Golfers hooked on hunting, fishing
Professional golf is their occupation, but something else bonds Robert Garrigus, Boo Weekley and many other competitors in this week’s FedEx St. Jude Golf Classic at TPC Southwind.
They love the outdoors, especially hunting and fishing.
Garrigus, who is competing in his eighth FESJC, wouldn’t leave home without his fishing gear. It’s not unusual to see a fishing rod sticking out of his golf bag or the back of a cart in preevent practice rounds. He admits to being a “huge fishing nut.”
Weekley joined the Tour in the late 1990s and quickly gained fame for his camo clothing and his folksy, down-to-earth personality. It took him 10 years to win his first event (the Verizon Heritage in April 2007), but it didn’t take him that long to earn a legion of fans.
“I am who I am,” Weekley likes to say.
So is Garrigus, who grew up hunting and fishing with his father, the late Tom Garrigus, in the mountains and rivers of Idaho, which always makes this time of the year special as we draw closer to Father’s Day.
“My dad was 100 percent instrumental in getting me in the outdoors,” Garrigus said. “He let me skip school every winter so we could go deer or elk hunting. I don’t think I had a tag (permit), but he said if I saw a deer or elk I could shoot it. I never got to see one because dad would kill it before I could see it. He never missed.”
If Garrigus’ father’s name sounds familiar, it should.
The elder Garrigus won the silver medal in trap shooting at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, missing out on the gold by two clays. In the 1972 Olympics, Tom placed fourth, missing a bronze by a couple of clays.
“Dad carried the Olympic torch for Team USA in the opening ceremonies at the 1996 Olympics and then coached the (USA) Olympic trapshooting team,” Garrigus said. “It’d be safe to say he was a good shot.”
Garrigus, 38, wasn’t a bad shot either, growing up in tiny Nampa, Idaho — population, he said, about 500 (and “zero” red lights) — where he won two state championships in trap shooting before switching over to golf. He now lives in Scottsdale, Arizona.
“All we did when I was young was hunt and fish,” Garrigus said. “If we caught a trout, we’d take it home and we’d eat it. If we killed an elk or a deer, we’d take it home and eat it. I grew up in the outdoors. Being on the PGA Tour is kind of crazy. We’re pampered every week. It’s kind of weird being on Tour and knowing where I grew up. My true home is in the mountains.”
The lure of the lowlands of Florida’s panhandle drew Weekley to the outdoors. He grew up in Milton, a military town (Naval Air Station Whiting Field) sitting at an elevation of 33 feet and surrounded by woods and water. Milton is also the hometown of FESJC competitor Heath Slocum. The third member of the area’s golfing trio is Bubba Watson, who is from nearby Bagdad, Florida.
“I grew up on the river,” said Weekley, 42. “I’ve got two boys, ages 14 and 7, and I’m trying to teach the oldest how to bass fish on the river; how to know how the current is or isn’t running or how the water is high or low. I am teaching my youngest how to bream fish. I want them to be excited about catching fish. As long as they are catching fish, they are having fun. Hopefully, they will eventually fall in love with it like I did.”
Garrigus said he and Weekley are among a large contingent of PGA Tour pros who like to spend time in the outdoors, notably hunting and fishing, but also through water sports, camping, biking and winter activities such as skiing and snowboarding.
Of course, those who fish for bass have their favorite tour stops.
“There are a lot of good places to fish on the Tour,” Garrigus said. “The Players Championship is probably one, if not the best, place to catch numbers (of bass). But the Island Course in Tampa probably has by far the biggest bass year-in and year-out.” How good? “Well, I’ll tell you I have fished it for the last seven or eight years and have caught plenty of bass over 9 pounds,” Garrigus said. “They are everywhere. You can catch a lot of numbers in Houston; not a lot of big fish, but good numbers. Boo, like me, has fished them all. It’s just a lot of fun. You get your mind off golf and get off and try to rip some lips (a bass-fishing expression).” Weekley agrees. “Robert is right,” Weekley said. “There are a lot of good places that we go to every year, but my favorite place is Puerto Rico because you can catch a lot of snook.”
Weekley spent some time Wednesday talking bass fishing with fishing guru Ron Wong of Memphis. Wong, a two-time winner of the St. Jude Bass Classic, annually works the Rendezvous’ food stop near the eighth tee at TPC Southwind.
“He (Weekley) is a great ambassador for the outdoors,” said Wong, who is retired from FedEx. “We talked fishing, of course, and I showed him some of my rods and reels. One of these days, I told him, I’d take him fishing.”