. They don't go much further than that. They vote for their friends, I would think. That's how politics work in general, isn't it?"
