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VALSPAR CHAMPIONSHIPMarch 14, 2014Robert GarrigusPALM HARBOR, FLORIDA DOUG MILNE: All right. We'd like to welcome Robert Garrigus after a successful 5-under, 66, in Round 2 of the Valspar Championship. Robert, congratulations on a great round today. Feeling good heading into the weekend. Came close couple years ago, made it to extra holes and so just a few comments on your first two rounds and kind of how you're feeling. ROBERT GARRIGUS: Very solid putting the first two days. I hit it a little better yesterday in the wind. I hate to say it's a better round, it was 2-under to 5-under but it was definitely a better ball striking round. Today, I had some great up and downs, made a lot of good putts and you know, you have to do that on a golf course like this as difficult as it is. There's some mud balls out there. The fairways are shaved down really tight and it's hard to get clean contact. That's why the scores aren't as good. But, you know the golf course, they've done a good job of getting it ready for us. The greens were really crispy coming down the stretch there. I'm very pleased with my position. Obviously I don't know, 2, 3-shot lead, whatever, doesn't mean much until Sunday afternoon. So, I still have some work to do and I'm looking forward to it. DOUG MILNE: Okay. We'll take questions. Q. So a lot of tight lies, is that why the scores aren't good? ROBERT GARRIGUS: Around the greens they mowed them down tight and kind of wet. That's very, very difficult. You almost have to hit it a little thin on purpose. That's hard to do when you're trying to play the exact shot that you want. But, I've stayed away. I've almost wanted to even hit it in the bunker or rough more than around the green and hitting those little fairways. It's pretty difficult out there especially with the wind the last couple days, kept the scores down. I don't know what the weekend holds but if I can keep putting like this it's going to be a lot of fun. Q. I think everyone was just kind of waiting for someone to kind of break away from the bottleneck of the top of the leaderboard. Did anything come into your head to realize what you could do to push ahead in obviously what you did? ROBERT GARRIGUS: I never really thought about that. I just kept plugging.  Couple nice putts fell in there. I bogeyed 10 but hit a great drive on 11. I think I played the par-5s at 8-under this week. I birdied every single one of them in all different ways. I've hit wedges and hit it on the green and two-putted and got it around the green and chipped up close. I really wasn't thinking about it. I was kind of in the moment, just kept plugging. The shot that really kind of changed everything was 16. I hit it in the bushes left. I probably hit one of the Top-5 shots of my life there on 16 out of the trees and hit a low cut 5-iron, then rose it up over the pine tree and cut it 40 yards and hit it to ten feet. That's just one of those shots that when you're playing good everything is rolling, kind of expect it but, you know, not really at the time. It was a lot of fun to try it and pull it off was even better. Q. Almost surprised it made the green? ROBERT GARRIGUS: As soon as it got through the pine tree, I was like, "I stuffed it" because I saw it cutting and I really -- I knew the exact shot that I hit. I've hit it -- I spent half my life in the trees (laughter). I've had a lot of practice. So, I knew exactly what I had to do and I hit the exact shot that I needed to. That was pretty special. Q. Is there something about the Florida courses that kind of lineup well for you? You had the win at Disney and two years ago in the playoff and now you're playing well here? ROBERT GARRIGUS: It's the fishing, to be honest with you. Honestly, all the golf courses, Disney I get to fish all week. I got a cart, my rod is on the back. I fish all week. Didn't play a practice round that week at Disney. Didn't even look at the golf course and I shot 21-under par and won the tournament. This week, I showed up on Monday, fished Monday night after I got off the plane. Fished all day Tuesday, I practiced a little bit, and then Wednesday I had a Sponsor Value thing I had to do and went home, took a nap, came back and went fishing for another five hours. Didn't even look at the golf course. I think that puts me in a good frame of mind because I'm clear and not thinking about anything, just going out and have some fun and obviously I do like the grass, you know, getting off the poa annua is nice because it squibs a lot when you're putting and does give you a lot of confidence when you're rolling it. The greens are actually perfect as much grass as they don't have on them. There were putts out there that were pretty nasty. If you got above the hole there was no grass, hard to keep it around the hole. This golf course is in good shape and I've always loved the way it sets up off the tee. Looking forward to this weekend. Q. What did you catch? ROBERT GARRIGUS: Large mouth bass. Lots of them. Q. We get the 7-under, I want to hear the other one. ROBERT GARRIGUS: Probably caught about 35 fish over the three days. The biggest one was 9 1/2 pounds and the next biggest one was 8 1/2 pounds. We were sticking them. It was a lot of fun. Q. The golf has been pretty good, too. ROBERT GARRIGUS: Yes. Yes. Absolutely. Sometimes I'd rather take the fishing over the golf. Q. Is the putting part, is that surprising to you or have you been putting well? ROBERT GARRIGUS: It's not surprising. After all the work you put in as a professional, you just -- your positive outlook on your game has to help you at some point and I kept saying, "I'm not making bad putting strokes, my line is good, I'm making good strokes and they're not going in." When they do start going in like, okay, I'm working on the right stuff and that's the most important thing. You know, with the training and your diet and everything that you do and everything you put into your game, you know, it's nice to see everything kind of funnel into place and that's what's happened with the putting. I don't know if I'm going to putt good this weekend but I know I'm doing the right things and that's the most important thing. It might not be this week, could be next week, could be at the Masters. You never know. That's why we keep going and keep fighting. Q. What's your handicap as fisherman? ROBERT GARRIGUS: I'm scratch, definitely. I'm not a plus but I'm scratch. Q. If we said this was one of the most successful weeks you've had going into the weekend at a golf tournament and were speaking of your fishing, would that be accurate? ROBERT GARRIGUS: Yes. Maybe Disney when I won in 2010 was pretty darn good. I caught about 8 fish over 5 that week from Tuesday and Wednesday. I was watching them in front of everybody. "All right, man, let's see your magic." I catch another six, seven pounder. That was actually one week I caught a five pounder and there's always gators hanging in the ponds. I saw them over there and I caught a five pounder and he made a bee line for it. I yanked that five pounder up on the bank with my rod because I didn't want to go down and get them. Snatched him right off the bank in front of like ten people (laughter). He's on my rod. What do I do? Should I get him in? It was a 5-footer. He could have taken a limb off. But I snapped my line off and let him go. The Park Ranger came over, the Disney Ranger came over and said I was feed the gators. He almost ate me (laughter). So, I mean that week was fun. This week has been fun with the fishing and stuff. It's nice to play some good golf on this golf course. It makes it a better week when you catch fish and you play well. Q. Did the same person teach you fish and golf? ROBERT GARRIGUS: No. My father taught me how to fish. I kind of taught myself how to bass fish. Bass fish and trout fishing and salmon fishing is completely different. You can throw a shrimp in the lake and maybe snag a little. Throw a fly out and catch a steelhead. Bass are a completely different animal. I've spent half million dollars on boats and trucks and gear and rods just to try and figure out this elusive fish and it's a lot of fun. It's addictive. Different times of years are -- if it's warm, they're biting one thing, if it's cold, they're biting another. Bed fishing. I go to Havasu after the Masters or before the Masters when I have time to bed fish for small mouth. It's just relaxing. It's what I do to kind of relax and if I can bring my son, he's three and a half, I took him out a week and a half ago before I came out here and that's the best thing in the world. Q. Half million dollars in fishing stuff. When is the last time you paid for golf equipment? ROBERT GARRIGUS: That's a great question. Probably about 17 years ago (laughter) when I was 19, turned professional. I made it on the Nationwide Tour and I don't think I've paid for a single club or golf ball since then or glove, anything. Maybe 17 years. That's probably saved me a half million. Probably evens out. Q. What are the best stops on Tour for fishing? ROBERT GARRIGUS: Here, Bay Hill is really good. Disney was good. Took it off the schedule. Honda. Houston is awesome. There's a pond on the left hand side of the 18th of the member course that I kill it every year. I know -- I know more where to eat and where to fish every week than where to stay because I've done it for so long. It's just fun because I know I'm coming here, I'm like, "Well, I got to bring my rods and tackle." If I don't have them I'm going to buy them. And spend sometime and the guys at the island course are awesome. Give me a cart every time. Fill it up with water. Cart girl come around. It's awesome. It's so much fun, especially when you're catching fish. Q. How much fishing gear did you bring on this trip? ROBERT GARRIGUS: I packed an extra suitcase with three little mini tackle boxes and a backpack and I brought two rods and actually ended up buying two more because my buddy, JJ, came with me. He heard about the fishing. The first fish I caught was 8 1/2 pounds. I probably spent about 600 bucks on fishing stuff this week just because -- I did bring some more stuff. I always travel with it. But for some reason I left it off of the trailer. It gets carried around for me. Yeah, I probably -- I think I have about five rods and a few tackle boxes with me. Q. Where are you living, Robert? ROBERT GARRIGUS: I live in Phoenix. Q. Because of the good fishing, honestly? ROBERT GARRIGUS: Yeah. There's 8 lakes within two hours of me that there's 10, 12-pound bass in them and people don't know that so I guess don't say that. I don't want anybody up there. We get it pretty much to ourselves because I go fishing during the week. No boats out there, and usually not a lot of wind. Q. What's the name of the lake? ROBERT GARRIGUS: About five of them or six of them. But Havasu everybody knows about. I go out there a lot. Q. Foxworthy said, "You know you're a redneck if you're too drunk to fish." Is that true? ROBERT GARRIGUS: That's pretty difficult to do. I look over at my buddy, he's sleeping on the boat. "Come on, dude." I don't think I've ever drank on a boat. Water and, sun and alcohol do not mix. I'm always driving the boat so I'm never drinking. Gosh, I haven't had a drink in ten years. I started fishing like 7, 8 years ago. DOUG MILNE: If you wouldn't mind real quick, you made 6 birdies, just running us through those. Q. Way to kill the interview, Doug. ROBERT GARRIGUS: No. 1, actually that was a phenomenal birdie. I hit perfect drive. Kind of fanned my 7 wood into the pine straw and I was sitting on a root and I hit a flop shot about 30, 40 feet straight up in the air and land next to the flag and had 10-footer downhill, made it. Next par 5, I hit it right down the middle. Laid up to a good number, had about 91 yards. Hit it to about 6 feet and made that. No. 9, I bombed another drive down the right side, kind of in the first cut and jumped on me a little bit. Had probably about 25 feet down the hill and it was so fast and if it didn't go in I might have three-putted. It was going five feet by. I ended up making that, broke about a cup to the right. 11, hit another good drive down the middle on the par 5. Kind of I had mud on the left side of my ball so I was kind of protecting the ball from taking off to the right and hit a high draw to the right side of the green and good two-putt there. 14, I kind of got a little crazy on the second shot and snuck it through about a four foot hole in the trees and cut it up against the wind and had a very, very simple pitch up the hill about five feet and rolled that in. 15, was a bonus. I hit 7-iron out to the right, probably had about 35 feet. Broke twice, broke left about a cup and right about a cup. So it was pretty straight putt. Perfect speed on it. Rolled it right in there. Parred the last three holes coming in. Q. Woodland won here, you played-off here and now you lead the bomber as it relates to the Copperhead course. Is it because you can hit a lot of 3-irons off the tee? ROBERT GARRIGUS: That plays a little bit into it. The week Woodland won he made everything inside of ten feet. I'm doing the same thing. I've missed a couple. I'm rolling the putts in I'm supposed to roll in. I'm thinking well and that's a huge deal when you have a golf course that is very difficult, the tee shots are very hard. You got a lot of crosswinds, the wind is swirling, stuff like that. I can hit 3-iron a lot but you also got to make the putts. Q. What did you lay up on 5, out of range for you? ROBERT GARRIGUS: It was a smart layup because it wasn't out of range the way I was swinging, 281 front, about 290 hole. Little down and off to the right. I felt like if I laid up to a good number I had a better chance of sticking it around that flag because the way that flag was pitched I've seen it five years in a row, you get in it that bunker, you're landing straight on a downslope. I figured if I laid it up I can land it on the up-slope from the other side and hit a perfect layup, perfect wedge and stuffed in it there and made birdie. Q. So if your advice to playing good golf is to go fish, what is your advice to fish well, play 9 holes first? ROBERT GARRIGUS: You know, when I'm fishing, I usually know what's going on. I fish so much that I know the type of year or I know the type of weather. If it's warm, you throw certain things during the day, at night you throw worms. If the water is down they're going to be a little sluggish because they have less room to roam, so to speak. I mean I know a lot about bass fishing. I have guys come up to me all the time on Tour, Bill Haas, and I talk about it all the time, what baits do you use, what lakes to fish and it's just a knowledge thing. I've been playing professional golf for 17 years and I've been bass fishing for 8. I'm not even close to the potential I could be bass fishing-wise as I am golfing-wise. People ask me all the time if I wasn't a professional golfer I'd try and be a professional bass fisherman and it's the same thing. It's like one week at a time, one cast at a time, one shot at a time. Kind of the same premise. It's a lot of fun. It relaxes me. I think of Inside the PGA TOUR deal out her a few years ago and they had me go fishing. So, that was a lot of fun because I got to relax and be on camera and catching fish. Q. I take it fisherman don't worry about every position where they're releasing it like golfers do. ROBERT GARRIGUS: The casting it a little different. There is an art to it. I can't just send it in and let the lures splash and make big noise. Sometimes you got to finesse it in there a little lower. Got to use your other hand and flip underneath a tree or dock. There's a lot of stuff that pertains -- Q. Lot of parallels, then. ROBERT GARRIGUS: There really is. When you're bed fishing, like I talked about earlier, the fish know you're throwing it at them. They can see you. So if you back off a little bit and make sure the bait when it hits the water does not make a ripple, you throw it underneath -- underhand and when it hits the thing you kind of lift up on the rod and it makes it so it doesn't make a sound or make a ripple and you catch more fish that, way I've noticed. You don't throw it in there overhand and let it splash and they swim off the bed. There are parallels. It's fun. It's a challenge bass fishing. Just golf is the hardest game in the world. Bass fishing is not much easier. Q. You throw them all back? ROBERT GARRIGUS: Yeah. I've never kept one. Q. You're the best fisherman on Tour? ROBERT GARRIGUS: It's been said, yes. I'm not going to say it but it's been said (laughter). Q. You think you're Top-5 in the world? ROBERT GARRIGUS: Top-5 in the world for sure. I was going say something about Patrick Reed but I'll just leave that out. I love the kid. He's good. I gave him a nickname. I don't know if I should say it. Q. Go ahead. A Chumley. That's his nickname. You guys should call him that, he'll love you for it. Q. Just out of curiosity, when you won Disney, how much fishing gear did you reward yourself with? AYou know what, I think I did buy a new boat. At the time I think I had a Skeeter 17-footer. After Disney I bought a 20-foot Ranger as a little present for myself. Now, that was two boats ago. I bought the new Ranger last year, 2013 Ranger. Thing is incredible, 250-horsepower, Mercury XX. I always joke with my caddy, he'll never ride the boat with me because he's scared that I'm going to kill him because we're going -- it goes 75 miles an hour and he's like, "If you even think about going over 30 I'm going to hit you over the head and stuff." No, it's fun. I guess I got to play golf this weekend so if I miss the cut I got to go fish. It was a win-win. Q. You don't need a new boat after this one? ROBERT GARRIGUS: No, I definitely don't. I'm not spending anymore money on boats. Q. What are we going to talk about tomorrow? ROBERT GARRIGUS: I don't know. Hopefully my golf. That would be nice. DOUG MILNE: All right Robert, congratulations. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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