Robert Garrigus Loses St. Jude, $515,000
Robert Garrigus was having a pretty rough year coming into this weekend. He had playedin oneNationwide Tour event and seven more PGA Tour events. He had only played 10 of 22 rounds of golf under par, and had subsequently only made the cut in three of those eight events.
Suddenly, Garrigus found himself headed into Sunday in the final pairing, sitting at -11 and playing in the final pairing for the first time all year. After the first nine holes, Garrigus' early bogeys and an early string of three birdies by England's Lee Westwood put Garrigus a shot behind Westwood's 11-under score and needing to do some work.
Robert found his stroke, and he headed to the 17th tee having just birdied his second hole in a row to push his score to -13 while Westwood had to scramble a bit to stand pat. Westwood then bogeyed 17 and putted out on 18 with his head held a bit low and his score at 10 under par.
Unfortunately, Garrigus' status as the 377th ranked player in the world reared its ugly head. His tee shot on 18 went in the drink, then his next shot after the drop was in the trees, and before he knew it he was in a three-way playoff with Westwood and Swede Robert Karlsson.
Garrigus opened the playoff by bogeying 18 again, and Westwood went on to defeat Karlsson for a $1,008,000 winners paycheck, while Garrigus took home a consolation check for his defacto third place finish of $492,800.
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