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CHILDREN'S MIRACLE NETWORK CLASSIC

November 14, 2010

Robert Garrigus

LAKE BUENA VISTA, FLORIDA

DOUG MILNE: Okay. Robert Garrigus shoots a final round 64, which I believe was the low round of the day, bogey-free. You come from five shots back to win the 2010 Children's Miracle Network Classic, the last PGA TOUR event of the year. Congratulations.
ROBERT GARRIGUS: Thank you.
DOUG MILNE: If you could maybe, Robert, just sort of take us through some general comments and then we'll have you go through your round and we'll open it up for questions.
ROBERT GARRIGUS: Yeah. It feels great to be able to close this one off and figuratively shut everybody up about Memphis. Every time I got an interview it was about Memphis, but it really helped me just to realize that it's not that big a deal.
I mean to everybody that's outside, you know, they thought I'd be devastated, and I really wasn't. It was a stepping stone, and it helped me today. And I'm actually glad that I did that in Memphis because I knew how to handle it coming down 18. It was awesome.
DOUG MILNE: Okay. If you would just take us through your day. Again, you start five back, but you birdied four of your first five holes.
ROBERT GARRIGUS: Yeah. I kind of hit a little shaky putt on 1. It was about a 5-footer, and I made it; and I'm like, well, most good rounds start with a good up-and-down on 1.
So I hit two great shots on 2, hit a great shot on 3. 4 I had two perfect shots into the green and two-putted. And then hit a 9-iron from 170 yards on 5, hit it to about eight, nine feet and made it.
And then got to the next hole, two-putted and then hit another one close, and had probably about a foot and a half of break and rolled that one in. Just the hole seemed a little larger today than it has been in the past.
The three birdies on the back were a lot of fun. That one on 17, I thought that was to get a one-shot lead. That felt pretty good to do that under the pressure; and man, that was a lot of fun today.
DOUG MILNE: Can you just run through your three birdies and tell me clubs hit in and distances?
ROBERT GARRIGUS: Yeah. No. 10, I hit a 7-iron in from 200 yards, I think it was 201 to the flag, hit it just left, two-putted and made like a 4-footer for birdie there.
The other one was the drivable par-4, hit driver just pin high left and then chipped it up to about 10, 11 feet and curled that one in.
And then the birdie on 17, I hit driver, pitching wedge just short, probably I think pitching wedge was 152, and I think I probably had about 18 feet felt like there, and she went right in the heart, and I knew it as soon as I came off the face.
DOUG MILNE: Okay. We'll open it up for questions.

Q. I hate to be the first one to bring up Memphis, but obviously it was a huge learning experience for you. Coming straight out of Memphis, did you realize that do you think?
ROBERT GARRIGUS: You know, not right away. As soon as it happened, I was just numb. I mean you can't really expect yourself to do that.
I was really nervous on 18 off the tee. But as soon as that happened, I kind of regrouped. I kind of hit a bad shot on the second shot, but that was a mistake. I should have laid that one up and hit it on the green.
But I mean I made a putt to get to the playoff. I hit a perfect tee shot in the playoff and got screwed; it just went right to the fairway.
So I knew I could do it. I knew I had everybody on the ropes. I was kicking their butt all day, and I was having fun, too.
And after coming off of food poisoning and all that stuff, I was dehydrated. I might not have been physically all there for those last few holes. I felt a little shaky.
But you know, it was a great learning experience, and like I said, if Memphis didn't happen, I don't know if this would have happened.
It's been a great week. I didn't make a mistake today, except for one swing; and I got lucky, and it hit a tree and came back in. And you gotta have that to win. I really haven't had that yet. So Memphis it bounced and went right behind the tree. So I think the Lord kind of got me back today. It was kind of nice.

Q. When you start today five shots back, do you go out there thinking, yeah, I'm still in this, all I need to do is shoot 64 and I'm there or do you not really think about it until you roll those four birdies off?
ROBERT GARRIGUS: Yeah. Then I woke up, you know. I mean it was just kind of like -- I got on the first hole. I'm immediately thinking I need to put my foot on the pedal. I have to go today, because I didn't want to play bad and have a chance of not getting my PGA TOUR card.
And that's always in the back of my mind because it's a pretty big deal to have your card for the next year.
You know, and when I started out, was making everything, my hands were perfect all day, didn't slip my wrist at all on my putts. Just I rolled everything, perfect and it just started out hot. It was awesome. I'm like, man, I hope he's not running away with it because I didn't even see a board until No. 11 or something like that.
And after I made birdie on 10, I'm like, I should be close. I figured I'd be up there. I saw that he was at 20 and I was at 19, and I'm like, I gotta get a couple more just in case. And I got those putts to go, and that feels great.

Q. You said you hit a tree and the ball came back. Where?
ROBERT GARRIGUS: On No. 9, I blocked -- it was the only bad swing of the day. I just came underneath it and kind of blocked it a little bit. And when I block it, it goes way off line because I'm swinging about 125 miles an hour, so it shot straight off over in the trees. And I was like, man, I sure hope that hits something.
And I say that a lot, by the way. And it did. They said it bounced once, hit the tree, bounced back over the roots, and I hit one of my favorite shots under-and-over a tree, hook it. I've been doing that since I was 13 years old.
So kind of knew what the situation was. I'm like, man, I need to get this in, so I can get rolling on the back.

Q. Follow up to that, if everything would have worked in Memphis, would you even be here? You'd have been safe, you'd have had your card; you'd have been home free. Would you have taken this week off?
ROBERT GARRIGUS: I probably would have taken the whole Fall Series off. We just had a baby, so I need to be home for mamma, and it's kind of nice to be able to get home and see them tonight. I think I'll get in about midnight.
Yeah. I don't know if I'd have been here. I might have come just for the fishing and left on Wednesday or something. I don't know. I like to fish in these ponds. It's a lot of fun.

Q. How long did it take for you to go from being numb in the moments immediately after Memphis to realize this isn't going to be devastating?
ROBERT GARRIGUS: Probably when I got to the airport. I talked to Chris DiMarco, talked to Jeff Quinney, Kevin Stadler, Lee Janzen, Kirk Triplett. All those guys were talking to me, it's like, hey, you gotta get there to blow it, you know. That's pretty much what they all said.
Talked to Kenny Perry afterwards, he's like, hey, man, I blew a Masters. He's like, it happens. You can't dwell on it. You just gotta go and learn from it, and that was really nice to hear that from the guys, because they've been out here for a while. All those guys have been out here for a while, so it was really nice to hear that from them.
And when I got home, I was like, hey, I made a half million dollars and I blew a golf tournament. So what? My wife was there, got my dogs there. We were expecting; and everything went well with the pregnancy, and I mean it's just -- you know, it's a dream come true to win this week and be able to plan my year for the next two years, it's going to be nice.

Q. And if you could put your finger on any particular component of the learning experience that you were able to draw on today, what would it be?
ROBERT GARRIGUS: Just to be mentally tough. Don't let anything affect you.
When I left Phoenix on Monday, I was sitting in the airport thinking, all right, this week, I am not going to get mad; I'm not going to get excited. I'm going to go out and concentrate and finish this thing off just to get my card. And lo and behold, I ended up shooting 64 to come from five shots back.
It's crazy. It's a lot of fun to be able to play on the PGA TOUR. I've been blessed ever since I went through rehab, and it's been an unbelievable feeling.

Q. I noticed on the back nine, the crowd got into it a little bit more. Did that affect you at all?
ROBERT GARRIGUS: You know, it's great when they do that, because I felt like that I was leading, because I felt like I was taking some of the crowd from the group behind us and pulling them in my group.
You know, and that's nice when you make putts and you hear the roar, that's kind of a drug almost. It's really -- it's a big adrenaline rush. You know, when I made that putt on 17, to hear that roar, it was just awesome.
And I felt -- on the last hole, I saw everybody was lining the fairway. I was like, well, I must be leading, you know. I hope I am. And I looked at the thing, actually looked at the board and saw that he was at 20; I'm 16. I'm like, okay, I gotta make par.
And I get up there and I turn around and I got an eight-incher for par, and I see he's at 18. I was like, wow. Okay. Looks like I'm going to win. So that was a great feeling.

Q. How do you play loose enough to win being you're 122? That's not quite locked up your card. You seemed to play a lot more loose than a lot of the other guys that were around that number.
ROBERT GARRIGUS: Well, I had a different attitude, I think. I really don't care. This is just golf. I have a family that loves me. It's easier for me to go out there and say, hey, whatever.
You know, like I said earlier, it's not how I play, it's how I act. And if I go out and act like a professional and get my job done, then everything takes care of itself.

Q. Can you just talk about what you've been through with rehab and those things to get to this point?
ROBERT GARRIGUS: Yeah, you know, in like 2004 or 2003, I think it was, I was going down the wrong path. I knew I could play on the PGA TOUR, and I just wanted to change my life. And I did.
I went, with the help of the Lord, of course, I went to San Diego for 30 days, went through rehab, and gained about 25 pounds in 30 days. I wasn't eating right, I wasn't doing anything right, wasn't thinking right, and the next year I make it on the PGA TOUR. The results were immediate.
And ever since then I haven't thought about touching anything, don't really care, because -- I don't care talking about it because I'm never going to touch it again. And it's a lot of fun to be out here and be sober and be able to be clear when everything's going on and everything's going so fast.
That was the hardest thing for me to deal with back in the day. It was about seven or eight years ago, you know, and I'm just glad I changed my life, and the Lord changed my life. And it's just awesome.

Q. Where were you playing that year? What Tour?
ROBERT GARRIGUS: I played on the Nationwide Tour. I played on the Nationwide Tour for I think '99 through 2003, and then got back out after I went through all that stuff. And I played a year out there, lost a six-shot lead in Louisiana on the last day. Learned from that loss. I've had a lot of stuff going on in my life, so today feels pretty damn good.
DOUG MILNE: Robert, congratulations, again.

End of FastScripts

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