Ogilvy trying to shake off midseason rust with playoffs coming up fast

Halfway through the PGA Tour season, part of Geoff Ogilvy feels as though he's just getting started.

Ogilvy, a former U.S. Open champion and three-time World Golf Championship winner, is No. 79 in the FedExCup standings with the playoffs looming less than two months away. It hasn't been an awful year, just one that has been slowed by two peculiar injuries.

"It feels like I'm trying to get rust off at the moment, which is weird," Ogilvy said at the AT&T National, where he scrapped it around and tied for 57th.

Ogilvy said he had never felt better at the start of a season, which is saying something since he was the two-time defending champion of the Hyundai Tournament of Champions at Kapalua. But he gouged his right index finger on coral in a freak accident at the beach and wound up missing three tournaments.

He got his game in shape for the Masters, where he was among eight players who had a share of the lead at one point in the final round; he finished tied for fourth.

"I was back on schedule and it was happy days," he said.

A week later, he was in contention at the Valero Texas Open going into the weekend when his shoulder went from nagging him to hurting him. Ogilvy went 74-74 and tied for 23rd.

"The shoulder was annoying at the Masters, not bad. Then in San Antonio, it flared up on the weekend. I was playing in the last group Saturday," he said. "By the weekend, it just got horrible and turned out to be quite an annoying place for an injury for a golfer."

Ogilvy played one round of the Players Championship -- his WD didn't get much attention -- and essentially went nearly two months without playing until returning the week before the U.S. Open.

"I'd never been injured before," he said. "I've taken big time off, but I've still played golf. When you're injured, you can't play anything. And when you do come back, it's like, `Ooooh, don't hurt it.' So I feel rusty."

He added the Travelers Championship and AT&T National to get back in shape, forcing him to miss the Barclays Scottish Open this week. On Tuesday, Ogilvy signed up for the Canadian Open, played a week after the British Open.

"I like how I'm playing," he said. "I just don't like how I'm scoring."