PALMETTO CHAMPIONSHIP AT CONGAREE

June 9, 2021

Garrick Higgo

Congaree Golf Club

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: I'd like to welcome Garrick Higgo to the interview room here at the Palmetto Championship at Congaree. This is Garrick's second PGA TOUR start. Three-time European Tour winner in just 27 starts on that Tour, obviously very impressive. Playing on a commissioner's exemption this week.

Garrick, curious to get your thoughts on the golf course. Obviously, this is a pretty new track on the PGA TOUR, but curious what your first impressions have been to this point.

GARRICK HIGGO: Yeah, it's good. It's awesome. Visually, it's pretty cool with all the trees and kind of waste bunkers underneath them. In the weeks between Kiawah and this, I've been at Sea Island, and I've been playing a course called Frederica, and it's actually quite a lot like that, the guys were saying it would be. So I think that was kind of good prep for this week.

THE MODERATOR: You mentioned being, obviously, over here for the PGA Championship, and I guess what have been your take-aways thus far just playing on the PGA TOUR and just differences between that and the European Tour?

GARRICK HIGGO: It's a lot different. Europe is at the moment, with playing in all the different countries, it's pretty tricky for them to open it up, so it's been quite nice to be over here where it's a little bit more open, in a sense, and see a bit more people at the tournaments and stuff.

Obviously, the courses are a lot different. We play on a lot of different grasses in Europe. Same over here, but I mean, I think playing in Europe is going to help me going forward.

THE MODERATOR: Love it. Obviously, with three wins pretty quickly in your career, I mean, not to -- obviously, looking ahead to 2022, is the Presidents Cup something that's already on your mind? With captain Immelman being a South African as well, it might be a little more enticing?

GARRICK HIGGO: Yeah, I saw Trevor this morning on the range. We didn't talk about that because we both know that would be awesome, but he gave me some advice. Obviously, he's been in the states for a long time, and he just said, you kind of just need to keep doing the same things as you've done wherever you've played. It's just another golf tournament. Yeah, it's nice to have those guys out here who have been here and have done well.

Q. Trust everything is good over there?

GARRICK HIGGO: It is. It's good. It's very humid and hot, so I like it.

Q. Garrick, you had mention of the victories on the European Tour. Just how much of that winning momentum is still with you, or do you feel like you're bowling from scratch now in the states?

GARRICK HIGGO: Yeah, that's interesting. I think I am bowling from scratch. Obviously, I'm not going to say that I don't have any momentum going into any week after that stretch, but I kind of just want to try to do the same things and see if that will work over here. I'm pretty sure it will, but obviously the strength of fields are going to be a lot stronger. It's going to be a much bigger challenge, but I'm looking forward to it.

THE MODERATOR: With this being, obviously, a pretty new venue on the PGA TOUR and you obviously being relatively new out here, do you think that levels the playing field at all just knowing that everybody is kind of seeing this place and experiencing it for the first time?

GARRICK HIGGO: I think so. That's actually a good point. I think it will definitely help me because, like we all know, it does help to know a golf course and to have played it in a tournament. I think it will. Obviously, I don't know a lot of the players out here, so it's nice to meet new guys, and everyone's been nice to me so far. So I'm looking forward to playing with even more players in the future.

Q. Garrick, just curious, where's your game at at the moment? How are you feeling about things? How is it looking?

GARRICK HIGGO: It's good. My swing's feeling all right. I spent two weeks at Sea Island last week playing a lot of golf with Dru Love and a couple of the mini tour guys. It feels good. Obviously, I haven't played a tournament in two weeks, so come Thursday morning, the first putt or first shot I will be a little bit rusty. But my game feels good. It's felt the same the last two months. I've been working on the same things, just trying to maintain where I'm at.

It's feeling like it felt when I won, so hopefully that's a good thing, but you never know. I'm just going to try and see if I can put it all together again.

Q. Garrick, I'm curious what it was like with the other South Africans out there. I saw you spent a bit of time with them, obviously, at the PGA Championship. Have you had much interaction with them aside from Trevor earlier on? What's that been like? Have you been sort of picking their brains?

GARRICK HIGGO: I have. I played a practice round with Louis and Charl at the PGA. Hopefully, I can play with them again at the U.S. Open because I see Charl got through qualifying. It was awesome. Charl gave me so much advice, Louis as well.

It's just nice to see how they play those courses. They don't do much -- many different things to what we do, it's just on a different level, but I feel like my game's there, and it was nice to play with them to see that I can keep up with them.

Just the advice that they gave me is not things that I really knew, but it's reassuring to get it from those guys and to know that they've gone through the same things that I've gone through.