Garrick Higgo won the Corales Puntacana Championship on Sunday, which had a $4 million purse. With that, he snagged his second PGA Tour victory after taking advantage of Joel Dahmen’s late meltdown, but in the backdrop, the win signified the strengthening of a new professional relationship. “My caddie, Austin, he was great. This is only our second week, but he was great,” Higgo said about Austin Gaugert. Yes, this is the same Gaugert who caddied for Ryan Moore.

A caddie with ten years of experience, he found himself in a peculiar situation at the start of 2024. After working with Moore for a year and a half, the golfer hinted that he might not play much, and so, Gaugert had to search for other employment opportunities, and that journey was nothing less than a rollercoaster ride! And in a new interview with ‘SiriusXM PGA TOUR Radio’, he shared how that went. Hear it from Gaugert himself.

“It’s actually been one of the weirdest caddie years of my career. I’ve been out caddying for about ten years now, I started in 2016, and I caddied for Ryan Moore for about the last year and a half. So the whole 2024 season and like the fall of the 2023 season. And he texted me at they beginning of the year like, ‘Hey dude! I don’t know how much I am going to play. If I were you and you really wanted to find a full-time job, I would probably go look for a few jobs’.”

“So I was like okay. I started the year with an asterisk of unemployment, and then I went and caddied for Dylan Wu on the Korn Ferry and then at Torrey Pines. Then I got asked at Torrey Pines to do a one-week trial with Sami Välimäki. I was flying home from the one week in Arizona, Patrick Rodgers called me. I filled in for him three other times. He called me. His caddie was having a hernia surgery. He’s like, ‘Hey, do you wanna work the next three weeks?’ We played so well at the Genesis, Mexico, and Palm Beach that we actually got in Bay Hill. 

“We finished third in Genesis, 25th in Mexico, 18th at Palm Beach. So then, I went and caddied Bay Hill for him too. Finished 22nd there. I was like okay, I made some money. So now, I don’t know. I am still unemployed because his caddie came back.” And so he decided to go on a skiing trip with his dad and brother. That’s when the real twist came through! Gaugert’s luck changed when he received a call from Garrick Higgo, who needed a caddie after his regular partner had left.

“He’s like, ‘Hey, do you want to come down to Savannah?’ And I’m like, I mean, not really. I just made some money. I was ready to sit at home. I was having a great time,” he said. Despite the initial hesitation, Gaugert joined Higgo and helped him secure a third-place finish in Savannah. This led to a three-week trial partnership, culminating in Higgo’s Corales Puntacana Championship win.

“I’ve been telling people I’ve had like, maybe like the greatest, one of the greatest seasons of unemployment ever,” Gaugert joked. After all, Higgo made $720,000 with his latest win.

Their partnership was relatively new, and their performance in Savannah likely set the tone. But did you know Higgo and Gaugert’s bond is just one of several recent successful collaborations?

When Justin Thomas found success with a new caddie partnership!

Partnerships like Higgo and Gaugert’s are a winning formula, and Justin Thomas can agree. In 2023, the golfer acknowledged the frustration of not performing up to his expectations: “It was very frustrating… I’m starting to see a little bit of a light at the end of the tunnel.” Manifesting some truth there, Justin Thomas has finally broken his three-year winless drought. It’s all thanks to his new partnership with caddie Joe Greiner.

Before Justin Thomas teamed up with caddie Joe Greiner, he was in the midst of a frustrating stretch. In 2023, he finished 71st in the FedEx Cup standings, a shocking drop that left him just outside the playoff cut-off. It was a tough year, with missed cuts becoming a recurring theme. At the 3M Open, Thomas missed the cut by just two strokes, marking the second consecutive week he failed to make it past the weekend. His struggles extended across several tournaments, and it was clear that this was one of the most challenging periods of his career. But just when it seemed like things couldn’t get worse, Thomas’s fortunes began to shift with the arrival of Greiner, sparking what would become a game-changing partnership.

Greiner, who previously worked with Max Homa, stepped in to caddie for Thomas at the Masters and continued the role into the RBC Heritage, where they secured a thrilling playoff victory over Andrew Novak. This win marked a significant milestone for Thomas, ending a 1,064-day drought that stretched back to the 2022 PGA Championship. Greiner’s expertise and steady presence seem to have brought a new level of confidence to Thomas’s game.

Greiner’s impact on Thomas’s game has been impressive, especially considering it was only their second start together. Charlie Hulme noted on The Smylie Show that their first week working together at the Masters was essentially a trial, but they quickly gelled and delivered a remarkable win. For Thomas, who was struggling to find his footing, this change seems to have been just what he needed. With Greiner by his side, the golfer looks poised to continue his winning ways. Now, the big question is: What’s next for this dynamic duo? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below!