{"id":669646,"date":"2026-05-14T20:20:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T20:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/669646\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T20:20:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T20:20:09","slug":"pga-2026-garrick-higgo-receives-2-shot-penalty-for-arriving-late-to-tee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/669646\/","title":{"rendered":"PGA 2026: Garrick Higgo receives 2-shot penalty for arriving late to tee"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. \u2013 Garrick Higgo insisted that he arrived to the first tee on time Thursday to start his PGA Championship.<\/p>\n

The official\u2019s watch said otherwise.<\/p>\n

The two-time PGA Tour winner was slapped with a rare two-shot penalty for showing up late to his first-round tee time at Aronimink.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was there on time,\u201d Higgo said, \u201cbut the rule is, if you\u2019re one second late, you\u2019re late. So if you think about it, I was there on time, if you know what I mean.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not exactly.<\/p>\n

Higgo was set to tee off at 7:18 a.m. ET alongside Shaun Micheel and Michael Brennan. The ESPN broadcast showed Higgo walking down the hill to the first tee at 7:19 a.m. \u2013 a minute late \u2013 as Micheel struck the first tee shot for the group and Brennan stepped in to tee up his ball.<\/p>\n

An official informed Higgo at that point that he\u2019d be penalized two shots under Rule 5.3a. He wound up making double bogey on the hole.<\/p>\n

Had he been more than five minutes late to the tee, Higgo would have been disqualified.<\/p>\n

The PGA rules committee said that Higgo was on the practice putting green but \u201cnot within the area defined as the starting point at his starting time.\u201d That area, according to the rules sheet, is by the rope, gallery stakes and bike fencing near the first and 10thtees.<\/p>\n

Higgo is believed to be the first player since David Lipsky in 2019 to receive a penalty for tardiness.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just said to myself, it\u2019s going to be a great opportunity to shoot a low score,\u201d Higgo said.<\/p>\n

The South African responded by going 3 under the rest of the way, carding a 1-under 69 to sit just two shots off the early lead \u2013 an impressive bounce back considering the unusual circumstances to start his round.<\/p>\n

Afterward, Higgo was seen arguing his case with the rules official in the scoring tent, trying to gain clarity. Higgo said that his playing partners also defended him, but he later admitted that he knew that he was running late and that his caddie was \u201cyelling at me to get to the tee.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you know me, then you know I am very casual and laid back,\u201d he said. \u201cI thought I had time. I was obviously too casual, yeah.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"2026<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Follow the first round of the PGA from Aronimink Golf Club.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. \u2013 Garrick Higgo insisted that he arrived to the first tee on time Thursday to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":669647,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,82],"class_list":["post-669646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=669646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669646\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/669647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=669646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=669646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=669646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}