COOLUM, Australia (AP) -Nathan Green didn't mess around with the difficult par-3 No. 11 at the Australian PGA on Friday, shooting a hole-in-one on the 162-meter (177-yard) hole that features a large lake.
Known as the course's picture postcard hole, players climb 15 steps to an elevated tee for the approach shot that carries a large section of water both short and right. John Daly found the water in the first round Thursday and took a double-bogey 5.
On Friday, the Australian used a 7-iron to the pin that was center and near the back of the large green. His ball skipped twice along the green and into the hole on his way to a 68.
"It just landed on the edge of the green and released," Green said. "Once it landed I knew it was going to be pretty close. It just started tracking to the hole."
The ace wasn't as lucrative as Green's effort at the 2001 Australian Masters at Huntingdale, when he won a half-million Australian dollar bonus for a hole-in-one at the 161-meter (176-yard) 12th hole in the final round. That helped him finish just a stroke behind winner Colin Montgomerie.
At the time, the American dollar translation of 265,000 more than tripled his career earnings, and he later traded in his 1987-model car for a new one.
In between, he's had two other aces - at the Australian Open three years ago and in a practice round at the U.S. PGA Tour's FBR Open.
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KIDS HELP OUT: Geoff Ogilvy doesn't see the need for a sports psychologist when he's got his family around.
The 2004 U.S. Open champion said at the Australian PGA that regardless of how difficult his round of golf might have been, getting back to his wife, Juli, daughter Phoebe, 2, and son Jasper, who turns 1 in January, makes all the difference in the world.
"You have your family there and your kids, and as headless as you get in the car saying 'I'm going to be angry all night,' as soon as you get in the room and they jump into your arms you can't even remember golf," Ogilvy, 31, said. "It's definitely one of the best psychologists you can take on tour."
Ogilvy, who married Texas-born former chef Juli in November 2004, said that wasn't always the case. Ogilvy had a reputation for being quite a hothead, throwing clubs, and in one case, reported to have lifted his golf bag over his head and smashing it to the ground after a particularly bad round.
"I don't know what the other guys are like, but when you're by yourself and you've got nothing else to do, you can't leave golf at the golf course,"' said Ogilvy, who is based in Scottsdale, Arizona.
