Garrick Higgo came upon within the PGA Championship should you’re not early, you are late.
Higgo arrived on the primary tee field at what he estimated to be 30 seconds after his listed tee time and was assessed a two-stroke penalty.
His first swing of the championship turned out to be his third due to the penalty.
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The South African nonetheless managed a 1-under 69, though he may solely marvel how simply that might have been a 67, the low rating of the morning wave.
If not for the penalty he would now be tied on the high of the leaderboard with Aussie star Min Woo Lee, Aldrich Potgieter, Stephan Jaeger, and Ryo Hisatsun.
“I used to be there on time,” Higgo mentioned.
“However the rule is should you’re one second late, you’re late.”
As a consequence of tee off at Aronimink Golf Membership at 7.18am (native time), he was informed as he arrived he had been penalised.
Garrick Higgo speaks about his penalty for being late. Twitter
The principles state a golfer have to be on the tee field and able to play on the assigned time, whatever the order. He was third to play.
Higgo mentioned it is the primary time he is been penalised for being late to the tee field. The excellent news? If he had been 5 minutes late, he would have been disqualified.
“It wasn’t a shock,” he mentioned.
“I used to be late. I imply, my caddie was yelling at me to get to the tee.”
The 27-year-old stored his composure and went on to “par” the opening gap, however his 4 grew to become a 6.
“Clearly, it wasn’t nice,” he mentioned of being penalised.
“I knew that I firstly needed to get a driver, and I’ve to hit a tee shot. It was OK. I simply sort of targeted on what I must do… I wasn’t going to surrender and shoot 80. There was just one factor that I may do, and that was make birdies and pars and hit it the place I wished to hit it.”
Higgo mentioned the entire episode made him deal with making birdies within the first spherical. He did simply that, ending with 4 birdies and a bogey for a 69.
He tried to argue his case to officers after the spherical, to no avail. He even had the assist of his taking part in companions. He mentioned he believed he was inside the time restrict, but conceded he may need been a bit tardy and grudgingly accepted his destiny.
Garrick Higgo of South Africa walks the sixteenth gap alongside caddie Austin Gaugert. Getty
He attributed it to his informal method to being late, although he is not the kind who arrives 10 minutes early. He mentioned he may have added time for his stroll from the vary to the placing inexperienced and finally the primary tee.
“I used to be clearly too informal,” he mentioned.
Higgo managed to erase the two-stroke penalty on the entrance 9. He rolled in a birdie putt from about 35 toes on the par-4 third gap and made a 10-foot birdie putt on the par-5 ninth to get again to even par.
After a bogey on the tenth, Higgo made birdie on the 2 par-3 holes on the again 9, with a 27-foot putt on the 14th and hitting to only over 5 toes and making the putt on the seventeenth.
“I performed nice, made lots of good swings, made some good putts,” mentioned Higgo, who has two PGA Tour victories and 6 worldwide wins.
“Did the whole lot that I may do.”
