Late arrival sees Garrick Higgo handed rare penalty at US PGA Championship

Garrick Higgo admitted he was “obviously too casual” as he fell victim to a rare two-shot penalty for being late to the tee on day one at the US PGA Championship.

When Rory McIlroy famously almost missed his tee time for the singles at the 2012 Ryder Cup, that was due to a timezone mix-up, but Higgo revealed he had done everything “on time” on Thursday morning at Aronimink Golf Club.

Despite that, he turned up for his 7.18am start with the announcements already being made and as such, incurred the two-shot penalty on his opening hole.

“I always cut it fine and this morning was pretty cold,” he said. “I never want to get to the tee ten minutes before and be cold when I have to hit a driver far and straight, hopefully.

“I usually hit five putts before I go to the tee. My caddie dropped my Trackman in the locker and I went to the putting green thinking that I still have about five minutes and I obviously did not.

“I hit one putt and then I heard my name. My caddie was yelling at me, I ran down and got a two-shot penalty."

To his credit, the three-time DP World Tour winner hit his drive straight down the middle on the first and kept the damage to the penalty as he recorded a double bogey.

He would only drop one shot off the club face at the tenth, making birdies at the third, ninth, 14th and 17th to sit at one under after round one.

“As soon as he gave me the card and said I had a two-shot penalty I was like, ‘it’s fine, whatever’. I’ll sort it out later whether it is or it isn’t,” he said. “At the time I wasn’t sure if it was and I asked a rules official about it in the fairway and he said that I was late.

“From then on, I know that I’m even par even though I’ve got a penalty. I’m going to play a round and I know that even par around here is a good score so if I ended up shooting two over, it was OK.”