THE MODERATOR: Garrick Higgo is with us now at the 108th PGA Championship. Garrick, 69 for you today. How would you summarize your play?
GARRICK HIGGO: I played great, made a lot of good swings, made some good putts. Did everything that I could do.
Q. Garrick, could you just describe what happened. I guess you were on the putting green. Did you know you were a little bit late at that moment?
GARRICK HIGGO: No, I wouldn't have been late if I knew I was running late.
Q. What's your reaction as you're kind of going up and the guy's ushering you up to the tee and whatnot?
GARRICK HIGGO: Obviously, this is the first time it's happened. I wasn't sure quite what. I was just happy they allowed me to tee off, firstly, you know what I mean? I was bummed when he said I had a two-shot penalty.
Q. What is your mindset when you tee off and just try to forget that, knowing it's going to be a two-shot penalty?
GARRICK HIGGO: I just said to myself, it's going to be a great opportunity to shoot a low score.
Q. Just to be 100 percent clear, when you walked to the tee, it was a surprise to you when they said, two-stroke penalty, you're late?
GARRICK HIGGO: No, it wasn't a surprise. I was late. I mean, my caddie was yelling at me to get to the tee.
Q. So by the time you got there, you already knew --
GARRICK HIGGO: I knew it was probably going to happen, yeah.
Q. You were with the PGA, it seemed like, for a bit just now. Were you trying to argue your case a little bit?
GARRICK HIGGO: I was just trying to get evidence. I feel like any of you would have done the same. It's kind of -- I was there on time, but the rule is, if you're one second late, you're late. So if you think about it, I was there on time, if you know what I mean.
Q. I don't quite know. When you say that you were there on time, but late, what --
GARRICK HIGGO: Like, I was there at 7:18, 30 seconds, you know what I mean?
Q. 7:18 was the tee time?
GARRICK HIGGO: Yeah, or something like that, 7:19, whatever it was. I don't know.
Q. How does that work? How are you informed that you are penalized? Who tells you that?
GARRICK HIGGO: As I walked down, the announcer who gave me the scorecard said that I had a two-shot penalty.
Q. And then what is your reaction? Do you just go, Okay, I guess I got to get by?
GARRICK HIGGO: Yeah, I mean, obviously, it wasn't great. I knew that I firstly had to get a driver, and I have to hit a tee shot. It was okay. I just kind of focused on what I need to do. I mean, I wasn't going to give up and shoot 80. There was only one thing that I could do, and that was make birdies and pars and hit it where I wanted to hit it.
Q. When you got to the 1st tee, it wasn't like the other guys in the group were teeing off, right?
GARRICK HIGGO: No, and they -- they actually argued my case for me. Again, I wasn't that late. When I got there -- I was supposed to tee off last in any case, and Shaun -- he hadn't announced Shaun yet. Obviously he was dealing with finding me, so he probably would have announced Shaun on time. I asked them if I bothered them for being late, and I said, I apologize for that. But they said it was fine. I obviously don't want to bother anybody, so, yeah.
Q. What would you say -- even though this was by mere seconds, it appears, were you just a little bit too casual, perhaps? How would you describe the reasoning why you weren't there 10 seconds or 30 seconds sooner?
GARRICK HIGGO: If you know me, then you know I am very casual and laid back. But -- I don't know. I don't want to be there ten minutes early. I know that five minutes is fine. I thought I had time. I was obviously too casual, yeah.
Q. Kind of following up on that, as you look back on your morning, are you able to like pinpoint something of like, oh, I did that too long? Was anything out of sorts that kind of --
GARRICK HIGGO: No. If anything, I could have added maybe five minutes for the walk from the range to the tee, but everything is kind of here. I did everything on time -- like I worked out my warmup from seeing my physio at 5:15, to being in the gym at 5:30, to being on putting green at 6:00, to then being on the range at 6:30.
I left the range at -- I don't know when I left. There's probably video of that. Yeah, I don't know. I just cut it a little fine.
Q. I remember Ernie telling me years ago about the back and forth you and he had when you decided to turn pro. Do you remember some of that?
GARRICK HIGGO: Yeah, I stayed with him for spring break in 2018. I was at UNLV. Yeah, he was a big part of that. He had a lot of belief in my game and said I was good enough. So I went back and turned pro in South Africa.
Q. I think I remember Ernie telling me that your thought was like, this American college scene, it's not really my scene, but I'm not sure if I'm remembering that correctly.
GARRICK HIGGO: I mean, I don't know. I wouldn't put it that way. Just, I don't know, it's tough to think about -- like I haven't thought about that for a while now. It just wasn't -- I enjoy playing golf. I felt like I didn't have enough time to do that there.
If I wanted to get a degree, I'd go somewhere else and just study and get a degree.
Q. If you don't mind, Ernie as a role model, can you talk about that, please?
GARRICK HIGGO: Ernie is great. I see him at the Bear's Club a lot. He's doing great on Champions Tour. He's one of our big inspirations for South Africans. He paved the way. Him, Trevor, Retief, Charl, Gracey, Louis, they're all big inspirations for us.
Q. All of this aside, what did it mean to you to shoot the score you did today? You know, aside from the two-shot penalty, what did that show you at a major championship? What does that rank for you?
GARRICK HIGGO: This week -- last year I played pretty good at Quail. I was tied 7th going into Sunday and shot like 80 or 81. I know my game is good enough. When I get hot, I'm dangerous. Obviously I'm trying to do that a bit more often.
Yeah, I believe that I can shoot good scores. I believe my putting is good enough. I think every part of my game is good enough to compete out here. Obviously this is where we want to compete.
Q. A little bit more mentally, to overcome that, you'd basically be tied for the lead if it wasn't for -- you know.
GARRICK HIGGO: I just told myself that I'm even par, because in the moment as well, I wasn't sure if it was going to be two shots. Just try to like frame it differently so I felt better about it, essentially. Nothing special.
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