Aussie ace Geoff Ogilvy is hoping a bit of home help will give him and his compatriots the edge in their battle with golf’s big beast.

 The world No.12 tackles Tiger Woods at the Australian Open, which starts today at Kingston Heath, with the world No.1 the stand-out favourite to claim his  93rd tournament victory.  

But after watching Phil Mickelson beat Woods in Shanghai, Ogilvy believes he can do the same to leave Tiger feeling truly travel sick as he heads back to the US.

“It does seem that everyone seems to have given him (Woods) the tournament already,” said Ogilvy, after a punter place $100,000 on the world No.1 to win in Melbourne.

“He is obviously one of the best of all time, perhaps the best of all time. He is a master at working out new styles of golf, which this is going to be for him and whenever you go to a golf course that requires something extra, like Hoylake or St Andrews, he works it out better than everyone else.”

However, Ogilvy said he and the other Australians could count on local support and knowledge of the Kingston Heath sandbelt layout as they look for a shock victory over the 14-time major winner.

“The clear favourite doesn’t always win and there’s quite a few local guys who have played this style of golf more often and know this course a little bit better,” he said.

“The local guys (also) have that added emotional home tournament drive to win it and so he (Woods) is up against it this week to win.”

Aside from Ogilvy, some of the top Australian golfers at Kingston Heath this week are Adam Scott, a former world No.3, now at 62, Michael Sim (59) Mathew Goggin (69) and defending champion Rod Pampling (102).

Ogilvy also pointed out that although Woods was the world’s best, it was impossible to win every week.

“He is the winningest golfer ever and he still only wins 30 or 40 per cent of the time he plays, so that’s six or seven times out of ten that he doesn’t win,” he said.

Woods, who was paid a reported $3million appearance fee to play in Australia for the first time since 1998 has been spending the past two days familiarising himself with the course. He partnered three-time Australian Masters winner Craig Parry in practice and used his local knowledge to help him prepare.

“Craig gave me a little bit of insight of how to play certain holes and where certain pins might be,” Woods said.

"It was certainly very helpful. The greens are obviously pretty soft because it’s so hot they’re trying to save them for the tournament.

“But it’s an unbelievable golf course. You have to be able to shape the ball around the golf course, you have to be able to think.

I’m trying to learn the angles, trying to learn the greens. Learning that will certainly be key.”