Garrick Higgo knew he was well and truly in the Masters when he played the sixth hole on Thursday on his way to a fighting level-par 72 for his opening tournament round at Augusta National Golf Club.
Higgo is South Africa’s leading player after the first round together with 2011 Masters champion Charl Schwartzel. Their level-par total is five behind Sungjae Im of South Korea, and Australia’s Cameron Smith is in second on four-under. Danny Willett, the 2016 champion, Joaquin Niemann of Chile, world number one Scottie Scheffler and the 2020 Masters champion Dustin Johnson were in a share of third on three-under.
“I was definitely nervous,” said Higgo of his debut in the Masters. “I was fine the whole week, and then walking to the tee, I was, like, this is real. That’s why we’re here. But I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.”
Higgo hit his tee shot on the 180-yard downhill par-three named Juniper just short of the pin. It’s a green that has more slope and contour than meets the eye, and, with the pin placed fairly close to the front on the right, his shot inevitably spun back off the front. That left him a testing chip back up to the tier where the hole was.
Of course, he was short. And of course, the ball rolled all the way to the bottom left of the green. And of course, his putt didn’t go quite far enough to reach the tier and of course, it rolled all the way back again.
Equally inevitably, he made the 60-footer left for par, the second-longest putt of the day.
It was his second bogey in a row after he had made an early birdie on the first. He made a double-bogey on the redesigned and lengthened 11th, which was already the second most difficult hole in the history of the Masters. But he got back into the swing of things nicely with a birdie in the middle of Amen Corner on the 13th, and two more on the 15th and 16th.
“I played nicely,” said Higgo. “I hit the ball well. I’ve been hitting the ball very well, and the putter kind of co-operated a little bit on the back nine. It was pretty soft on the greens for the first, I would say, 13 holes, and, yeah, I tried to take advantage of it.”
He was paired with Guido Migliozzi of Italy, and, more significantly, Fred Couples, the 1992 champion at Augusta. “I was nice to play with Freddy and Guido,” said Higgo. I know Guido from the DP World Tour. Freddy has been nice to both of us. He has obviously played this quite a few times. He helped kind of steady the ship a little bit as well. Just when we hit a good shot, even though it was in the middle of the green, he would say, that’s perfect or great shot. Yeah, he was supportive.”
Higgo is in a share of 19th after the first round, and more of the same sort of perseverance mixed with moments of brilliance will help him make the cut in his first visit to the Masters. And given the intensity of the golf that will be played over the weekend, who knows what could happen.
