Breakthrough SA golfer Garrick Higgo upbeat ahead of Players Championship debut

Breakthrough South African golfer Garrick Higgo embarks on his new journey in his budding career on the PGA Tour.

Higgo had a stellar 2021 season during which he twice dominated in Spain and then went on to make history by stunning an elite field to win his maiden PGA Tour title at Congaree.

Higgo rose in the golf rankings, competed at the Tokyo Olympics and participated in his first three Major events.

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The 22-year-old has since shifted his focus on golf's biggest tour and is heading into this season tempering his expectations.

"I don't have a lot of expectations this year, I want to do as well as I can. Sometimes I put a lot of pressure on myself but my game is good," Higgo told reporters in a Players Championship press conference on Wednesday.

"I'm learning a lot, [although] it's not easy on the PGA Tour. The courses are a lot tough and the field is a lot higher to what I've played in the past.

"Hopefully, I can continue playing well. It is hard to win here but if I play well, I think I will."

Higgo started off this year with a new full-time coach after joining forces with swing coach Claude Harmon.

The Olympian had been working with Cliff Barnard in Plettenberg for 13 years, but stated that the change came when he decided to remain in the US.

"Cliff and I still have a great relationship, it's not like I needed to change. I just wasn't sure how much I was going to be in South Africa as much ... I just started working with Claude Harman in January full-time."

Higgo is one of the six South African golfers in the elite Players Championship field at TPC Sawgrass this week.

Ranked 74th in the World Golf Rankings, Higgo will be making his Players Championship