Rounding out Garrick Higgo’s group for the first two rounds of the World Wide Technology Championship were Erik van Rooyen and Austin Eckroat, each of the last two winners of the PGA Tour’s fall stop in Los Cabos, Mexico.
“I joked … I said, ‘I’ll just watch you guys and do the same,’” Higgo recounted Saturday evening as the tournament’s 54-hole leader.
Higgo fired a career-best, 11-under 61 to vault to 22 under through three rounds on Diamante’s generous El Cardonal layout, designed by Tiger Woods. The 26-year-old Higgo, a two-time winner on the PGA Tour, including earlier this year in the Dominican Republic, sits a shot clear of Carson Young, who shot 63 Saturday as he looks to improve on his No. 136 spot in the FedExCup.
“My wife will tell you I’ve been hitting probably way too many balls just trying to figure it out and give it one last hurrah here at the end with three tournaments left,” said Young, who co-led with Justin Lower and Nico Echavarria after three rounds last year in Cabo before ultimately finishing a shot back of Eckroat.
“If I can just play like I did last year, honestly, it will put me in good position,” Young added.
Trevor Cone and Chad Ramey, Nos. 179 and 123 in the FedExCup at the start of the week, respectively, were tied with Ryder Cupper Ben Griffin for third at 20 under. Meanwhile, 36-hole leader Matti Schmid dropped to solo seventh, his third-round 71 only moving him to 18 under, four behind Higgo, who, despite starting the year with conditional status, is trying to become the sixth player this year to win multiple PGA Tour this season.
Aside from his win, Higgo notched just one other top-25 finish in 11 regular-season starts, failing to qualify for the FedExCup Playoffs. But he’s turned a corner this fall, tying for seventh at the Procore Championship, finishing runner-up at Sanderson Farms and sharing fourth at the Baycurrent Classic in Japan.
“It’s nice not to be injured, so I’m able to practice normally,” Higgo said.
Though he’s not logged enough rounds for his strokes-gained numbers to rank statistically, Higgo’s 0.117 strokes lost on approach would slot 125th on Tour. Also, his 55.32% rate hitting fairways ranks well below the Tour average.
This week, he’s still just T-42 in the field in driving accuracy, though just five players who made the cut have hit more than Higgo’s 48 greens in regulation.
“My irons have been a weakness for me, so this week or like the whole year that’s been a focus,” Higgo said. “Obviously. this week you’re not really going to miss any fairways, so hitting good iron shots and putting well is a good recipe for this week. I feel like I’ve been doing a good job of that.”
Higgo chipped in for eagle after pushing a 4-iron up just short of the first green to being Saturday’s round. He then birdied five straight holes, starting with the par-4 third. Four back-nine birdies and no dropped shots added up to 61.
And how would Higgo celebrate a personal-best day? The same way he usually winds down after rounds of golf – reading a book. Currently, Higgo is deep into Viktor Frankl’s “Man’s Search for Meaning,” where Frankl, a Holocaust survivor, recounts his time in Nazi concentration camps and despite great adversity, his search for purpose and strength. Frankl developed the theory of logotherapy, which states that “the primary motivational force of individuals is to find meaning in life.”
“I just love reading,” Higgo said. “I’ll be reading later.”
Then it’s off to polish off another chapter of his own.