Only two South Africans were able to make the halfway cut at the year’s second Major.
It was a tough week for the six South African golfers playing at the year’s second Major, the PGA Championship, at Quail Hollow in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Only Christiaan Bezuidenhout and Garrick Higgo made the halfway cut and featured in all four rounds.
Thriston Lawrence, Daniel van Tonder, Dean Burmester and Erik van Rooyen all missed out on playing the weekend.
The USA’s Scottie Scheffler won the tournament on a score of 11-under-par, five better than three players who tied for second, including Bryson DeChambeau.
It was Scheffler’s third Major title after previously capturing the Masters at Augusta in 2022 and 2024.
SA players at the PGA
Bezuidenhout was South Africa’s best finisher at Quali Hollow, finishing in a tie for 50th. He had rounds of 70, 68, 77 and 73 to be four-over-par. His efforts earned him $40,674,00 — in South African currency R734,000.
Higgo will be ruing a poor final round of 80, which cost him several dollars and a much higher final placing. With earlier rounds of 69, 69 and 71 the young left-hander was in contention going into the weekend, but he finished tied for 55th place after dropping 42 spots in his final round.
His final score of five-over-par earned him $32,138,00 — or R580,000.
Last month Higgo won the Corales Puntacana Championship in the Dominican Republic, his second PGA Tour title, and there he earned $720,000, or R13 million.
Scheffler, who also won the CJ Cup Byron Nelson on the PGA Tour prior to the PGA Championship this last week, took home a cheque of $3,420,000,00 from Quail Hollow — a whopping R61,7 million.
The year’s third Major, the US Open, takes place at Oakmont in Pennsylvania from 12 to 15 June.
