Patrick Carrigan

Carrigan played golf "a little" as a kid, but didn't start playing regularly until his parents moved to a golf course when he was 13. His dad was a scratch golfer and got Patrick and his brother started.
The 2015 U.S. Senior Open will be Carrigan's 10th USGA championship (three U.S. Amateurs, four U.S. Mid-Amateurs, one U.S. Senior Amateur, and two U.S. Senior Opens). His best result was making it to the Round of 16 at the 2006 U.S. Mid-Amateur. Carrigan says he has won, "about 10 tournaments, such as city amateurs," but didn't earn his first until he was 44. His good friend, Ron Mueller, will be his caddie for the championship. An unusual thing in amateur golf, Mueller has been on his bag for 20 years.
His immediate family members include his wife, Carmen; sons, Patrick and Casey; and daughter, Megan. His sons are both in their mid-30s. Megan, who he and Carmen adopted, is 10, and Carrigan says, "she is going to be the best golfer of all my kids." He had a third son who died four years ago.
Carrigan has been an insurance broker for 35 years. His hobbies include playing basketball, watching movies and doing crossword puzzles. He played baseball and softball until he was about 35.
In the summer of 2010, a small plane crashed into his golf cart when he was playing at Los Serranos Golf Course in Chino, Calif. Carrigan says this about the crash: "Fortunately I was able to exit the cart about three seconds prior to impact." He was getting ready to start a round with his friend when he noticed a group of people running from the nearest green. At first he thought maybe a golf ball was heading for the green, but he knew people wouldn't run like that from a shot. Then he thought maybe it was an animal like a coyote. Then he saw the plane's wing. It was about 100 yards away at that point (it had run out of gas). Instead of driving the cart away, Carrigan got out of the cart and ran. The plane touched down just in front of the green and bounced over the green shearing a tree completely before crashing into the front left of the cart and then into a flagpole, about 20 feet behind the cart, that ultimately stopped the plane. He was roughly about 40-50 feet from the cart when the plane made contact. The pilot of the small one-engine plane had no injuries. Carrigan's clubs weren't damaged, so he and his friend got another cart and teed off immediately to avoid a delay.