South African Garrick Higgo details his painful swing overhaul with coach Sean Foley. From injuries to doubts, Higgo explains how the process almost broke him — and why he never gave up.
Garrick Higgo, Sean Foley, swing change, PGA Tour, golf injuries, Sanderson Farms Championship, golf coaching
Ger, you said you’re you feel like your game was very similar to yesterday. Um, what did you what do you feel like worked the best for you today? Um, I don’t know what worked the best, but I my T- shots were similar to yesterday. Like I kept it in play. For me, whenever I I think obvious obviously for everybody else as well, like the more fairways, the more greens I can hit, like I feel like I can take advantage of my putter, um, give myself a lot of looks, then I’ll make my fair share. So is kind of keeping in the fairway here kind I know it’s key in a lot of places but especially with the rough trying to be able to control your approach shots into the greens. Yeah, it’s not too narrow but the Bermuda rough this week is definitely thick enough where it makes controlling the distance really tough. So um yeah and then you know obviously when you do hit the fairway you have a good look like you’re not not really hitting that many long irons this week. You just talked to Todd about, you know, changing your swing, completely overhauling it with Sean Foley. What do you feel like has been the biggest thing that he that he kind of was able to changing your swing that’s helped you right now? I think just overall like uh having more control of the face. Um and like a few things have done that, you know, being a bit wider, um you know, slightly weaker grip um or left hand. Um yeah, it’s not just one thing. It’s kind of everything together. What was the the decision to go uh to Foley to work on your swing. Um just his record. Um you know, I met him at the US Open, my first US Open at Tory, and we’ve always been good friends. Um just look at what he did with Michael Kim. How long did it take to overhaul your swing? What sort of process does that look like? Uh we started uh week of Colonial in 2023. Um it wasn’t fun. You know, I obviously played terrible last year. Um, and they, you know, if you look at how I used to swing it to now, it’s completely different. So that whole time frame, um, it’s tough to play competitive. You know, it’s tough to play compete when you’re on your best, never mind when you’re changing things. So, did you ever consider like cutting it off and saying, “I’m going back to the old old swing?” No. And then avoiding surgery. What What was that decision like? Was it like 50/50 or pretty obvious I don’t want to have surgery? Uh, it wasn’t obvious. Um, I mean it it wasn’t hurting me in my swing, but walking made it really um bad and then it would pinch the next day. So, just figuring out how I can avoid that. Um, and I’ve I’ve done I’ve changed the way I work out. Um, just being a bit more clever with that, I’d say. Any pain now or you good out on the court? Uh, like one out of 10 at the moment. just tired like it gets fatigued pretty quick. So, what were some of the things you changed in your workouts? Um, just less I can lift pretty heavy so not as heavy um just to keep the load off the joint. So, just being um aware of that and then doing more single leg stuff um so it’s more specific. Um yeah, I’d say. And um you played with uh Scotty in the final round of the Pro Core. Did you learn anything from the way he kind of went about his business and his approach and how he kind of did things? Yeah, I learned a lot. Um, I couldn’t tell you what I learned, but I learned so much just by watching. Um, you know, he’s an inspiration for all of us and, you know, he set the bar so high. Um, just just it’s just phenomenal how high his skill level is. Um, you know, obviously he’s got a great mind, too, but it’s it’s just amazing how good he hits the golf ball and he’s putting great and he trips great. So, yeah. Thanks, sweet. Thank you. Yeah.
