Rising star Garrick Higgo “delighted” with first major start

Garrick Higgo has said that he feels comfortable competing against the best players in the world following the first major appearance of his career.

The hot prospect made his first-ever major championship start at Kiawah Island’s Ocean Course last week to conclude a magical month.

Higgo, 22, racked up two wins in three weeks on the European Tour at the beginning of May, taking his total tour wins on Europe’s premier tour to three – his first coming at the Open de Portugal in September 2020.

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The South African star, who also has two wins on his native Sunshine Tour, has enjoyed a string of positive results since turning pro in 2019 and has caught the eye of the golf world as a result.

When Higgo was presented with his first opportunity to tackle a major championship, he impressed, making the cut and finishing his week with a sub-70 round to finish in a tie for 64.

“I am delighted that I made the cut and then to shoot such a good score on the Sunday just shows that I can play low scores over a major course,” a delighted Higgo told bunkered.co.uk. “That was the biggest thing that I learned from this week. It gave me a good feeling going into the weekend knowing that a lot of big names missed the cut and I was still in.

“The whole experience was completely different to anything I’ve ever experienced before. I haven’t really played much in front of big crowds, so to go from nothing to 10,000 people was quite the adjustment. But, I enjoyed it. It is definitely what I want to be playing throughout my career.”

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With his two wins this season, Higgo sits seventh on the European Tour’s Race to Dubai and has rocketed himself up to No.52 in the Official World Golf Rankings.

“I understood during that week that my game is good enough to compete,” Higgo added. “I just need to keep doing what I do. It’s easy enough to get distracted at major and you need to tell yourself not to get phased by all of the people and what it means. I think I did a good job of that but I’ll only get better at that the more I play.”

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“My putter was a bit cold the first two days but then it was on fire again. I think subconsciously it was a bit of nerves as I didn’t know what to expect on the greens for the first few days. You always hear how fast and tough it’s going to be, but the greens weren’t really that difficult. The course itself was the hardest I’ve played in a long time.”