The 2024 edition of The Players Championship began with a field of 144. However, with over half of the tournament left to play, two have already withdrawn.
The opening round saw three-time PGA Tour winner Tom Kim’s challenge cut short after he withdrew because of illness following his first eight holes, and things didn’t fare much better for Garrick Higgo at the TPC Sawgrass event. The South African withdrew because of a wrist injury during his second round.
The 24-year-old carded a one-over 73 in the first round, and, after starting his second round on the back nine, got off to a solid start in his bid to climb the leaderboard with three successive pars to start the day.
Unfortunately, that was as good as it got for Higgo, as his fourth hole, the 167-yard par-3 13th, finished with a double bogey. While that was a setback to his chances of making the cut, it got worse on the next hole. Higgo hit a wayward drive to the right off the tee, and that proved to be his final action of the tournament as he subsequently withdrew.
It's not the first time Higgo, who won the 2021 Palmetto Championship at Congaree, has needed to withdraw from an event because of a wrist injury. His appearance at last October's ZOZO Championship was cut short during the second round because of a wrist injury, an issue that kept him out for the rest of the year.
He returned for January’s Sony Open in Hawaii, where he finished T80, and followed that up with six more starts before this week’s event, with a T16 at the Cognizant Classic his best finish of the season so far.
While it has yet to be confirmed if the injury is a recurrence of the one he suffered in Japan almost five months ago, the withdrawal will come as a bitter blow to a player who reached a career high of World No.38 in June 2021, but has since slipped to 171st in the rankings.
Earlier, defending champion Scottie Scheffler had an injury concern of his own when he needed to undergo treatment on his neck before taking his tee shot at his fifth hole of the day. Scheffler then required further treatment two holes later before continuing as he challenged near the top of the leaderboard.
