Garrick Higgo, a 27-year-old South African golfer with long, dirty blonde hair he sometimes keeps in a man bun, showed up at the first tee yesterday at 7:18 a.m., he insists.
His tee time for the first round of the PGA Championship at Aronimink was 7:18 a.m. Had it become 7:18 and some seconds? Sure. Less than 30 seconds, he claims. It certainly hadn’t turned to 7:19.
The exact timing remains unclear. A PGA of America official told The Athletic it did not have Higgo’s exact arrival time. ESPN recorded it to be 7:19, for what that is worth.
No matter. PGA of America Rule 5.3a states:
📝 “A starting time set by the Committee is treated as an exact time (for example, 9 am means 9:00:00 am, not any time until 9:01 am).”
So as Higgo ran up to the first tee, putter in hand and his caddie and everyone else waiting for him, the announcer handed Higgo his scorecard and informed him he was given a two-stroke penalty.
When he went out for his round he hit just 67 shots, which would have been good enough for the first round co-lead if not for the two-shot penalty dropping him to 1 under par.
