"Any year you win the Australian Open you're going to have to look back and think it is a pretty special year."

Brent Read reports on Geoff Ogilvy coasting to his first Australian Open win and how it salvaged a tough year.

It was Ogilvy's ninth victory worldwide and came at the end of a year he himself described as "rough". Not surprisingly, he hastily re-evaluated his year in the wake of yesterday's victory.

"I didn't enjoy golf that much this year because of how I was playing," Ogilvy said. "I came into a bit of form (on the US PGA Tour) late - just kind of ran out of tournaments. Any year you win a golf tournament is exciting.

"Any year you win the Australian Open you're going to have to look back and think it is a pretty special year."

John Huggan used the occasion to remind us of Ogilvy's place in the game as a throwback with quotes like this:

“Two important aspects of golf have gone in completely the wrong direction,” he maintains. “Most things are fine. Greens are generally better, for example. But the whole point of golf has been lost. Ben Hogan said it best. His thing was that you don’t measure a good drive by how far it goes; you analyse its quality by its position relative to the next target. That doesn’t exist in golf any more.”

Ask what is the most enjoyable aspect of the game that has earned him well over $22m on America’s PGA Tour alone and Ogilvy will tell you that it is the subtle shaping of shots using out-dated balata balls and old-fashioned persimmon woods. For him, such sessions are almost spiritual in nature and a soothing contrast to the increasingly Neanderthal crash-bang-wallop quality of the golf he is forced to endure while “at work.”

“It is a whole new level of fun,” he says. “Using a wooden driver, you have to hit it well for the ball to go anywhere. The difference between a good hit and a bad one is about 40 yards. With a modern driver you can hit the ball anywhere on the face really. The difference is only about five yards. Only afterwards, when I think about it more, do I get depressed by all of that.”