Garrick Higgo was penalized two strokes before he even hit his first shot at the 2026 PGA Championship after arriving late to his opening-round tee time. The PGA of America announced the penalty on Thursday, the kind of early setback that can change a scorecard before a player has a chance to settle in.
Higgo was scheduled to tee off at 7:18 a.m. alongside Michael Brennan and Shaun Micheel. After the penalty was applied, he opened with a double bogey on the first hole, then answered with a birdie on the third. Through eight holes, Higgo was 1-over.
The penalty is allowed under Rule 5.3 of the Rules of Golf, which calls for a two-stroke penalty when a player arrives no more than five minutes late to a tee time. Arrive more than five minutes late, and the rule moves from penalty to disqualification.
For Higgo, the result added another difficult chapter to a major record he is still trying to improve. The two-time PGA TOUR winner is making his fourth PGA Championship appearance and is still searching for his first top-40 finish in any major. That makes every stroke matter, and it left little margin for the kind of start he had on Thursday morning.
The mix of the penalty and the early bogeys immediately put him behind the field at a tournament where first-round mistakes are costly. He steadied himself with the birdie at the third hole, but the opening stretch still left him working from behind rather than setting the pace.
The issue now is less about the penalty itself than how much ground Higgo can recover over the rest of the championship. A player can survive a bad hole or even a bad start in a major, but starting with a two-stroke sanction and then giving shots back on the front nine creates a steep climb in a field that rarely offers much room to catch up.
By the time he reached eight holes, Higgo had at least halted the early damage. Whether that is enough to keep his week alive will depend on whether the rest of his round looks more like the birdie on No. 3 or the double bogey that came before it.
