Garrick Higgo closed with a four-under-par 68 on Sunday to finish third in the Sanderson Farms Championship on the PGA Tour in a welcome return to form.
Higgo, who pulled off a win in only his second appearance on the PGA Tour in June 2021, missed 13 cuts in the 2021-22 season on the PGA Tour and his only top-10 finish came in the team event, the Zurich Classic of New Orleans in April. Other than that, his best finish was a share of 18th in the Memorial Tournament in June.
With all four rounds under par in Jackson, Mississippi, Higgo signalled that whatever he was doing in his time off during the end-of-season tournaments he wasn’t part of has worked, and he made six birdies and two bogeys in his final round to go with his first three rounds of 70-66-68. He finished on 16-under, one stroke out of the play-off between Sepp Straka of Austria and MacKenzie Hughes of Canada. Hughes took the play-off on the second extra hole.
“I think my game has matured,” said Higgo. “I think you can see it. I feel like all parts of my game have improved in the last year, and I certainly took a dip in confidence and in my game, but I feel like I’ve kind of reaped the rewards from that little dip.
“I think the week was good. My putting was a lot better. It kept me in the game quite a few times this week, especially Thursday and Friday. But I don’t think I could have done anything better. Obviously the game, it’s golf, so you are going to hit some bad shots. I think I hung in there well. I think it could have gone either way, and I’m pretty pleased with the result.”
One shot behind Higgo in his debut as a member of the PGA Tour was Dean Burmester, who closed with a five-under-par 67 to get to 15-under for the week.
In a good week for South Africans, Dylan Frittelli finish with a three-under-par 69 to take a share of 13th on 11-under, Christiaan Bezuidenhout had a one-over 73 to finish on seven-under in a share of 39th and MJ Daffue closed with a two-over 74 to be in a share of 61st on four-under.
