Weekly Recap: Off Higgo-s!

Garrick Higgo has an easy name to remember, a headline writer's dream, which works out well because we should be hearing and seeing it often in the years ahead.

The 22-year-old from South Africa made sure of that by winning just his second start in a PGA Tour event, the Palmetto Championship at Congaree, by one stroke over six other golfers, including a crestfallen Chesson Hadley. Higgo now is exempt on the PGA Tour through the 2022-23 season, is eligible for the upcoming FedEx Cup Playoffs and has zoomed to No. 39 in the world rankings.

We had heard bits and pieces about this youngster taking the European Tour by storm with three titles in eight months to approach the top 50 of the OWGR. But as we know all too well, there's European-Tour-good and PGA-Tour-good. (Tommy Fleetwood, why is your face turning red?)

Higgo, who played one season at UNLV in 2018-19, hadn't so much as played a pro tournament in the States or in a major until last month at the PGA Championship, which came on the heels of this third title at the Canary Islands Championship. Just making the cut at the Ocean Course – a tie for 64th -- showed that this was no ordinary foreign import. 

He excelled mostly across the board at Congaree, ranking 13th in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee, 11th in Approach, eighth in Tee-to-Green and 15th in Putting. That will win you some golf tournaments. Even his play around the greens – ranking 40th – wasn't terrible.

Higgo is the first golfer to win one of his first two PGA Tour starts since Jim Benepe in 1988. They are the only two in more than a half-century to do it, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. He's also the first South African age 22 or younger to win on the PGA Tour since someone named Gary Player in 1958.

Higgo already was in the field for this week's U.S. Open, but let's temper our expectations of him. Making the cut would be viewed as another successful week.

To begin with, he's going to have to figure out how to come down off Cloud 9 in a matter of days, preferably by Monday when he gets his first look at Torrey Pines. He had a good answer when asked how he'd celebrate his big victory.

"I think I'll hold it off for a little bit. I'm not going to hold it off, but I'm not going to go crazy tonight," he told reporters in South Carolina. "I'm just going to soak it in, enjoy the moment, see some of my buddies on the plane [the Tour charter to San Diego]. Yeah, it's going to be amazing."

Second, the Ocean Course and Congaree, while not links courses, had some links characteristics. Torrey Pines will be a whole 'nother animal -- a beast, specifically – a long, narrow, rough-filled track in the traditional style of U.S. Opens. Third, the Palmetto field was woefully weak by PGA Tour standards, and his Euro wins were in fields roughly comparable to opposite-field events, or worse.

But maybe this is all nitpicking. He sounds quite level-headed for such a young age, with a great approach to being a professional athlete.

"I enjoy playing. I'm a very tough competitor," he said. "I don't really get down on myself. It's a cliche, but I try and stay in the fight. I think I just do that really well. I wouldn't say that there's something that I do that's out of the ordinary which makes me special, but I think I just really -- I think I'm a good competitor, if that makes sense."

It makes perfect sense. Probably for many years to come.

MONDAY BACKSPIN

Chesson Hadley
Hadley was leaking oil all afternoon after carrying a four-stroke lead into Sunday as he eyed his first Tour win since his maiden victory in 2014. He didn't lose a share of the lead till 17, part of a hard-to-watch bogey-bogey-bogey finish. This may have been Hadley's last, best shot at a second win. He's not old, 33, but his game has been bad for years now. He'd made only four of his past 15 cuts coming in, two of them in oppo events, and had fallen to 320th in the world. But he hung on to share second place, his first such finish since the 2018 CIMB Classic, and he'll be in the Travelers field in two weeks.

Bo Van Pelt
Van Pelt is much older than Hadley, 46, and much lower ranked, 620th entering the week. Plagued by shoulder woes, he played only three times in 2016, then sat out 2017 and '18 entirely, and he appeared to be done. But he found a doctor who fixed the shoulder, and he resumed late in 2019. Still, he was in his mid-40s. Entering this week, he had made only 11 cuts in 37 starts since returning to golf. But five of them were in his past eight events. And now he tied for second, his best showing in nine years. So maybe there's a bit of a career renaissance here, and that would be a tidy little holdover till turning 50.

Hudson Swafford
Swafford needed to secure a second 2020-21 win to qualify for the U.S. Open, and he almost got it. He ended a shot out of a playoff. After winning the 2020 Puntacana tournament, he had made only four of his next 18 cuts. But now he's made three in a row, including at the loaded Memorial.

Doc Redman
It's been a largely disastrous year for the 22-year-old former college and amateur star whose career path had not been far from many of today's young superstars. Redman ended 2020 at 89th in the world rankings (after notching a runner-up and two third-place finishes across 2019 and '20), but had fallen outside the top-150 entering the Palmetto. Now he has another runner-up, plus his second top-10 in four starts, all of which were made cuts. It just might be the highs and lows of being a young golfer on Tour.

Tyrrell Hatton
Hatton had fallen outside the top-10 OWGR with limited and so-so play in 2021. Now a week before the U.S. Open, he found something. He tied for second, his best PGA Tour showing since winning at Bay Hill in 2020. He's back inside the top-10.

Jhonattan Vegas
Vegas was the sixth golfer to finish as runner-up. This came on the heels of him qualifying for the U.S. Open at the stacked Brookside qualifier on Monday. He's now made 11 of 13 cuts in 2021 with two other top-10s, though one of the MCs was in January at Torrey Pines.

Matt Fitzpatrick
After missing two of his past three cuts, Fitzpatrick climbed the leaderboard on Sunday to tie for 10th, his fifth worldwide top-10 in 13 starts in 2021. One of them was at THE PLAYERS, he made the cut at the Masters and also he had a top-25 at the PGA Championship. So he has to feel good heading to Torrey Pines.

Erik van Rooyen
The South African tied for 10th, snapping a string of four straight missed cuts in what has largely been a down year. It ended a great week for van Rooyen, who shared medalist honors at the big Brookside U.S. Open qualifier with Chez Reavie. He finished in the top-25 at last year's Open at Winged Foot.

Dustin Johnson
It wasn't a great week for the world No. 1, but then again his tie for 10th was his first top-10 since February. It might be viewed as good timing going into the U.S. Open. But it could've been so much better if not for that pesky little triple on 16 on Sunday, which left him three strokes behind Higgo. Ouch.

Wilco Nienaber
The "other" young South African in the Palmetto field – and at 21, even younger than Higgo – Nienaber showed that his hoopla is real, too. He tied for 14th and will also be in the U.S. Open field, thanks to being the Order of Merit leader on the Sunshine Tour. Nienaber won his first pro tournament just last month, and there's no reason we shouldn't see more of him in the weeks and months ahead.

Harris English
English took a step back after winning the Tournament of Champions at the start 2021, but he has been rounding into form again. Even though a terrible Sunday dropped him from second place and playing in the final pairing into a tie for 14th, it was his third top-25 in six starts, one of which came at the Masters.

Bill Haas
The former world No. 12 had plummeted into the 700s and had missed seven of nine cuts in 2021. So his first top-25 – a tie for 25th, to be precise – is noteworthy. But it likely doesn't signal much of a transformation in his game.

Ian Poulter
A tie for 25th extends a good run for Poulter during this Ryder Cup year. He was coming off a tie for third at Colonial. He also was top-30 at both the Masters and PGA. He now heads to his 16th U.S. Open, where he's missed the cut the past two years. But as we mentioned, it's a Ryder Cup year.

Sungjae Im
Im had missed three of four cuts coming in, so a made cut, even a tie for 35th, was welcome. He had top-20s at THE PLAYERS and the PGA, sandwiching a missed cut at the Masters.

Tommy Fleetwood
Fleetwood's uninspired play continued with a tie for 35th. He had missed cuts in three of his previous five stroke-play starts, including THE PLAYERS and the PGA.

Kevin Kisner
Even in his home state, even in a weak field, Kisner's woes continued. He missed the cut to fall out of the top-50 in the world rankings for the first time since the beginning of 2017.

Brooks Koepka
Koepka missed the cut in his first start since his PGA Championship runner-up to Phil  Mickelson. As we know all to well, this means nothing for his chances to win a third U.S. Open title this week.

Lucas Glover
The "Congaree Ambassador" graciously cleared a path for another golfer to play the weekend by missing the cut. At a course never seen before by most of the golfers. It stood to reason that Glover had a big advantage. So much for reason.