Garrick Higgo

For Garrick Higgo his life would have drastic changes including when he was a kid. When he was 9, he and his two siblings and their parents were in a car accident that took the life of their father, Guillermo. His dad was very important to him, he had learned the game from his dad from the age of 2. They played in Pecanwood, in the North West Province of South Africa, less than an hour from their home in Johannesburg. Garrick was the golfing sibling, and his love of the game brought him closer to his father. "He was a very good cricketer," he said of Guillermo. "He was 6'10 I think, so he was really, really big. My uncle is like 6'11" so, yeah, we're a big family. I'm not that big. My brother is very big, though."
His earliest memories would just be when he was really, really little. "I would just go with my dad. I just really loved golf. I loved going with him. It was kind of our thing." The family recovered and all are doing well thanks to all of the family sticking together and supporting one another. After the accident, Garrick kept playing golf and his game improved. Higgo started focusing on golf at age 13 after breaking his elbow playing rugby. He plays golf left-handed but is naturally right-handed. Became the top amateur from South Africa by age 17. Attended Paul Roos Gymnasium in Stellenbosch, South Africa, and the University of Nevada-Las Vegas in 2017 and in 2018, turned professional during his sophomore year at UNLV. Higgo became the only South African to qualify and play in both the U.S. Amateur and U.S. Junior Amateur in the same year in 2016. Higgo reached the semifinals of the 2017 U.S. Junior Amateur, qualifying him for the International Team in the inaugural Junior Presidents Cup.
Higgo turned professional in early 2019 and won twice in his first full season on the Sunshine Tour, at the Sun City Challenge, and the season-ending Tour Championship. He also recorded a runner-up finish in the Challenge Tour co-sanctioned Cape Town Open during the 2019/20 season and finished 6th on the Order of Merit.
Higgo secured a place on the Challenge Tour for the 2020 season by making the cut at the European Tour Qualifying School. In September, he won the Open de Portugal, a dual-ranking event on the European and Challenge Tours, shooting a bogey-free final round of 65 to win by one shot, and gain a one-year exemption on the European Tour. Played in 15 European Tour events making nine cuts with three top-ten finishes. Was 60th in the Race to Dubai
2021 Notes: He started the year 90th on the Official World Golf Ranking, which would play an important role in how his year would turn out. He started the year with full status on the European Tour and he thought that would be the tour he played on for the whole year, but that would all change. Was T-4th at the Austrian Golf Open. In April, Higgo secured his second European Tour victory at the Gran Canaria Lopesan Open. He won the event with a 25-under par total, beating Maximillan Kieffer by three shots. Two weeks later, Higgo won again at the Canary Islands Championship, a final score of 27-under-par 257 saw him win by 6 shots ahead of Maverick Antcliff. With the win he climbed up to 51st in the Official World Golf Ranking, which opened up doors into golf's premier events. Higgo's agent, who lives at Sea Island, Georgia, set him up in a rental house there and introduced him to Tour players like Harris English, Zach Johnson, and Keith Mitchell. He didn't have far to drive to get to the PGA Championship at Kiawah which was his first start in a major championship and on the PGA Tour. He finished T-64th, but for the first time as a professional got to play in front of fans. He went back to Sea Island to keep practicing. By making the cut at the PGA Championship, it helped open the door for Higgo to get a commissioner foreign exemption into the Palmetto Championship at Congaree. In his second PGA Tour start at the Palmetto Championship at Congaree, he played his last seven holes in 3-under, while the leader Chesson Hadley played those holes in 2-over. When Hadley finished bogey-bogey-bogey, Higgo was the winner by a shot. With the victory, Higgo became eligible for PGA Tour membership through the 2022-23 season and also got to play in the 2021 FedExCup Playoffs. Higgo was the first player to win in one of his first two career PGA Tour starts since Jim Benepe won the 1988 Western Open in his PGA Tour debut. So in a matter of just four years, Higgo went from playing in South Africa as a junior to playing in the U.S. Junior Amateur, to playing in the U.S. Amateur to then moving to Las Vegas to attend the University of Las Vegas. After one season with UNLV, he turned professional and in a matter of a year went from playing on the Sunshine Tour in April of 2019 to playing three months later on the European Challenge Tour. In September of 2020, he got his European Tour membership and nine months later just a month after his 22nd birthday earned a spot on the PGA Tour. Before the final round at the Palmetto Championship, Higgo got what he said was a very inspiring phone call from Gary Player in which Player told him that despite being six back going into the final round, Player in his career had made many comebacks in the same position.
With the win at Congaree, Higgo got one of the last invites to play in the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines and just like that found himself on the PGA Tour charter flight to California, instead of driving back to Sea Island. Little did Higgo realize, but the Palmetto win would be his last top-30 finish until November. Not only did Higgo get into the U.S. Open, but also the Open Championship. But starting at the U.S. Open Higgo missed the cut in four of his next five starts including at Torrey Pines and the Open Championship at Royal St. George's. Higgo represented South Africa at the Tokyo Olympic Games and finished T-53rd. In the FedExCup playoffs, Higgo was T-64th at the Northern Trust. Higgo played in a total of eight PGA Tour events, making five cuts with one top-ten. He finished 107th in the FedExCup rankings. Higgo went back to the European Tour but missed the cut at the Italian Open and BMW PGA Championship. He ended his European Tour season with a T-21st finish at the DP World Tour Championship. He played in 18 European Tour events making nine cuts with four top-ten finishes. He finished 29th in the Race to Dubai and won euro648,122.
2022 Notes: Was T-4th at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans with partner Branden Grace. It was his second career top-10 on the PGA Tour and first since winning the 2021 Palmetto Championship at Congaree. His best individual finish was T-18th at the Memorial.