Tag: Robert Garrigus

Instead of getting lost in the Bermuda Triangle, these 4 pros found their game in the first round of the Butterfield Bermuda Championship

“I was just coming out to shake the rust off and have a good time today and I guess I did.”

The PGA Tour is visiting the eastern tip of the North Atlantic Ocean and the infamous Bermuda Triangle, which is best known as a place where planes, ships and people are alleged to have gone mysteriously missing. But this week at the Butterfield Bermuda Championship, it is where a lot of veterans are finding their game.

None more so than Sweden’s Alex Noren, who made a tournament-record 11 birdies in calm conditions Thursday morning at Port Royal Golf Course in Southampton, Bermuda. Noren tied the course record with a 10-under 61 and set his personal low 18-hole scoring mark in 510 official stroke-play rounds on the Tour en route to grabbing a two-stroke lead over four golfers when play was suspended during the first round due to darkness with nine players left to complete the round.

“It was a long time ago I had like a really low round, you know, lower than maybe 5, 6 under, so I feel good,” Noren said. “That was pretty much the closest I’ve got to the hole in a very, very long time.”

That included finishing the day in style by stuffing his approach inside a foot for his third birdie in his final four holes. Noren, for one, hopes that the trademark wind at Port Royal, which is the course’s main defense, will pick up as the tournament continues.

“I like the wind,” Noren said. “If it’s not windy, it’s like you’ve got to keep these unbelievable low rounds up and it’s not that easy.”

It’s been a bit of a struggle this season for the 41-year-old Noren. He has 10 career wins on the DP World Tour and once ranked as high as No. 8 in the world but remains winless in 162 career starts on the PGA Tour. He’s dipped to 62nd in the world and recorded just three top-10 finishes this season.

“It’s been a weird year,” he said, but he’s trending in the right direction after a T-3 at the Shriners Children’s Open last month.

Weird would be a kind description for the season to date for Robert Garrigus. He’s missed the cut in all eight of his PGA Tour starts this season and 15 in a row. But on Thursday, he signed for a bogey-free 8-under 63.

“My putting, it was just as good as I think I’ve putted in, I don’t know, 5 years,” he said.

Garrigus, 45, was a late addition into the tournament, flying to Bermuda figuring he’d enjoy a vacation if he failed to get a spot.

“Just knowing that I was playing in a tournament like gave me a little juice,” he said. “I was just coming out to shake the rust off and have a good time today and I guess I did. It was a lot of fun.”

He’s tied for second with D.J. Trahan, Vincent Whaley, and Dylan Wu. Whaley, 28, ranked No. 222 in the FedEx Cup standings during the regular season and is making just his 13th start this season as he battled back from a right wrist injury he suffered two years ago at the RBC Canadian Open. He said he’s finally healthy again. That and a coaching change to Cameron McCormick before the FedEx Cup Fall began has helped him make four straight cuts and shoot his career-low on Tour on Thursday.

“I grew up working with him in Dallas and kind of got back into it, and it’s been great,” Whaley said.

Trahan, 42, last won on Tour in 2008 and started the week at No. 214 in the FedEx Cup standings. He made four birdies in a row starting at the fourth hole, but it was a par at 16 that made his day.

“It was the best par on a par-3 I ever had in my life,” he declared. “I hit the worst tee shot and then I chipped it down in the bunker, it was about the best I could do, and then I holed it out of the bunker. But it was such a circus show.”

There was also a Tour record set on Thursday. Veteran pro Adam Long hit his 60th straight fairway when he found the short grass on his second hole, a par-5, after going 56-for-56 last week at the World Wide Technology Championship, shattering Brian Claar’s record of 59 straight fairways hit, set in 1992. Long’s streak dated to his final two holes at the Shriners Children’s Open and finally came to an end with 69 when he misfired at No. 15 at Port Royal.

“The one that missed, it was a 3-wood that I kind of hit up in the air a little too spinny and the wind caught it. Didn’t quite go far enough so it stayed in the rough,” Long said. “Made Thursday a little more exciting than usual.”

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Exclusive: First PGA Tour player seeks permission to play Saudi tournament

The deadline for players to request a PGA Tour waiver to play in London is April 25.

A career journeyman has become the first PGA Tour member to apply for permission to compete in a controversial tournament funded by the Saudi Arabian regime in England this summer.

Multiple sources told Golfweek that Robert Garrigus has requested a release from the PGA Tour to play in the LIV Golf Invitational, scheduled for June 9-11 at the Centurion Club in London. PGA Tour members are required to obtain a waiver to compete in events held on other circuits. Such applications must be submitted at least 45 days before the first round of the tournament, which means the deadline for players to request a green light to play for Saudi cash in London is Monday, April 25.

Sources say Garrigus is the only Tour player who has filed for a waiver so far, though others are expected to do so. The Tour must decide on applications 30 days before the event begins, or by Tuesday, May 10.

A spokesperson for the PGA Tour declined to comment on Garrigus or on releases for the Saudi event. Kevin Canning, the agent for Garrigus, also declined comment.

The tournament in London is the first of eight scheduled events announced by Greg Norman, who has been the public face of LIV Golf, an organization financed by the Saudi government’s Public Investment Fund. The lucrative tournaments—$25 million purses with $4 million for first place—have been widely criticized as a blatant attempt by the Saudi regime to “sportswash” its human rights abuses.

The Saudis originally planned an 18-event breakaway tour featuring only the best players in the world but that scheme faltered when almost every top player rejected offers to join and pledged to remain on the PGA Tour. LIV Golf has since abandoned any immediate hope of launching a rival league and is instead trying to gain traction by staging individual tournaments, four of which are scheduled in the U.S., the first being July 1-3 at Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club in Portland, Oregon.

It’s expected that fields for the LIV Golf events will largely be comprised of journeymen from the PGA Tour and DP World Tour (formerly the European Tour). Norman recently admitted that amateurs may also be invited to compete, and that his strategy is to make elite players jealous at seeing also-rans win enormous sums of money, hoping that envy will eventually draw top-tier talent to his events.

Garrigus, 44, joined the PGA Tour in 2006. He has one career victory, the Children’s Miracle Network Classic in 2010, and has not made the field in a major championship since 2013. He has made just four starts this season, with his best finish a tie for 16th at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. He last played a full season on Tour in 2017-2018. His last top-10 finish came at the Farmers Insurance Open four years ago. Since then, he has earned $320,597.

In 2020-21, Garrigus played 20 events on the Korn Ferry Tour, recording two top 25s and missing the cut 13 times, ending the season ranked 190th in earnings. He currently has limited status on the PGA Tour as a veteran and past champion. His career earnings on the PGA Tour total $14.9 million.

Garrigus is in the field for this week’s team event, the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, with Tommy Gainey.

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What are PGA Tour pros doing this off-season? We asked

A seemingly endless PGA Tour schedule is finally in the books for 2019. How do Tour pros plan to spend their “off-season” and the holidays?

ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. — A seemingly endless PGA Tour schedule is finally in the books for 2019 with the conclusion of the RSM Classic, the last official event of the decade (let the Silly Season begin!).

How do Tour pros plan to spend their “off-season” and the holidays? We asked 18 pros after the RSM Classic.

Weddings, surgeries, pulled wisdom teeth, hunting and fishing, and — shocker — more golf are on the agenda.

(Photo: Eric Bolte/USA TODAY Sports)

Scott Brown

“If you’re looking for me, I’ll be hunting. I went deer hunting 20 of the last 25 days before going to Mayakoba. It’s fun to try to kill something bigger than you.”

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Robert Garrigus opens up on his 3-month suspension for ‘drugs of abuse’

Robert Garrigus opens up about his 3-month suspension from the PGA Tour for having elevated THC levels during a random drug test.

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ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. – Robert Garrigus was suspended from the PGA Tour for three months earlier this year for what he says was medical marijuana prescribed by his doctor. Garrigus was randomly drug tested by the Tour after the opening round of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in February, and failed based on elevated levels of THC, one of the active ingredients in marijuana.

“When I failed my test for THC, I hadn’t taken a drop for 10 days. I didn’t do it that morning,” said Garrigus, who was suspended under the conduct policy that applies to substances of abuse. “I shot 81. It was the worst round of my PGA Tour career.”

That wasn’t the worst of his problems. Of the suspension, which began in March and caused Garrigus, 42, to miss as many as 12 tournaments, he said, “it crushed my year.”

So what is Garrigus, who shot 73 in the opening round of the RSM Classic, taking these days for his pain relief?

RSM Classic: Scores | Photos | Tee times, TV info

“Advil,” he said. “That’s good for my liver. I can’t wait for that test.”

While marijuana is legal in some states, it is on the banned substance list under the Tour’s anti-doping policy. Garrigus became the first player to be suspended for a drug of abuse.

Garrigus, whose lone Tour victory came at the 2010 Children’s Miracle Network Classic, has a history of drug problems and has spoken publicly about it numerous times before, dating back to when he checked himself into a rehab program in 2003. But Garrigus claims that he was prescribed marijuana to treat knee and back pain, and had been monitoring his THC levels to make sure he remained within Tour guidelines.

“There’s something new that hurts every single day. Being a golfer for 25 years I guess that’s going to happen,” he said. “But I could be on Oxycontin on the golf course and get a TUE (Therapeutic Use Exemption) for that. I think that is ridiculous. The Tour can talk to me all they want about it but that is a double standard. If you think I’m better on the golf course on Oxycontin than I am on THC then you’ve lost your mind. It makes me laugh.”

“Under the WADA guidelines, there are exemptions for narcotics (such as Oxycontin) under certain circumstances but those circumstance would have to be extreme,” said Andy Levinson, the PGA Tour’s senior vice president of administration.  “Those aren’t the type of medications that would be given an exemption on an ongoing basis. It would be a limited time exemption.”

Getting back on track

While sidelined for three months, Garrigus lost 20 pounds and dropped to 175. He said it took 120 days for THC to leave his system. Garrigus returned to the Tour at the 3M Open in early July after two Korn Ferry Tour starts and said the pressure he felt to retain his playing privileges with only four events remaining in the regular season was overwhelming. He met with Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan at the John Deere Classic.

“It was a good conversation and I let him know my peace,” Garrigus said. “They had to deflect. They have an image to protect and uphold. There’s nothing the Tour can do right now because we’re following WADA’s guidelines. We’re not partners with WADA. If we were partners, every single drug test would be known, but since we’re following their guidelines there is Commissioner discretion and the Commissioner’s discretion, Rule 28-1, says he has discretion whether he wants to put it out into the public. I urged him to make sure there are no discrepancies.” (Levinson disputes this claim by Garrigus, stating via text: “Discretion on the section is wholly different than the public reporting. All suspensions for PED’s or drugs of abuse are reported under our regulations.”)

Garrigus also voiced his displeasure that the 12-week suspension isn’t created equal for all players, noting that Matt Every, who was suspended in October, will miss fewer tournaments based on the time of his violation.

“I get suspended in the middle of the year. Matt Every gets suspended at the end of the year and he misses three tournaments,” Garrigus said. “There also needs to be some discrepancy there. There’s a gray area there, but the Tour has always been black and white.”

So are Garrigus’s thoughts on the benefits of taking CBD and THC.

“The fact that it is socially unacceptable for cannabis and CBD right now blows my mind. It’s OK to take Oxycontin and blackout and run into a bunch of people, but you can’t take CBD and THC without someone looking at you funny. It makes no sense,” Garrigus said.

“I’m not mad at anybody but it makes me laugh at the whole way it is set up. There needs to be something different.”

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