#New York club pro Rob Labritz: I’m psyched for my next major shot

SAN FRANCISCO — This week’s PGA Championship will be my lucky seventh major championship.

The novelty of playing in a major never wears off, but I definitely feel way more comfortable now. I’ve made the cut twice — last year at Bethpage Black and at Whistling Straits in 2010 — and was the low club pro both of those times.

The 2002 PGA at Hazeltine was my first one, then I played in 2003 at Oak Hill, 2010 at Whistling Straits, 2013 at Oak Hill again, 2016 at Baltusrol and 2019 at Bethpage Black and now 2020 at Harding Park.

In ’02 and ’03, I was kind of like a wide-eyed little kid looking around and saying, ‘Wow, there’s Tiger,’ and things like that. Then you realize that they put on their pants the same way I do. They’re Tour players. I’m 49 years old. I’m a club pro — albeit, I’m a pretty good club pro.

I got into San Francisco on Sunday with my caddie, Todd Luigi, who’s a retired New York cop from Queens. He’s been on my bag for about 11 years. We’ve won a lot of stuff together. We met at Piping Rock in a section championship about 11 years ago and have been thick as thieves ever since.

We took the COVID test on Sunday and we had to wait about an hour or so for the result, so we went to In-N-Out Burger and waited in about a two-hour line around the corner in our car. I ate my two double doubles and my chocolate shake, which was outstanding. I eat very cleanly, but I would probably weigh about 1,000 pounds if we had an In-N-Out Burger in New York.

When we got back to the course and got our negative test results back, we went out and hit some balls and putts and played a quick nine.

On Tuesday, I played with Tommy Fleetwood, Rich Beem and Bernd Wiesberger, and on Wednesday I played the front nine with Webb Simpson. So, I’ve gotten some nice rounds in me, playing with some of the top players.

I love to see what they do. I love to see how they handle situations, how they prepare. Fleetwood was great. I was asking him questions and he answered them like I would answer one of my students.

I feel super-prepared. I’ve been preparing for opportunities like this my whole life. I take care of my body and my game every day. I still have my eyes set on playing some Champions Tour events and senior majors. So, I’m using all this stuff as a learning experience to get comfortable with some of the top players in the world.

On my last night leading into Thursday’s first round, I’ll relax at the hotel, take a deep breath, visualize myself hoisting the Wanamaker Trophy on Sunday, go to sleep and try to visualize myself hitting that first fairway.

I’ve never gone into a tournament where I didn’t think I had a chance to win. I try to see those things down to the smallest detail — what it would be like. I’ve had to alter it this year, because I’ve visualized myself hoisting the Wanamaker and my wife walking out with my son, Ryan, in her arms and tears running down her face. All that stuff I have to recalibrate with no family or fans allowed at the tournament.

My goal is just to go out there and have fun. For me, it’s about hitting that first tee ball into the fairway and having fun from there on in. I’d love to hoist the Wanamaker, I’d love to win the low club professional trophy, I’d love to finish as high as I can to get some invites into some more PGA Tour events, get some sponsor invites.

I know if I go out there and I’m focused and keep my eye on the prize I can do all of that.