Geoff Ogilvy Captains Presidents Cup at a Course He Redesigned

Geoff Ogilvy is captaining the International team at this week's Presidents Cup on a course he helped redesign. Before he was a captain, the 49-year-old Australian was a major champion and, later, co-founder of the design firm OCM, whose reimagining of Medinah No. 3 will host the matches for the first time since the renovation.

What is Ogilvy's playing record?

Ogilvy won eight PGA Tour titles during his playing career, most notably the 2006 U.S. Open at Winged Foot, where he finished as the only player in the field to win without shooting a round under par as Jim Furyk, Padraig Harrington, Colin Montgomerie and Phil Mickelson all faltered late. He has represented the International team three times as a player and three more as a vice captain.

How did Ogilvy get into course design?

In 2010, Ogilvy joined Australians Mike Cocking and Ashley Mead to form OCM, pairing his playing background with Cocking's design eye and Mead's engineering training. Ogilvy has said his approach was shaped in part by a conversation at Pinehurst Resort, where two longtime visitors named Pinehurst No. 2 — a course restored in 2010-11 and host to U.S. Opens in 2014 and 2024 — as the easiest in the area because its firm, short-grass surrounds let them putt from well off the green.

Hard isn't necessarily good and easy isn't necessarily bad.

Ogilvy summed up the idea directly: "Hard isn't necessarily good and easy isn't necessarily bad," he said, pointing to the Old Course at St. Andrews as an example of a layout that doesn't rely on difficulty for its reputation.

Why did Medinah need a redesign?

Medinah No. 3 was built by Tom Bendelow and opened in 1928, with later work from Roger Packard in 1986 and Rees Jones in 2006 and 2009. It remains the only U.S. course to have hosted a U.S. Open, a PGA Championship, a Ryder Cup and a Presidents Cup. But by the 2019 BMW Championship, when Justin Thomas shot 25 under par, the course had become too easy for tour pros and too hard for members. OCM was hired during the COVID pandemic and drew up a new routing without setting foot on the property, ultimately convincing Medinah's membership to let the firm rebuild the closing six holes around Lake Kadijah. The course reopened in 2024.

What does this mean for the International team?

Ogilvy's dual role gives the International side a captain who understands the course's design intent better than most of the players on either team. Two-time Masters champion and noted architect Ben Crenshaw has praised Ogilvy's design career, calling him a serious student of the game's great courses. Whether that inside knowledge translates into results will play out this week, as the Internationals try to end a Presidents Cup drought that stretches back to 1998.