{"id":702920,"date":"2026-05-29T20:39:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T20:39:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/702920\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T20:39:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T20:39:14","slug":"pga-tour-caddie-lands-new-job-days-after-being-sacked-over-rules-blunder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/702920\/","title":{"rendered":"PGA Tour caddie lands new job days after being sacked over rules blunder"},"content":{"rendered":"

Garrick Higgo’s former caddie Austin Gaugert has landed a new job, days after being sacked<\/a> by the South African.<\/p>\n

Higgo hit the headlines during the 2026 PGA Championship<\/a> at Aronimink Golf Club in Pennsylvania.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 27-year-old arrived a matter of seconds late to his first round tee time and was docked two shots.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The blunder ended up costing Higgo significantly as he missed the cut by one stroke.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Garrick <\/p>\n

Garrick Higgo<\/p>\n

Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n

Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n

Higgo then went viral for his bizarre defence, telling reporters: “I was there on time, but late… if you think about it, I was there on time.”<\/p>\n

Last week, Golfweek reported that Higgo had made the decision to part ways with Gaugert and replace the looper with his good buddy Nick Cavendish-Pell for this week’s Charles Schwab Challenge<\/a> at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One caddie told GolfMagic that the split had likely been coming for a while<\/a>, regardless of the mix-up at the PGA Championship.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gaugert took the sacking on the chin, explaining in a statement that he took full responsibility for what transpired.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Dylan <\/p>\n

Dylan Wu has hired Austin Gaugert<\/p>\n

Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n

Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n

He has already found employment as he was spotted on Dylan Wu’s bag on Thursday at the Charles Schwab Challenge.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wu carded a level par opening in the first round to six strokes adrift of the leaders.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wu is struggling for form on the PGA Tour this year and arrived in Texas having missed five straight cuts in a row.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What happened? Show X Embedded Content<\/p>\n

Loading this video will expose you to potential cookies and tracking by the provider<\/p>\n

Higgo was denied a share of the overnight first round lead at the 2026 PGA Championship after receiving a two-shot penalty for arriving late to his tee time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Although could be seen on the nearby putting green, tournament officials said Higgo was “not within the area defined as the starting point at his starting time”.<\/p>\n

Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n

Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n

He was given the penalty under Rule 5.3a.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Higgo explained that he had not heard his caddie yelling at him and when he arrived to the tee one of his playing partners had already hit their first shot.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I always cut it fine and this morning was pretty cold,” Higgo, who was still on the practice putting green, told Sky Sports.<\/p>\n

“I never want to get to the tee 10 minutes before and get cold when I have to hit a driver.<\/p>\n

“Usually I hit five putts before I go to the tee and went there thinking I had five minutes – but I obviously did not.<\/p>\n

Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n

Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n

“I hit one putt, I thought I heard my name, my caddie was yelling at me and I ran down.”<\/p>\n

Show X Embedded Content<\/p>\n

Loading this video will expose you to potential cookies and tracking by the provider<\/p>\n

Had Higgo been five minutes late, he would have been disqualified.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He was due to tee off at 7:18am alongside former champion Shaun Micheel and Michael Brennan.<\/p>\n

Higgo argued his case on the course and in scoring but the decision wasn’t overturned.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He missed the cut by one stroke. England’s Aaron Rai pulled clear in the final round to win his first major title.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n

Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n

Last week, Golfweek were the first to report Higgo and Gaugert split.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gaugert laer released a statement of his own<\/a>, explaining that Higgo handled the situation with “professionalism and class”.<\/p>\n

“I want to say something about the incident with Garrick Higgo being late to the tee on Thursday at the PGA Championship,” he wrote.<\/p>\n

“As a caddie, you try to do everything you can to prepare your player for competition and I fell short of that.<\/p>\n

“Garrick was understanding throughout the situation and handled it with professionalism and class.<\/p>\n

Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n

Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n

“This has happened to players before and will again. Garrick handled a difficult situation with grace, and I wish him nothing but success moving forward.<\/p>\n

“After working with Garrick and finding the highest success in caddying, Garrick has become a better friend to me than just a boss. I will always be grateful for that.”<\/p>\n

Subscribe to our Newsletter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Garrick Higgo’s former caddie Austin Gaugert has landed a new job, days after being sacked by the South…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":702921,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,327835,755,1747,85],"class_list":["post-702920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-garrick-higgo","tag-golf","tag-pga-tour","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=702920"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702920\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/702921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=702920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=702920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=702920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}