Inside Garrick Higgo's bizarre (and costly) PGA Championship start

Garrick Higgo arriving to the first tee at the PGA Championship on Thursday. ESPN NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. — Garrick Higgo , a 27-year-old golfer from South Africa, is about as chill as a golfer could be.

But early Thursday morning, in the chilly air out here in affluent suburban Philadelphia, a feeling of sickness came over him. Higgo was on the Aronimink Golf Club ’s practice putting green, hard by the clubhouse and about 15 feet above the course’s elevated first tee, when the starter said these words: “From Memphis, Tenn. , the 2003 PGA Championship winner, Shaun Micheel.

” The first player in Higgo’s threesome had been summoned to the tee, and Higgo’s two-shot penalty already was in motion. Rule 5. 3a.

Everything else is commentary. From down below, Higgo could hear his American caddie yelling urgently, “C’mon, c’mon, c’mon. ” It didn’t matter.