Monday Backspin: Garrigus upbeat despite playoff loss

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For a guy who an hour earlier lipped out a 3-foot par putt to lose a playoff, Robert Garrigus didn't sound too beaten up about it Sunday night.

"I shot 45 under my last eight rounds," Garrigus said via cell phone from Maui, where he'd just lost to Jonathan Byrd. "That's kind of hilarious to think about.

"This is really not that disappointing. When I have a job and make a half-million dollars and can be upset about it, I've got a pretty damn good job."

That might sound flippant, but Garrigus has overcome a lot tougher things -- most notably a drug and alcohol addiction and more recently that meltdown in Memphis, where he surrendered a three-shot lead with a triple bogey on the final hole.

The latter could have crushed him and the former could have destroyed him, but without each other Garrigus says he wouldn't have been back in Maui for the first time since his honeymoon there seven years ago.

"There's no way I would've treated Memphis the way I did unless I went through what I did in my personal life," Garrigus said.

What he went through was eight years of drugs, alcohol and "anything I could get my hands on."

But in 2003 Garrigus was sitting on his couch watching television at 3 in the morning when he saw a commercial for Calvary Ranch, a rehab facility in San Diego. He left his Scottsdale home a few hours later, bound for the West Coast, where he spent more than a month in rehab, joined a church, eventually met his wife Ami, and turned his life around.

"[Losing in Memphis] was a breeze compared to what I had to do to get my life straight," Garrigus said. "That was just a golf tournament."

Fast forward to Sunday at the season-opening Hyundai Tournament of Champions, which Garrigus qualified for by winning the Children's Miracle Network Classic a few months after that heartbreaking loss in Memphis.

Everything had come full circle for the hard-charging, long-hitting Garrigus, who swings with such abandoned that he led the PGA TOUR in driving distance last year.

"It's special to come back here," Garrigus said. "I knew it sets up for me, it's a bomber's paradise.

"I love this place. I got so many fans cheering for me and I think the world found out who I was this week."

Stock up

Graeme McDowell: Is there anyone on the planet playing better than McDowell right now? I ran into him a month ago at Lake Nona on the heels of his win over Tiger Woods and he was talking about a new equipment deal that was in the works and about upgrading his house and he was brimming with confidence. Now we know why. He might not be No. 1, but he's playing like it. Steve Stricker: He got to Kapalua early and was hitting balls on the range there on New Years Day and the extra effort obviously paid off with a tie for fourth. Only once has Stricker fared better at Kapalua when he tied for second in 2008. He's also finished in the top 10 in four of his last six starts and has at least two top-5s in his first four starts of each of the last three seasons. Ian Poulter: Is this the year Poulter breaks out and wins a major? It might be. He's coming off his best year on the TOUR and began this one with a tie for sixth that included a final-round 66. Don't be surprised if he's in contention at the Masters, where he finished in a tie for 10th last year. His phenomenal ball-striking suits a course like Augusta National.

Stock down

Hunter Mahan: Even if the Ryder Cup loss is behind him, Mahan obviously didn't get off to the kind of start he would have liked with a tie for 25th. The problem? Putting, especially in the third round. Mahan hit just 56 percent of his greens in regulation and still took 32 putts. It wasn't much better the rest of the tournament as he averaged 31 putts per round for the week. Zach Johnson: It was a rough week for Johnson. First, he had to play with a banged up big right toe after stubbing it on some steps while on a recent vacation. That forced him to cut a hole in his golf shoe to accommodate the injury, but with wet conditions early in the week he had to play with a plastic baggie over his shoe to cover the hole. Oy vey. Understandably he didn't have a great week, tying for 23rd. Ernie Els: After a second-round 64 it looked like Els was poised to make a run at a title he's won before (in an event where he owns the tournament record, no less). Instead, the Big Easy fizzled closing with rounds of 74-71 to tie for 17th. At least he has the Hall of Fame ceremony to look forward to in May.

THE BACK NINE: 9 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

1. After 2010 proved to be the year of rules violations, it took all of one round for another incident to rear its head when Camilo Villegas was disqualified after signing an incorrect scorecard following a rules infraction that was called in by a viewer. Forget the violation itself, the real hot-button issue was a fan calling it in long after Villegas was done and gone for the day. It prompted all sorts of reaction, and Ernie Els had perhaps the best solution, saying, "Maybe that should be -- if you sign your scorecard and somebody sees something in South Africa after we have already played and they have shown it there and the guy goes, 'Yeah, I've seen a rules violation,' and calls it in and after he signs his card, maybe because of that there should be a little thing in our rule book that says, 'OK, even though he has signed his card, because of this call after the fact, he gets a two-shot penalty instead of being disqualified.'"

2. Of course one of the many issues with fans calling in rules violations is that it's not exactly a level playing field because not all players or shots are broadcast on television. That will never change, though, nor is it possible, so Lee Janzen suggested eliminating it altogether. "Football has replay officials watching every game. Why not put an official in front of a TV. He knows a rules violation when he sees one," Janzen tweeted. Stay tuned on this one.

3. So much for McDowell's switch to Srixon sending his career off a cliff. While too much is often made of equipment switches, McDowell's move wasn't terribly surprising. His deal with Callaway was up at the end of last year, he played Cleveland (part of the same Srixon family) in college at UAB and with Phil Mickelson as Callaway's poster boy it's an opportunity for McDowell to be marketed as the star he's become. One other note of importance: McDowell didn't change his driver or putter.

4. What's the difference between Tiger Woods now and the Tiger Woods of 10 years ago? Asked about the catch-22 of Tiger winning -- good for the game, bad in terms of fewer victories for everyone else -- Dustin Johnson said last week, "I hope he does [win]. Doesn't bother me. I'm still going to win." You would have been hard-pressed to hear that from anyone a decade ago. The fact that Johnson and the rest of the "New Breed" don't have the mental scarring some of Tiger's contemporaries do is the main reason why.

5. Golf Digest and Tiger parting ways doesn't come as a huge surprise. Tiger, who spent 13 years as an exclusive playing editor for the magazine, wasn't in a position to commit more time, according to what his agent, Mark Steinberg, told Bloomberg News. The magazine had also suspended the monthly column in the wake of Tiger's off-course transgressions last year. Given all that, the two sides decided to cordially part ways.

6. Expect there to possibly some changes to the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup system maybe as soon as after this season. "We felt like across the board, there clearly was a recognition that play early meant a lot late, regardless of what happened late," Commissioner Tim Finchem said last week. "There were a number of examples of that. Tiger Woods actually is one, because had Tiger Woods started playing his normal schedule last year and played basically the same level that he played the rest of the year, he would have been in Atlanta." Finchem went on to add that it's a situation that deserves to be monitored. "We have had four good years," Finchem continued. "We feel like every year the player that -- or certainly every year, you can make an argument that the player that should have won, won. We just want to build on that this year and then these kind of questions we'll keep an eye on and maybe make a change for the future."

7. NBC's decision to not bring Brad Faxon back for another year surprised the veteran because he thought he'd done a good job and improved with each telecast, which he did. For now, Faxon will resume his playing career with past champion status on the TOUR. He turns 50 in August and will play the Champions Tour, but he also isn't ruling out a return to the booth at some point.

8. Golf's latest power couple? Dustin Johnson and Natalie Gulbis, who confirmed over the weekend that the two have been dating for a couple of months after hitting it off on a recent TaylorMade shoot and then the Wendy's 3-Tour Challenge. A colleague to me when he heard the news: their 2-year-old kids will out drive me.

9. Stat of the Week That May Only Interest Me: Mickelson is the only major winner from last year not to have won since. Louis Oosthuizen became the latest 2010 major champion to record a victory with his win in South Africa over the weekend.

Forward Spin

Let the fun REALLY begin. The Sony Open in Hawaii not only boasts the first full field of the year, it will be broadcast in 3-D. Having seen last years Masters in 3-D, it's certainly different. Waialae Country Club is also the complete opposite of Kapalua in that its fairways are much narrower and greens much smaller, so expect guys who hit it straight and have a good short game to fare well.

Next Kodak Challenge hole

TOURNAMENT: Bob Hope Classic HOLE: The par-3, 130-yard 17th at PGA WEST, Arnold Palmer Private Course ABOUT THE HOLE: From the tee of this short par 3, you will have a beautiful panoramic view of PGA WEST. Don't forget to focus in on the pin on this long narrow green. Proper position is a must on this dangerous little hole. Kodak Challenge standings

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