When I look at Robbert Garrigus, I wonder why he led the tour in driving distance last year. Although he claims to have worked out harder after his 1st win last year at the Children's Miracle Network Classic at Disney, there is nothing about his physique that belies his prodigious length.
The answer ?.. His father bought him a driver with a triple X stiff shaft in it when he was a teenager and he learned he had to swing hard with it to compensate for the lack of torque a regular shaft provides we lesser mortals..
So while his length continues to be of great benefit on this soft, wide open Plantation course, it was his vastly improved wedge game that sees him atop the leader board at -14 going into Saturday after a -10 63 on Friday..
Garrigus found himself with shots inside 115 yards of the pin 4 times during his 2nd round. 3 times he just just missed the pin, leaving himself virtually stone dead. Then at the par-4 16th hole, he holed out from 66 yards for eagle.
He credits former Champions Tour pro Jim Ahern, now an instructor in Phoenix, Ariz., for turning around his approach.
Here'a part of his post round interview...
"It was one of those things where the guy talked to me three days before Disney,” Garrigus recalled, “got me so pumped up to play golf again, I just don’t know why — because I didn’t feel like I was the 122-on-the-Money-List guy. I don’t want to sound cocky but that’s just how I felt on my game.
He asked me why haven't you won 10 times on TOUR.’
"And I said, ‘Because my wedge game sucks.’ And he told me, ‘Why does it suck?’ I told him, I’m like, ‘Well, I guess I haven’t worked as hard on it as I should have.’ He said, ‘Well let’s take the grass off this place the next three days before you go to Disney.’ "
So Garrigus and Ahern worked on the short game those three days prior to the event, and Garrigus’ confidence level rose and now we see the result.
Mike Weir has fired 63 here in 2002 and 2005 and the course record is held by KJ Choi, -11 62 on 2003. The scoring average yesterday for the field was 69.92, over 3 shots under par..the greens were soft after overnight rain before Friday's round.
Carl Pettersson is alone in 2nd at -13 (66,67), Jonathan Byrd 3rd at -12 (66,68) and Ernie got back in it at -10 after his -9 64 with a much better putting display 29 as opposed to 34 on Thursday..
It looks like -25 will be needed to win unless the wind starts to howl and that is not in the forecast, so any of the guys in this T10 can vault up the board over this weekend. Remember there is no cut..
1 6 1 Robert Garrigus -14 F -10 69 63 132
2 1 2 Carl Pettersson -13 F -6 66 67 133
3 2 3 Jonathan Byrd -12 F -5 66 68 134
T4 18 4 Ernie Els -10 F -9 72 64 136
T4 3 4 Steve Stricker -10 F -6 69 67 136
T4 3 -- Francesco Molinari -10 F -6 69 67 136
T4 4 Jim Furyk -10 F -5 68 68 136
T8 11 7 Dustin Johnson -9 F -7 71 66 137
T8 5 7 Ben Crane -9 F -3 67 70 137
T10 3 9 Ian Poulter -8 F -5 70 68 138
T10 3 9 Bill Lunde -8 F -5 70 68 138
T10 6 9 Bill Haas -8 F -3 68 70 138
EUROPEAN tour
3rd round play is well underway at the Africa Open at the East London GC in RSA and veteran Austrian Marcus Brier is T1 with South African Branden Grace, both at -14..
I will update when the round is over..
T1 BRIER, Markus -14 13 -4 70 66 -4 - 136
T1 GRACE, Branden -14 13 -4 67 69 -4 - 136
T3 KRUGER, Jbe -12 16 -6 68 72 -6 - 140
T3 OOSTHUIZEN, Louis -12 14 -3 70 67 -3 - 137
T3 VAN ZYL, Jaco -12 14 -3 67 70 -3 - 137
6 WOOD, Chris -11 18 -6 72 69 67 - 208
T7 DINWIDDIE, Robert -10 18 -7 69 74 66 - 209
T7 AIKEN, Thomas -10 18 -5 69 72 68 - 209
T7 BEKKER, Oliver -10 17 -4 69 71 -4 - 140
T7 DEL MORAL, Carlos -10 16 -4 70 70 -4 - 140
T7 QUIROS, Manuel -10 15 -3 71 68 -3 - 139
T7 McGOWAN, Ross -10 14 -1 68 69 -1 - 137
T7 TUNNICLIFF, Miles -10 14 Par 67 69 Par - 136
Updated 3rd round final scores 5.20pm EST
As promised here's the final leaderboard after round 3 with Open Champ Louis Oosthuizen ans Markus Brier T1 @ -13. However there are 12 players within 3 shots of the lead going into Sunday.. Do I hear playoff ??
T1 OOSTHUIZEN, Louis -13 18 -4 70 67 69 - 206
T1 BRIER, Markus -13 18 -3 70 66 70 - 206
T3 KRUGER, Jbe -12 18 -6 68 72 67 - 207
T3 QUIROS, Manuel -12 18 -5 71 68 68 - 207
T3 SCHWARTZEL, Charl -12 18 -5 69 70 68 - 207
T3 VAN ZYL, Jaco -12 18 -3 67 70 70 - 207
T7 WOOD, Chris -11 18 -6 72 69 67 - 208
T7 McGOWAN, Ross -11 18 -2 68 69 71 - 208
T7 TUNNICLIFF, Miles -11 18 -1 67 69 72 - 208
T7 GRACE, Branden -11 18 -1 67 69 72 - 208
Bryan Angus bryanangus4@gmail.com
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