It might be a good idea for Masters Tournament officials to get a rough estimate of Geoff Ogilvy's coat size for future reference.

Australian Geoff Ogilvy, who has already won twice this year, has the short game to be a contender at Augusta National. (Chris Thelen/Staff)

This could even be the year he slips on a green jacket and gives Australia its first Masters champion.

Ogilvy has moved into golf's elite. He has already won a major championship (the 2006 U.S. Open) and three World Golf Championships events and is a two-time winner on the PGA Tour this season.

All six of Ogilvy's victories have come since 2005, which has vaulted him into the No. 4 spot in the Official World Golf Ranking.

"Tiger (Woods) is always going to be a favorite (to win the Masters), but I would put Geoff Ogilvy in front of Tiger," Robert Allenby said. "If Geoff controls his nerves and his feelings at that tournament, there's no reason why he shouldn't win."

Ogilvy, 31, said he has a "fair chance" to do well at this year's Masters.

He's shown he can make birdies at Augusta National Golf Club -- he led the field in that category in 2007.

"I think it's a course that I could do OK, and if I play like I have this year, I would hope I would have some sort of chance on Sunday anyway," Ogilvy said.

Both Allenby and Stewart Cink cite Ogilvy's short game as his most valuable weapon in the battle against Old Man Par at Augusta National.

"One thing I've noticed over the last 10 to 12 years that I've played Augusta is your short game has to be impeccable," Allenby said. "It has to be the best for the week. Sure, you've got to hit the ball great, but your short game is what it comes down to there. That's why I say Geoff Ogilvy is the odds-on favorite."

Said Cink: "I would kill for his short game, the pressure putts he makes. He hits the fairways when he needs to. He's got it all. He's just got a very quiet, lethal kind of game."

One advantage Ogilvy has over most of the field is he likes playing the undulating Augusta National greens.

"They are the same type of greens I grew up on, with big, sweeping putts on bentgrass," he said. "So I feel like it's a place where I should be able to do well."

Ogilvy also enjoys "the challenge of the bigger tournaments."

"I'm not saying that I don't enjoy any other golf tournaments, but I think there's something that really piques my interest a bit more in the bigger tournaments," Ogilvy said. "I just go to that extra level of commitment or something in the bigger tournaments. I think I get a little more enjoyment out of the bigger tournaments. That's the only thing I can think of."

Ogilvy also relishes the challenge of playing tough golf courses. They don't get more difficult than Augusta National, which 2000 Masters champion Vijay Singh calls "the toughest golf course day in and day out in the world that we play."

It might have been too tough for Ogilvy last year, when he broke par only once.

"I don't know what happened there. I just found the course too hard," Ogilvy said after his final-round 74 (he opened with 75-71-76). "I couldn't believe the scores Trevor (Immelman) was shooting. It was amazing."

Ogilvy said his "too hard" remark was made before he had a chance to cool off after his final round.

"I probably said that, but when you've had 74 or whatever and you walk from the 18th green to the clubhouse, generally that's a poor time to get an objective answer," he said.

"If you had asked me a half an hour after I finished, I probably would have been a little more politically correct with the answer."

The past two years at Augusta National were a study in contrasts for Ogilvy, though the results were similar (tie for 24th in 2007 and a tie for 39th last year). After leading the field in birdies in 2007 with 16 (and an eagle), he had just six birdies last year, but had 54 pars.

"I've got to get the ball in the hole a little better," Ogilvy said about the 2008 Masters. "It's funny, the first couple of years there I hit the ball OK and chipped and putted great. I made birdies from all over the place in 2007. All the par-5s, getting up and down."

He also needs to stay away from big numbers. In 2007, when he led the field in birdies, he had a triple-bogey 8 on the par-5 second hole in the first round and a quadruple-bogey 9 on the par-5 15th in the third round.

"Apart from those (seven) shots, I was right there," Ogilvy said with a laugh.

Reach David Westin at (706) 823-3224 or david.westin@augustachronicle.com.