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Garrigus recalls monumental golf collapse

Robert Garrigus knows what millions of golfers, no matter their skill or ability level, know. "Golf is one of the hardest sports in the world," Garrigus said Tuesday at the AT&T National, where he pleasantly relived the horror of blowing a 3-stroke lead on the final hole of the St. Jude Classic on June 13 in Memphis, a stumble that cost him his first PGA Tour victory.

Robert Garrigus knows what millions of golfers, no matter their skill or ability level, know.

"Golf is one of the hardest sports in the world," Garrigus said Tuesday at the AT&T National, where he pleasantly relived the horror of blowing a 3-stroke lead on the final hole of the St. Jude Classic on June 13 in Memphis, a stumble that cost him his first PGA Tour victory.

Garrigus, a long-driving, 32-year-old Arizonan, thought he had a 2-stroke advantage going to the 72d hole when in fact he led by 3. He pulled out his driver but drove his tee shot into the water. After a drop, he pulled his third shot into a thicket of trees. He chipped out, reached the green, and 2-putted for a triple-bogey 7.

He managed to get into a three-way playoff but was eliminated with a bogey on the first hole, and Lee Westwood eventually won.

"I was playing so well, but that one hole kind of ruined it," Garrigus said. "But I didn't focus on that. I focused on how well I was playing for the week. I was the best player there that week, and one hole just kind of tore it all up."

Garrigus said he looked for a leader board after he finished play on the 17th green, but the only one was an electronic board that "they put advertisements [on], and every once in a while they'll show a score, and it's really funny because I really needed to see the score at the time."

He finally saw a board farther up the 18th.

"I thought, 'That would have been nice about 10 minutes ago if I could have seen that,' " he said.

Of course, the mishap kindled memories of Frenchman Jean van de Velde, who reached the 72d hole at the 1999 British Open with a 3-stroke lead, made some strange club selections starting with a driver off the tee, and carded a triple-bogey 7. He then lost in a playoff.

Garrigus, one of the longest hitters on the tour, averaging better than 308 yards, swears his club selections would have been different had he known that he led by three.

"I would have hit a 4-iron out to the right" away from the water, he said, "hit a wedge in the middle of the fairway, hit a wedge on the green and 2-putted, and it would have been a different story. I definitely would have played the hole different. But I guess it wasn't supposed to be like that."

Still, Garrigus, who was the world's 377th-ranked player that week and is now No. 210, accepted what happened with good humor. He has seen much worse in his personal life after a battle with drugs that compelled him to go into rehab for 45 days in 2003. He is now clean, he says, and married, with a baby on the way.

"Being a professional golfer is all I've wanted to do since I was 13 years old," he said. "The fact that I get to do that every day, come out and have fun, sign autographs for the kids, thank some volunteers, it's a blessing."

And he hopes to get a chance, very soon, to have fans remember him for anything other than a final-hole collapse.

"That tag, the van de Velde thing, I've watched every SportsCenter, every Golf Channel, and just watched them rip me a new one," he said, "and I was laughing, to tell you the truth, because people are going to know me for that. But I hope they know I played better than everyone else that week - it was just one hole - and I can do it again."