RIDGELAND, S.C. – There’s another lefty to deal with on the PGA Tour.
Three weeks after World Golf Hall of Fame member Phil Mickelson stunned the golf world with his win in the PGA Championship, young southpaw Garrick Higgo won the Palmetto Championship at Congaree in just his second start on the PGA Tour.
The 22-year-old South African sensation, a winner three times on the European Tour including this year’s Gran Canaria Lopesan Open in April and the Canary Islands Championship in May, closed with a 3-under-par 68 and took advantage of Chesson Hadley’s late collapse to win.
“It’s amazing,” Higgo said. “I just stayed patient all week. I’m just happy I didn’t have to play in a playoff.”
“I can’t wait to see my family.”
South African @Garrick_Higgo is bringing home the hardware.
pic.twitter.com/xERSRXc6xE
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) June 13, 2021
Higgo, who earned a two-year exemption on the PGA Tour, eagled the 12th and birdied the 14th while others on the leaderboard fell back on the back nine, no one more so than Hadley, who had missed the cut in his last four starts and in nine of his last 11.
Hadley, who started the final round with a four-shot lead, was visibly uncomfortable as he made bogey on the second and third holes. But he looked steady on the back nine and led by two shots heading to the 16th tee. But he bogeyed 16 after a poor drive, 17 after a poor approach and 18 after another poor approach.
Higgo shot 68-69-68-68 to finish at 11 under. Higgo started six shots back and his comeback in the final round is the largest this season on the PGA Tour; Brooks Koepka came from five back to win the Waste Management Phoenix Open.
Hadley shot 75 to finish in a six-way tie for second.
“It was a good week. If I had shot 75 the first round and then 65, 66, 68, I’d be tickled,” Hadley said. “But this one, it sucks, right? I can only imagine what it looked like on TV because it looked freakin’ awful from my view.
“I just didn’t have it today. It was bad and got to do better, and I will. Just got to keep after it. I was uncomfortable out there, and I could never really hit some good shots to try to settle me down.
“I hate the word choked. That’s not the right word because that’s a very negative word, but I didn’t handle it the way I needed to handle it.”
Bo Van Pelt, who thought his career was over after tearing his labrum in his right shoulder in 2016 and then having two more procedures to remove bones spurs in his AC joint in the shoulder and one rib, grabbed a share of the lead with an eagle on the 13th before falling back with bogeys on two of his last three holes into a tie for second. He shot 68 to finish at 10 under. It was his first top-10 since 2015.
“I didn’t play 18 holes for over three years,” he said. “I had three shoulder surgeries, so I thought I was done, to be honest. My hand kind of got numb. Got referred to a guy down in Dallas named Greg Pearl, who looked at me and said, ‘I’ve got to take out your first rib.’ As soon as he did, my shoulder didn’t hurt anymore. I said, well, let’s see if I can get my game back in shape.
“It’s been fun. It’s been tough. It’s kind of like starting over.”
Joining Hadley and Van Pelt in second were Doc Redman (67), Tyrrell Hatton (68) and Hudson Swafford (66), who would have earned a spot in the U.S. Open with a win.
World No. 1 Dustin Johnson was tied for the lead two holes into the third round and then got within one shot of the lead on the back nine of the final round before falling back with a triple-bogey 7 on the 16th.