Garrick Higgo splits with caddie after PGA Championship penalty

Time is up for the player-caddie duo of Garrick Higgo and Austin Gaugert.

Golfweek has confirmed with Higgo's agent that he split with Gaugert and has hired Nick Cavendish-Pell, who previously worked for him and will be on the bag at this week’s PGA Tour event, the CJ Cup Byron Nelson in Dallas.

Players and caddies part ways all the time, but this one is notable because Higgo was penalized two strokes for being late for his first-round tee time at the 108^th PGA Championship on Thursday. 

Gaugert can be seen on video yelling at Higgo to hurry up, but to no avail. The 29-year-old South African rallied to shoot 1-under 69 in the first round despite the penalty and then engaged in an unforgettable press conference during which he channeled the late Yogi Berra and said, “I wouldn’t have been late if I had known I was running late.”

Among a string of all-time quotes, he added: “I was there on time, but the rule is, if you're one second late, you're late.”

Higgo shot 76 on Friday and missed the cut by one stroke. Adding insult to injury, had he not been penalized two strokes for his miscue, he would’ve played the weekend.

While Higgo spoke to the media about his penalty, Gaugert has stayed true to the caddie oath of not talking out of school about one’s player. Does Higgo in some way blame him for being tardy? Making sure that your player shows up on time is right up there with counting his clubs to make sure he has no more than 14 in the bag as two of the cardinal rules for caddies.

Gaugert was on the bag for Higgo when he won the 2025 Corales Puntacana Championship. He’s previously caddied for Patrick Rodgers, Ryan Moore and Alex Noren.

Cavendish-Pell will be a familiar face for Higgo. He caddied for Higgo for his maiden Tour title at the 2021 Palmetto Championship. He was most recently caddying for Frenchman Adrien Saddier, a 34-year-old rookie on the PGA Tour.

Adam Schupak is a senior writer for Golfweek, covering the PGA Tour.