Garrick Higgo's Surreal Post-Round Interview Was Must-See TV

Garrick Higgo's bizarre tee time tardiness led to a strangely compelling interview with Marty Smith.

Garrick Higgo is informed of his two-stroke penalty before teeing off . | ESPN

Nate Bargatze had a great line about the golf course when he called it “the most rule-following place on Earth.” Countless weekend duffers headed out to their local municipal have encouraged the wrath of starters who see a great difference in 10:27 a.m. and 10:30ish. They'll encounter a side eye or some passive-aggressiveness but they are usually sent on their way with a charge to catch up to the group ahead of them.

At the professional level, an inability to show up on time is much more punitive.

Garrick Higgo, playing in the second PGA Championship of his career, posted a double bogey on his first hole Thursday, then rebounded by playing 3 under through the final 17 to post a 69. But a 67 would have made him the leader in the clubhouse. It would have put him atop the leaderboard with seven others, including Scottie Scheffler after the first day of action ... had he showed up to the major challenge on time.

But he didn't. His tee time was 7:18 a.m., crucially not 7:19, when he arrived on the tee box. And so he was assessed a two-stroke penalty. The 3 under he earned turned into a 1 under that he also, by letter of the law, earned.

The PGA Championship may not have as strong an identity as the other three majors. Perhaps its calling card is that it's where weird stuff happens. Like Scheffler getting arrested two years ago for the crime of turning into a driveway. Or Mito Pereira, now retired, being a fairway found away from an improbable win four years ago. A weekend where someone like John Daly can become a forever icon because Nick Price's wife went into labor.

It's not unheard of for the world's best golfers to be tardy to their assigned tee times. Mackenzie Hughes suffered the same two-stroke penalty at the Scottish Open last year. Dustin Johnson showed up late at the 2011 Northern Trust Open. Curtis Luck was disqualified entirely after blowing through the five-minute grace period at a 2023 Korn Ferry Tour event.

But Higgo's situation was bizarre. After spending about 20 minutes unsuccessfully pleading officials for leniency, the South African lefty joined ESPN's Marty Smith for an interview and explained what happened. That's when the television broadcast took a dramatic turn, complete with spot-shadow technology showing Higgo wandering off the tee box over to the practice green to sneak in one more preparatory putt. It was a costly decision and his raw commentary to Smith revealed a man who seemed to know what he should say yet also one unable to stifle what he really wanted to say.

“I was obviously there on time, but late,” Higgo said.

“It's unfortunate that golf has these kinds of situations where things, we get penalized for things that ... but you know, it is a rule and I obviously broke the rule,” he added.

Smith then tried to drill through what felt like conflicting messaging to glean whether Higgo agreed with the ruling.

“Probably not, but it's fine,” Higgo said. “I was late. I mean one second is tough. One second is tough to define.” He proceeded to say that he's had to wait to tee off and routinely tells starters that it's been over a minute since his scheduled tee time.

Now, there's a little bit of True Detective's Rust Cohle in there but there's no need to be too hard on Higgo. He was understandably bummed and wondering what could have been after the strong showing had to be salt in the wound. But time is actually very easy to define.

What's interesting here is that Higgo seemed to have a different line of commentary with some time to think about it. Our Bob Harig wrote a story where the golfer gave some more conventional answers—the kind one might expect from athletes—where he didn't dive too much into theoretical metaphysics.

And therein lies the value of immediate post-round television interviews. Smith is as skilled as anyone at these and didn't shy away from getting details. Or letting Higgo speak, even if there seemed to be some muddled thoughts converging into one. It's why networks continue to use them. Sure, maybe 95% of them tell us nothing and are riddled with cliches and platitudes. The other 5% make up for all those by tapping into true emotion and honesty.

Golf is a novel in real time. Majors have many chapters. Odds are that Higgo won't be the main character come Sunday evening. One could argue he was Thursday. And just the possibility that he could be in contention with this situation hanging around in the background tapestry is incredibly compelling.

Higgo is 27 and far from a household name. This was probably his introduction to casual golf fans. It's probably not the one he wanted yet his interview with Smith—in addition to being entertaining—dripped with humanity. This is a guy whose dream inched a lot closer to reality, only to be pulled back a bit in a manner of seconds. He reacted how everyone would react and ESPN let him process all of that to paint the true reality of what he was going through, for better or worse.

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