When Garrick Higgo woke up this morning for his tee time at the PGA Championship, little did he know he would start his day with a 2-stroke penalty for being mere seconds late. But he did, and now that his round is done, he is sharing his thoughts on the incident.
“No, it wasn’t a surprise. I was late. I mean, my caddie was yelling at me to get to the tee. I knew it was probably going to happen. I was there at 7:18, 30 seconds. I just said to myself that it’s going to be a great opportunity to shoot a low score,” Higgo told the media.
“I was just trying to get evidence. I feel like any of you would have done the same. It’s kind of—I was there on time, but the rule is, if you’re one second late, you’re late. So if you think about it, I was there on time, if you know what I mean.”
“I was supposed to tee off last in any case, and Shaun—he hadn’t announced Shaun yet. Obviously, he was dealing with finding me, so he probably would have announced Shaun on time. I asked them if I bothered them for being late, and I apologize for that. But they said it was fine. I obviously don’t want to bother anybody, so, yeah.”
Higgo, Shaun Michael, and Michael Brennan were supposed to tee off at 7:18 A.M. (E.S.T.), but Higgo was 30 seconds late to the tee zone. When the golfer received his scorecard from the announcer, he informed him of the two-stroke penalty. Even his groupmates defended the case, but to no avail. However, Higgo was still not discouraged by the penalty.
“I wasn’t going to give up and shoot 80,” he told the reporters.
This attitude helped him cross the finish line for the day on a positive note. He ended the round with a 1-under par on the leaderboard.
Being thirty seconds late and getting a two-stroke penalty for it might seem harsh. And Garrick Higgo had every right to defend his situation with the tournament officials. However, things could have gotten far worse if he had been late by over five minutes.
What’s the worst punishment Garrick Higgo could have faced at the 2026 PGA Championship?
Rule 5.3a in the golf rule book stipulates that the player needs to be in the tee zone at his exact designated tee time. Anything beyond that can lead to stroke penalties. However, if a player is late by five minutes or more, then he will not get the opportunity to tee off.
They will be disqualified from the event. Fortunately, this rule has never been enforced in the history of the PGA Championship. But when it does get implemented, then it will certainly make bigger headlines than what Higgo did.
That said, Higgo is not the first golfer to be penalized for being late. Back in 2011, Dustin Johnson also got penalized by two strokes for the same reason in the Northern Trust Open. However, his situation was a bit different than that of Higgo.
Apparently, the LIV Golf pro’s caddie assumed his tee time was 40 minutes later than when he was actually supposed to start. He had to rush to the tee zone when he was notified of his real tee time.
“I was like, ‘What are you talking about? I’ve never missed a tee time before,” Johnson told the Northern Trust Open official. He ended up missing the cut with a 5-over par on the scoreboard.
Another similar incident occurred in 2019, when David Lipsky was also penalized by two strokes in the PGA Championship. He was late but just made it to the tee zone before the five-minute grace period.
