Playing golf is Garrigus' addiction now

Robert Garrigus appeared to be on top of the world Thursday after walking around a beautiful golf course on a gorgeous early summer day and shooting a 68 to be near the lead on the opening day of the AT&T National at Aronimink.

But the golf course could have been a weed-choked track in the middle of nowhere and Garrigus still would have been a happy man. He is grateful that he gets to play golf for a living, a living that almost didn't happen because of his addiction to drugs and alcohol years ago.

It wasn't until 2003, when he sat on his couch in a marijuana-induced haze and saw an infomercial on television at 3 in the morning that he finally checked himself into a rehabilitation clinic and got clean and sober.

"I was an idiot," Garrigus said Thursday. "I was crazy doing all that stuff. I enjoy life now, I'm sober, and I'm never going back to the way I used to be.

"It's just who I was back then. I'm not that guy anymore, so I don't care to talk about it. It's just who I was. Now I am who I am."

Garrigus, 33, who was born in Idaho, raised in Oregon, and now lives in Phoenix, hung out with the wrong crowd at Scottsdale (Ariz.) Community College and spent what he has estimated as $70,000 on marijuana. He has admitted getting high before rounds and taking hits of pot during rounds, even on the Nationwide Tour.

Finally, he persuaded himself to check into Calvary Ranch, a drug rehabilitation center near San Diego, where he spent 45 days kicking the habit. His golf game steadily got better. After two years on the Nationwide Tour, he qualified for the PGA Tour in 2006 and has been playing there ever since.

And he couldn't be having more fun.

"If I was 8 over, I'd be doing the same thing," he said. "I've always been a guy that is not going to get down on myself and be a jerk to somebody because I'm over par. That's just not who I am. I enjoy my life. I enjoy everything I do. I'm the luckiest guy on the planet to be able to play golf for a living. Regardless of where it's at, it's a great job."

Garrigus, who won the season-ending Children's Miracle Network Classic in 2010 for his first tour win, perhaps pulled off his greatest professional achievement two weeks ago in the U.S. Open, finishing in a tie for third - deadlocked with Kevin Chappell for low American - and qualifying for the Masters. He finished by draining a 25-foot par putt at 18.

"It was so much fun to be part of that atmosphere," he said. "I've gotten a lot of notoriety for being the low American. But I want to do that in the Masters and be No. 1, or in the PGA. That'd be a lot more special."

On Thursday, Garrigus, the tour leader in driving distance in each of the last two years, had his ups and downs over Aronimink. He drained a 35-foot putt at the second hole for one of his four birdies in the first 10 holes. He later slipped back to 1 under before depositing a 14-footer for birdie at No. 15.

"Every player absolutely loves this place," he said. "They changed a few of the greens; they're a little more severe around the edges, so you can hit a pretty good shot and not get rewarded. But you know where you can miss it. If you hit it [in the right spot], you're rewarded."

Garrigus is a crowd-pleaser with his long drives and his engaging manner. Now he hopes to find a way to attract more endorsements, trying to convince companies that his past is past.

"There's nothing to worry about," he said. "I feel like I'm marketable. I hit it 350 yards off the tee and I smile everywhere. I don't know what's wrong with somebody putting their name on my shirt."

Still, he's doing what he loves to do.

"It was a great day today, beautiful, 80 degrees, a little wind . . . a great day," he said.