Harry Higgs teed off in the first group of the U.S. Open at 6:35 a.m. Thursday after a wardrobe mistake forced a last-minute fix at Shinnecock Hills. He had put on shorts for the opening round, even though players can wear them in practice rounds but not during play.
Shinnecock Hills at 6:35 a.m.
Higgs realized the error in the locker room before the round and borrowed the pants worn by Anthony Naylor, who works for the Darrell Survey. He headed to the range in Naylor's wool pants, then later slipped into his own clothes before playing.
The sequence was made sharper by the conditions around the course: the opening round at Shinnecock Hills carried a two-hour weather delay because of fog. In that kind of start, there was little margin for a clothing change that should have been routine long before the first tee.
71 and top 30
Higgs still shot a 71 and finished the first round in the top 30 at the 126th U.S. Open. That is the part that keeps this from reading like a simple slip-up: the mistake was real, but it did not cost him a competitive opening day.
His Friday tee time was slated for 12:45 p.m., which left the wardrobe issue solved for the moment and the scorecard still in place. The only open question is why he got dressed in the dark without noticing the shorts before a major championship morning, and that is the sort of lapse golfers usually only get once.
