SAN DIEGO — Late last week, sitting at home in Arizona, past PGA Tour winner Robert Garrigus figured he had no chance to play in one of his all-time favorite tournaments, the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines. By his calculation, Garrigus was 217th among eligible players, which is like hoping to get a window seat on Southwest Airlines if you’re in the C Group. No chance.
But, starting on Sunday, for the tournament that runs Wednesday through Saturday, players began withdrawing with unusual speed, most citing illness that seemed to have cut a swath through the locker room. World No. 5 Collin Morikawa was among the first four to exit, followed on Monday by three more and then another on Tuesday, bringing the total on the eve of the first round to eight.
Then, in an extreme rarity, two high-profile players, Gary Woodland and Will Zalatoris, withdrew in the hours before teeing off. At that point, the tour was in a bind to fill the field of 156 and wasn’t able to, because most of the alternates had left the area. Ryan Moore was originally listed as a replacement for Zalatoris, and then he said he couldn’t play.
Enter a healthy and competition-starved Garrigus. The 47-year-old played in only two PGA Tour events in 2024—both of them as an alternate—and only cashed $5,000 checks in show-up money because he missed the cuts.
After Garrigus didn’t play well in the Farmers Monday qualifier, he and his fiancée, Lauren Goldfarb, stayed over in San Diego, where Garrigus lived for a time early in his career, and then made the 45-mile drive north to San Clemente to visit with Goldfarb’s brother and wife. They had a couple of nice dinners and figured to drive home past Torrey on the way to east Chandler, Ariz., where Robert planned to help one of his son’s with a school math presentation.
But he got word late on Tuesday night that the WDs may continue and that maybe he should at least show up at the course. The couple drove from San Clemente and pulled into the Torrey parking lot at 7, and after hitting some balls on the range Garrigus was on his way to the putting green when he got the news that he was in the field. Goldfarb was ready to jump on the bag, as she did at the World Wide Technology Championship last fall.
“I’m, like, holy crap. I got a tee time,” the gregarious Garrigus said in an interview after shooting 1-over-par 73 on the North Course to be tied for 100th place. “It was very sudden and I kind of had to turn into my tournament mode. I hadn’t played in, whatever the hell it was, November? But I was able to lock in. I hit it good, just not great. Couldn’t really get it close to many of these flags because the greens are super firm.”
Robert Garrigus and his fiancee Lauren Goldfarb walk off the final green after the first round of the Farmers Insurance Open.
Sometime during the hectic day, Garrigus realized he hadn’t secured a hotel for Wednesday night. “I was asking the guys if I could sleep in their grandma’s garage,” he said with a laugh. “So we got to check and see where we can stay. I think they hopefully they can give us a rate here [at Torrey Pines] cause it’s expensive as hell.”
Because Zalatoris is among the more popular players on tour, in replacing him Garrigus ended up in one of the featured groupings with Justin Rose and Maverick McNealy, and after nearly two decades on tour, it was far more fun than intimidating.
“Great guys. I’ve known Rosie since I was 25 years old,” Garrigus said. “It was great to catch up, hear about the kids, what everybody’s doing; it was great, a fun day.”
Garrigus was thrilled to get any start on the PGA Tour, with this being his 384th appearance. He notched his lone victory in 2010 at the now-defunct Children’s Miracle Network event and suffered some crushing defeats, three times losing in playoffs among a total of six career runners-up. He played nine events in 2022-23 and made only one cut. The year before, Garrigus made 14 starts, with five cuts made. He has extremely limited status now as a veteran past champion. The only category lower is for veterans who didn’t win.
So is he playing with house money or feeling the pressure to make a check this week?
“It’s both house money and also a tremendous amount of pressure that I try not to think about,” Garrigus said. “You know, I’ve been on the brink of winning golf tournaments; I’ve played a lot of golf out here. To be able to play in this absolute gem, it’s my favorite place. … I get to play the South Course [on Thursday] and try to make the cut.”
Whether he plays the weekend or not, Garrigus is relishing the opportunity and says he has no regrets whatsoever about his career. He would love more chances like these, of course, so he joked with tour officials that he was going to caravan around to tournament sites, just in case.
“I’ll go on vacation and if you guys need somebody to tee it up,” he told them, “I’d be happy to take the five grand.”
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
