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To preview the 2013 PGA TOUR season, PGATOUR.COM is counting down the Top 100 Players to Watch in 2013. For an archive page with the top 100 players and for an explanation on how the list was compiled, click here .

MORE TOP 100: Back to No. 36 | Forward to No. 34 | Top 100 archive

2013 PREVIEW: Robert Garrigus did everything but win last year as he posted four runner-up finishes on TOUR (and another at the unofficial CIMB Classic) on the way to career-highs in earnings and FedExCup points. Already one of the biggest hitters on TOUR, Garrigus improved from 72nd to seventh in GIR and 105th to 23rd in scoring average. If he can continue putting himself in position, that second win will come.

2012 DEFINING MOMENT: Those five runner-up finishes were impressive, particularly the one at the RBC Canadian Open where Garrigus held a one-stroke lead entering the final round and had a birdie putt on the 72nd hole that would have forced a playoff with Scott Piercy. But let's go with the tie for fourth at the BMW Championship that moved Garrigus from 31st to 20th in the FedExCup and sent him to the TOUR Championship by Coca-Cola for the first time. –- Helen Ross, PGATOUR.COM

ALBERS’ QUICK TAKE: Robert is honest to a fault. He is very blunt in assessing his game. Garrigus was tough on himself after losing the RBC Canadian Open. I admire his willingness to experiment -- going from a short putter, to long putter to conventional length. Garrigus is such a hard worker he will find the answer. -- Fred Albers, SiriusXM PGA TOUR Radio

BOLTON’S FANTASY OUTLOOK: Five times a runner-up in 2012, including the unofficial CIMB Classic. Shattered career highs across the board, exceeding the expectations sculpted by his firepower. He adds so much character to the fantasy game beyond his impressive splits, go ahead and invest in him with equal parts head and heart. However, at $3.2 million, salary gamers should shop elsewhere. -- Rob Bolton, PGATOUR.COM Fantasy expert

SOCIAL MEDIA: Find him on Twitter | Facebook

2012 QUICK REVIEW

Regular Season ranking 24th

Final Playoffs ranking 23rd

NOW IT’S YOUR TURN

What is your prediction for Robert Garrigus in 2013? Fill out the form below and let us know

Stan Badz/PGA TOUR

Tom Lehman offered some insight into his bag at the Charles Schwab Cup Championship.

By John Schwarb, PGATOUR.COM

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – By all accounts, Tom Lehman has had a fine season on the Champions Tour. One win, three seconds, 11 top 10s in 18 starts, and a puncher’s chance at winning a second consecutive Schwab Cup title this week at the season finale, the Charles Schwab Cup Championship.

But on Tuesday at Desert Mountain, he echoed the lament of many amateur players – the year could have been even better had he been more dialed in with his wedges.

“I haven’t been super sharp inside of 100 yards. I really haven’t,” said Lehman, who trails Bernhard Langer by 211 in the season-long points race. “My wedge game has been off all year. It seems like you kind of get in these streaks where you seem to have all of these in-between yardages. Every big shot you have that you really need to hit it close is just right in between.

“I don't remember a year where I've ever had so many shots that were like 108 yards, or 102 yards or 123 yards into the wind. Where the sand wedge is not quite enough, the pitching wedge is too much. I don't carry a gap wedge. I'm falling into that crack.”

Consequently, Lehman said he’s considering putting a gap wedge into his bag for the first time.

“I'm really good at hitting a 112-yard pitching wedge into the breeze, but I'm not good at hitting 102 pitching wedge into a breeze,” he said. “The sand wedge full into a breeze always spins back 40 feet, so it's like you have this gap where I've just been tortured all year long.”

Of course, to put a gap wedge in requires taking something out. For pros, that means taking a look at fairway woods or hybrids.

“If I took out the rescue (hybrid) and put in the gap, the next week I would be needing that rescue club 27 times,” said Lehman, who plays TaylorMades. “Now I have this gap between my 3-iron and my 3-wood, which is about 50 yards wide versus the gap between a sand wedge and a pitching wedge, which is 20. So there you have the secret.

“To me you have to figure out your bag, bend a couple of clubs a little bit stronger, maybe get a new rescue, which is a little bit weaker. Who knows what? But you got to drop something. Some guys take that out, maybe take the 3-iron out and strengthen the 4-iron. There is all kind of ways to do it. But that means relearning yardages.

“I can tell you, the average golfer, what happens is you get these in between yardages, and you try to hit it so easy you decelerate. You decelerate on a wedge like you decelerate on a putt, and you end up hitting bad shots.”

Have you put an extra wedge in the bag this year? If so, what came out to accommodate it? Tell us in the comments below.

HOT STICK: Robert Garrigus switched to an Odyssey White Ice 2-Ball V-Line putter two months ago at the Deutsche Bank Championship. In four tournaments since then he has finished T4, T10, T22 and, at the CIMB Classic, T2. This putter is 32.5 inches, a mainstream length for a guy who has putted with a 28.5-inch junior-sizied putter and a 46-inch long flatstick.

NEW NIKES: Nike Golf is expanding its Method line of putters with the Method Core Weighted putters, which use fixed weights on the heel and sole to provide optimal weighting for different lengths of putter. The weights lower the center of gravity of the putter and move the center away from the face.

“Most people don’t realize that they are about three-tenths of an inch above the ground at impact,” Nike clubmaker David Franklin said. “You need to keep the center of gravity of the putter as low as you can so that it never gets higher than the CG of the ball. This stops the putter from driving the ball down and creating backspin on the ball.”

WINNER’S BAG: Nick Watney at the CIMB Classic:
Driver: Titleist 910D3 (Mitsubishi Diamana White Board, 10.5 degrees)
Fairway woods: Titleist 910F (15, 19 degrees)
Irons: Titleist AP2 (3-PW)
Wedges: Titleist Vokey Design SM4 (50, 60 degrees) 
Putter: Titleist Scotty Cameron GSS
Ball: Titleist Pro V1x

After a fourth-place FedExCup finish and a tie for 10th in Vegas, Nick Watney took his momentum overseas, winning the CIMB Classic by one shot over Robert Garrigus and Bo Van Pelt. Watney racked up 11 birdies Sunday at The MINES Resort & Golf Club, putting himself on 59 watch late in the round.

The 31-year-old needed a birdie on the final hole to join the sub-60 club but took a bogey that took 59 out of play and put victory in doubt. In the final pairing, Garrigus closed birdie-birdie to get close while an identical finish would have put Van Pelt into a playoff. Instead, the Hoosier bridied the 17th but found a greenside bunker with his approach on No. 18. Tiger Woods rebounded from Saturday's back-nine 39 with a Sunday 63 that left him in a fourth-place tie with Brendon de Jonge and Chris Kirk at 19 under.

WATCH VIDEO:

• Monday Backspin: Amanda Balionis looks back at the 2012 CIMB Classic  
• CIMB Classic: Round 4 Recap  
• Nick Watney interview  

The top 30 in FedExCup points are headed to East Lake for the TOUR Championship by Coca-Cola. Here’s a look at Robert Garrigus, one of the 30 players who will contend for the FedExCup title.

SCENARIOS TO WIN FEDEXCUP: For Garrigus to win the FedExCup, he MUST win the TOUR Championship and have the following scenarios fall into place:
> Rory McIlroy (No. 1) finishes in a 3-way tie for 12th or worse
> Tiger Woods (No. 2) finishes 5th or worse
> Nick Watney (No. 3) finishes in a 3-way tie for 3rd or worse
> Phil Mickelson (No. 4) finishes 3rd or worse
> Brandt Snedeker (No. 5) finishes in a 3-way tie for 2nd or worse
> Louis Oosthuizen (No. 6) finishes T-2 or worse
> *Tie for the FedExCup
Click here for scenarios of every player

SEASON IN REVIEW: Garrigus was all smiles on Sunday at Crooked Stick where he played his way into the top 30 in the FedExCup standings. He shot all four rounds in the 60s and tied for fourth, which enabled him to move from No. 31 to 20th and earn his first start at East Lake. Garrigus had three runner-up finishes in 2012. -- Helen Ross

PATH TO TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP: Here’s a look at Garrigus’s results in the first three events of the 2012 FedExCup Playoffs:
Click here for Playoffs Tracker of every player.

Tournament
Tournament finish	T-71	T-42	T-4
FEC ranking after event	31st	31st	20th

PREVIOUS FEDEXCUP FINISHES: Here is how Garrigus has finished in previous Playoffs appearances:

	2011	2010	2009	2008	2007
FedExCup finish	74th	107th	109th	-	96th

EAST LAKE HISTORY: Garrigus is making his first start at East Lake.

ALBERS’ QUICK TAKE: Fred Albers, on-course correspondent for SiriusXM PGA TOUR Radio, provides a quick look at Garrigus:
He is scary long and has another putter change. We have seen Robert with a short putter, a long putter and now the "tweener." Probably should have won the RBC Canadian Open. Has worked hard on physical conditioning this year. A very approachable, likeable and talented player.

WATCH: Birdie helps Garrigus secure spot at East Lake

PLAYER PAGE: Click here for more on Robert Garrigus

Now it’s your turn. How do you think Garrigus will fare at the TOUR Championship by Coca-Cola?

By John Schwarb, PGATOUR.COM

Everyone knows that Robert Garrigus is crazy long throughout the bag. But the shortest club was key to landing a trip to the TOUR Championship by Coca-Cola.

Garrigus and Ryan Moore were the only two players to enter the BMW Championship outside the top 30 in the FedExCup standings, then play their way inside at Crooked Stick. Only the top 30 advance to the Playoffs finale at East Lake.

Chambers/Getty Images

Robert Garrigus' conventional-length Odyssey putter helped him get to the Playoffs finale.

A T4 finish at the BMW lifted Garrigus from 31st to 20th, and during the week he was 11th in strokes-gained putting and T4 in putts per round with an Odyssey White Ice 2-Ball V-Line putter that went into the bag just the week before at the Deutsche Bank Championship.

Garrigus’ key round at Crooked Stick was a Saturday 66 that featured no bogeys and an eagle-birdie-birdie run from the 15th through 17th holes.

“I've been really comfortable with that putter, that new putter, and I just needed (Saturday) to see one go in, and I finally got the eagle putt to go in,” Garrigus said. “That was a big one. And then the next two putts on 16 and 17 were right in the jar…”

On Sunday, Garrigus clinched his finish with a 69 that included a four-birdie streak on the back nine, starting with this 60-foot bomb at the 13th.

The putter is a conventional-length model, which is also a twist for Garrigus. He famously putted for a while – and won – with a 28.5-inch putter that looked like something out of a junior’s bag. Earlier this year he went completely the other way with a Scotty Cameron Big Sur 46-inch long putter.

Now, 33 inches looks like the magic number.

“You know, I really decided to do something I've never done before, and that's go to a regular length putter,” Garrigus said. “If I could just stroke it under pressure the way I wanted to, it was going to be good because I've never tried it before. It's 33 inches, and it's rolling great.”

SERGIO’S STUFF: Sergio Garcia, heading to East Lake next week at 12th in the FedExCup standings, had two new TaylorMade ATV wedges made to refresh his arsenal. He had a 50-degree (bent to 51) and a 58-degree (bent to 56) made, then he came by the company’s truck at Crooked Stick to put the finishing touches on the wedges with a personal grind giving slight relief to the heel and toe.

BITS: Hunter Mahan switched from the Ping Nome mallet putter that he had success with earlier in the season to a more conventional heel-toe blade at the BMW. He’s moving on to the TOUR Championship by Coca-Cola, one of three players (Phil Mickelson, Steve Stricker) to qualify for the Playoffs finale in all six years of the FedExCup. … Nineteen of the 30 players at East Lake will play Titleist balls. … Argentina’s Tommy Cocha won the inaugural PGA TOUR Latinoamerica event with a Titleist bag of equipment and a ProV1x ball.

WINNER’S BAG: Rory McIlroy at the BMW Championship:
Driver: Titleist 913D3 (Mitsubishi Diamana proto 70X, 8.5 degrees)
Fairway woods: Titleist 913Fd (13.5, 18 degrees)
Irons: Titleist MB (3-9)
Wedges: Titleist Vokey Design SM4 (46, 54, 60 degrees) 
Putter: Scotty Cameron GSS 
Ball: Titleist Pro V1x

By Brian Wacker, PGATOUR.COM

If you ask Robert Garrigus, he shouldn’t have lost the RBC Canadian Open -- and it shouldn’t have been close.

“I should have won this golf tournament by seven shots. Everybody knows that,” said Garrigus, who finished a shot back of winner Scott Piercy. “If I could have just made a putt today. I don't know. It just wasn't starting on my lines. I hit a couple too firm and then I hit a couple too soft. I just couldn't get the feel for it.”

Garrigus took 33 putts in the final round and didn’t make a birdie until the 14th hole.

Two holes later, he gave it back with a bogey.

On the 18th hole, Garrigus had a 14-foot birdie putt to force a playoff with Piercy. He missed that one, too.

“I had so many easy putts today,” Garrigus said. “I hit it 6 feet on every hole it felt like today.”

He just didn’t make many.

Garrigus, who used to play with the shortest putter in the game at just 28 1/2 inches, switched to a long putter earlier this year. He said Sunday he’s still getting used to it.

It showed, especially on the 16th hole, where he missed a 7-footer for par to drop out of the lead. Two holes later, his birdie attempt came up short.

“It's a lot of fun to be able to do what we do, and that's what we live for, having to birdie the last hole to get in the playoff or win the golf tournament,” Garrigus said. “That's all I can ask. I just left it a bit short, and I'm sure I'll be thinking about that one.”