Robert Garrigus burst onto the national scene at the 2011 US Open, finishing in a tie for third at Congressional Country Club. Garrigus was tied for the low American score and turned heads with his 300-yard drives as he chased Rory McIlroy, the runaway US Open winner. But we knew little about Garrigus, a relative unknown on tour and far from one of its biggest names. Until now.
This week, Garrigus opened up about life on tour and shared a story about his experience on the Nationwide Tour in 2002. The Nationwide is a minor league, of sorts, for golfers in the United States. The top-25 earn a tour card each year and it serves as a feeder to the PGA.
And when life got a little boring, Garrigus needed a little performance enhancer: Marijuana. In an interview with Golf Digest, Garrigus admitted he, and other golfers, would partake in a little pot during Nationwide Tour, hiding in Porta-Potties during rounds to smoke weed.
"I had a very high tolerance, and I didn't know that it wasn't helping me," he told the magazine. "All you're thinking is that it feels good, so it must be good for what you're doing. It wasn't until I quit that I realized how stupid it was. But I don't regret any of it because it put me on the path I'm on now."
Garrigus went into rehab in 2003 and is clean and sober now. His story, called "The Reclamation of Robert Garrigus," can be found on the Golf Digest website.