Hell yeah!
Robert Garrigus rolled in a clutch 20-footer to save par on the 72nd hole. It was awesome. His celebration and the reception from the crowd were even more awesome. (I had a case of being at the right place, right time on Sunday — while McIlroy and Yang waited on the 18th tee, I rushed down to 18 green for prime-time seating.)
While many players are lengthening their putters these days, Garrigus hunches over a 28 1/2-inch, toy-like putter, which is even too short for me. Who cares how silly you look as long as you’re making noise, though?
Despite starting “like a dog,” shooting three-over on the front nine, Garrigus rallied to get back to one-under on the day. By saving par on the 72nd hole, he finished at six-under for the tournament, just ten shots behind ’11 US Open champion Rory McIlroy, and instead of placing fourth, he tied for third with fellow American Kevin Chappell.
Of all the Americans in the field at the 111th US Open, raise your hand if you guessed Garrigus and Chappell would represent the USA as the top finishers? It doesn’t count if you’re related to either of them. This isn’t to take away from either player. It’s more of an observation on the state of American golf. I’m not going to lose a moment of sleep over it, but Americans have gone quite some time without a major win. Five, to be precise.
Meanwhile, back to Garrigus’ electrifying putt. “What the hell, it was awesome,” he said. “That was a lot of fun. I sucked it up and got it done on the back side. It felt great.”
Even better than getting high.
“You know, it’s so cool to have that many people rooting for you,” said Garrigus after firing a one-under 70 on Sunday. “Like I said yesterday, it’s better than any drug you could ever take. You can’t buy it, you can’t bottle it, and man, it was a lot of fun today. Gosh, I’ll never forget this day for the rest of my life. It was a lot of fun.”
Garrigus kicked a drug addiction in 2003 after a stint in rehab.
While he didn’t have the same historical US Open that McIlroy did, it sounds like it may have been just as memorable for him, punctuated by that last putt.
“It gave me goosebumps for sure,” he said. “That was one of the things I will never forget. Besides it being Father’s Day and to have my son there afterwards and everything, this is a pretty special day. And to make that putt, I get into Augusta. That’s probably one of the coolest things I’ll ever get to say is I am playing at Augusta next year.”
And well, here’s just another example of why I love the gregarious Garrigus.
“I’d have asked them what they were smoking, definitely,” he said when asked his response if someone had told him he’d shoot six-under and still be 10 strokes off the lead. “It’s unbelievable. I shot under par every day, and if you had told me I was going to do that, I might have slapped you in the face. I just didn’t understand the scores.”
Don’t expect the setup at next year’s US Open at Olympic to be quite so generous.
“I don’t think the USGA is letting anybody know how upset they were about how the scores were going,” said Garrigus. “Next year at Olympic, I think the winning score is probably going to be about 8-over. I don’t think anybody is going to shoot under par next year, and rightfully so, it’s a U.S. Open.
“The weather got a little rainy for us and that’s unfortunate. But, man, it was great to go out and make some birdies and put on a show for the crowd, and that’s what we do. That’s awesome.”
(Photo by Kyle Auclair/insidetheropes.com)
Is he using YOUR putter though ?
#SHORTYSMALLS
We read about an American golf crisis and yet two nobody Americans bested most of the big bad Internationals to finish comfortably in the top ten.
When Shaun Micheel won the PGA did we beat our chest about the strength of American golf? I’m sure Chubby and his cronies will continue to take shots at American players and our tour, but even he realizes where the bread is still buttered.
Poulter was going on last night about the strength of European golf, he does realize South Africans hold two of the 4, right?
Not bad for using a kids putter
@ KR1 – right on. For the US, it only matters if the top 3 or 4 guys wins – in fact, if someone comes from nowhere, it is a symptom of mediocracy. The Euro tour gets basically everyone else, and as long as 1 comes through, it shows that they dominate.
Sooner or later, McIlroy will get sick of playing lame tournaments in out of the way places (Azores Open, Swedish Masters, ect) for 1/2 of the purses in the US, and move to the US full time. My guess is for 2013.
I don’t know how he does it with that teeny Scotty Cameron. After watching him putt all weekend, I had to go my chiropractor.
Wow, nothing like making up facts to prove a point is there? There’s no such thing as the Azores Open. And since when is Sweden “out of the way” in golfing terms? You do realise that one of the greatest golfers ever (Annika before you ask) is from there, right?
To be honest, quotes from Chubby, Poulter and others get taken way out of context by the US media. Player X is asked if he intends to move to the US tour. Player X responds that he’s happy playing in Europe and that if he got to world number 1/won a major then he must be doing something right, so why change. US media then puts out story that player X snubs US tour, blah, blah, blah.
The impression I get from talking to a lot of Americans is that you guys think that we revel in any shortcomings that you are perceived to have. Shipnuck even said on golf.com that the Euros “hated” Americans, which is bordering on being bigoted, and is bang out of line. If we’re so bad then why do American players constantly complement Euro fans on their behaviour when they play here?
We appreciate Americans. In particular, we haven’t forgotten how Arnie, Jack, etc. chose to travel to the British Open to enhance its stature when it was struggling. Your players are wildly popular over here, but I don’t see harm in taking pride that our tour is not as far from yours as it once was. It really annoys me when I see comments like the above as I would say that it’s more of a problem with your misconceptions of what European golf stands for than with our feelings towards you.
#1. Ty Webb is symptomatic of all that is wrong with the US. The PGA Tour and the current prize-money is simply a bubble created by a botched up capitalistic model coupled with the Tiger Woods phenomenen. What’s the #1 problem in the US – the gross inequality !! The prizemoney on the US tour epitomizes this. If the PGATour does not change rapidly it will simply be a feeder tour to a world tour (which is actually the European tour…)
#2 So many Americans make the ridiculous ascertain that all golfers care about is money. Refer to this dribble for a pathetic example http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/Latest-News-Wires/2011/0619/U.S.-Open-golf-Should-Rory-McIlroy-move-to-US. People like Rory are genuine and just want to play good golf. The financials will take care of themselves if they stick to their principles.
#3 Wasn’t it ironic that whilst Rory was in Haiti, Bubba, Ricky, Hunter and Ben were making a piece of crap rap video. Yep – let’s all go to the US…
BTW – I’m Australian – not European
First off, before you blather on any further, Ian, the “crap rap video” you refer to was made for charity. So get your facts before you criticize.
I think that Ivor’s post said everything that needs to be said (great post, Ivor).
Some, but not all, Americans have this ridiculous notion that everyone should want to move to the States because it’s the “best country on earth”. Well, truth is, it’s only the best country to Americans. Rory probably will move, eventually, but for now he wants to stay closer to home, play the Euro tour, and still make PLENTY of money to keep him quite rich. Is that so hard to understand?