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Garrick Higgo of South Africa walks the 16th hole alongside caddie Austin Gaugert during the first round of the PGA Championship at Aronimink Golf Club on May 14, 2026.
The fallout from Garrick Higgo’s bizarre PGA Championship week has already produced one major casualty.
Higgo and longtime caddie Austin Gaugert have officially gone their separate ways. According to multiple reports, Higgo has replaced Gaugert with Nick Cavendish-Pell.
On the surface, player-caddie splits are hardly uncommon in professional golf. Partnerships end every season for reasons ranging from poor form to scheduling conflicts to personality differences. But the timing of this particular breakup makes it impossible to ignore the elephant in the room: Higgo’s costly late arrival at the PGA Championship.
The incident immediately became one of the most talked-about moments of the tournament, not only because of the punishment itself, but because of Higgo’s unforgettable explanation afterward.
The Penalty That Changed Everything
Higgo was assessed a two-stroke penalty before he even hit his opening tee shot at the PGA Championship after arriving late to his first-round tee time. Video from the scene showed Gaugert desperately trying to hurry his player to the tee, yelling for him to speed up as officials prepared to enforce the rule.
According to USA Today, Higgo “had a 7:18 a.m. start alongside Michael Brennan and Shaun Micheel at Aronimink Golf Club. He arrived at 7:19.”
To his credit, the 29-year-old responded impressively under pressure. Despite beginning his tournament already two shots behind the field, Higgo battled back to shoot a 1-under 69 in the opening round.
Higgo delivered a string of comments at the press conference afterwards that blended frustration and confusion.
“I wouldn’t have been late if I had known I was running late,” Higgo said. “I was there on time, but the rule is, if you’re one second late, you’re late. … If you think about it, I was there on time, if you know what I mean.”
A Missed Cut – By One Shot
After opening with 69, Higgo struggled in the second round and posted a 76 to miss the cut by a single stroke.
Without the two-stroke punishment for tardiness, Higgo almost certainly would have survived into the weekend. That reality naturally raised questions about accountability behind the scenes.
Caddies are responsible for far more than carrying a golf bag and reading greens. One of the foundational duties of any professional caddie is managing logistics – making sure their player is where he needs to be, when he needs to be there. Alongside ensuring the player doesn’t exceed the 14-club limit, punctuality is considered one of the cardinal rules of the job.
The footage from the PGA Championship suggested Gaugert understood the urgency of the situation and was actively trying to get Higgo moving. By all appearances, he recognized the danger before Higgo did. Yet in professional sports, optics matter, and when something embarrassing happens on such a public stage, change often follows quickly.
Whether Higgo directly blamed Gaugert may never become public knowledge. True to the unwritten code among caddies, Gaugert has remained silent about the situation.
A Familiar Reunion for Higgo
Nick Cavendish-Pell is not a new addition to Higgo’s inner circle. He previously caddied for the South African during the 2021 Palmetto Championship, where Higgo captured his maiden PGA Tour victory in stunning fashion as a rookie.
Cavendish-Pell had most recently been working with French PGA Tour rookie Adrien Saddier.
Meanwhile, Gaugert leaves after helping Higgo capture the 2025 Corales Puntacana Championship earlier this year. His resume also includes work with established PGA Tour names like Patrick Rodgers, Ryan Moore and Alex Noren.
Alyssa Polczynski Alyssa Polczynski is a multimedia journalist covering Major League Baseball for Heavy.com. She has experience as an editorial producer for MLB.com and contributed to the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR). More about Alyssa Polczynski
