To follow golfer Harry Higgs is to be entertained.
To follow golfer Harry Higgs is to be entertained. The 32-year-old SMU product has bounced up and down between the PGA Tour and the Korn Ferry Tour, but has found his way into 120 tournaments on the former, and he now has accrued more than $5 million in career earnings.
Higgs fired a 5-under 65 on May 26, 2024, to finish at 19 under, edging Frankie Capan III in a playoff at the weather-challenged Visit Knoxville Open. Higgs’ winning putt was from more than 36 feet away.
Just a week before, Higgs chipped in for eagle on the 18th hole to get into a playoff before winning in Kansas City at the AdventHealth Championship.
And he’s been hit-or-miss in his few major tournaments as well, missing the cut in two of the four in which he’s played, but finishing T-4 in the 2021 PGA Championship and T-14 in the 2022 Masters.
Higgs went five years between his first and second wins. He only had to wait seven days for his third.
Harry Higgs had gone five years between his first and second win. He only had to wait seven days for his third.
Higgs fired a 5-under 65 on Sunday to finish at 19 under. A short time later, Frankie Capan III birdied the 18th to shoot a 66 to get to 19 under and force a playoff at Holston Hills Country Club in Knoxville, Tennessee.
The duo each birdied the par-5 18th to open the playoff, then Higgs eagled it the second time they played it to clinch his victory in the weather-challenged Visit Knoxville Open on the Korn Ferry Tour. Tee times were moved up both days over the weekend to avoid what the tour called “dangerous weather.”
Higgs winning putt was from more than 36 feet away.
“It does eons for confidence, but there’s a reason why I won. Taking care of
my body, my mind. Obviously I stuck to the exact same routine as last week and it worked again this week, so that’s probably not going to change much,” Higgs said. “I didn’t really feel like doing anything Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, but I just made sure that I did the same things. I got prepared in the same way.”
Harry Higgs poses with the trophy after winning the 2024 Visit Knoxville Open at Holston Hills Country Club in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo: Brennan Asplen/Getty Images)
Higgs is the first golfer to win back-to-back tournaments in a playoff on the Korn Ferry Tour.
Capan shot 62 on Saturday and held the solo 54-hole lead. Quade Cummins went low Sunday with a 9-under 61, thanks in part to an ace on the fourth hole, but missed out on the playoff by a shot.
But neither could quite catch the overall steadiness of Higgs, who has conditional status on the PGA Tour in 2024. He has now put himself in great position to return full time in 2025. He entered the week No. 7 on the Korn Ferry Tour points list but shot up to No. 2 after his second straight win. The top 30 on the KFT list at the end of the season earn the promotion.
Higgs, just two weeks after getting married, celebrated his first win in five years.
Harry Higgs won on the Korn Ferry Tour on Sunday in the most improbably way.
On the par-5 18th hole, Higgs chipped in for eagle, his shot running seemingly all the way across the green before going down for a 3.
That shot capped a final-round 66 but he still needed to chew on his nails in suspense, as Tanner Gore had a chance to win in regulation but his potential winning putt wouldn’t drop and he could only par the closing hole.
That meant things were knotted up at 19 under in the 2024 AdventHealth Championship at Blue Hills Country Club in Kansas City, Missouri.
They replayed the 18th hole and Higgs birdied it again for his first win in five years, or, 1,757 days, as noted by the KFT.
It’s a one-of-a-kind golf outing but with a new twist.
It’s a one-of-a-kind golf outing but with a new twist.
The third Tito’s Shorties Classic, which was filmed at Butler Pitch & Putt in Austin, Texas, will air on Golf Channel on Feb. 6 at 10:30 p.m. ET.
The new feature of this year’s event is the collab of PGA Tour golfers with some of the leading social media influencers in the game. The three teams are Keith Mitchell and Robby Berger, Harry Higgs and Nick Stubbe, and Joel Dahmen and Joseph Demare.
“I would say that the Butler Pitch & Putt in Austin is honestly the most fun version of golf I can think of because it really, it’s constant action, it’s quick. It only takes you about an hour to play nine holes. Your level of golf is less important,” Mitchell told Golfweek on Monday from the Monterey Peninsula, where he is getting ready to compete in what he called “the best of the best,” the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. But while Pebble is a pressure-packed PGA Tour event, the Tito’s Shorties Classic is nothing but fun.
“When you get to do the event with the Bob Does Sports crew and Tito’s it just brings an entire additional level of fun to an event that otherwise is pretty unique in the world of golf, where you have the ability to enjoy, you know, a fun, fan-filled event that’s not time-consuming.”
And the game needs this kind of experience, for all types of golfers, Mitchell said.
“That’s what I think Butler Pitch & Putt really embodies. I really hope that more of these venues, regardless of, you know, the Tito Shorties’s Classic, more of these venues could be spread across the U.S. and golf in general because it’s just a very good access point and entertainment value to any level of golfer.
“At Pebble Beach they have The Hay, which is full all the time and that’s a lot of fun. I played it yesterday [Sunday]. Pinehurst, they have The Cradle. And with Butler Pitch & Putt there are just three really good examples of how a good, approachable version of golf could work across the country.”
Check out some photos from the third annual Tito’s Shorties Classic.
The cut at Sea Island Golf Club had more of a sense of finality for some.
ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. — A prominent swing instructor summed up why he could cut tension on the range at the RSM Classic with a rusty nail.
“Some of these guys don’t know whether they will ever tee it up at a PGA Tour event,” he said.
This week is the 54th and final Tour event of the 2022-23 season and so the 36-hole cut Friday had more of a sense of finality for some, especially those battling to make the top 125 and full status for next season or Nos. 126-150 and secure conditional status.
Peter Malnati, who entered the week at No. 116, shot 69-71 (140) and missed the cut and said he’ll be playing the waiting game all weekend. He’s projected No.122. Two three-putts in the first round was uncharacteristic of Malnati and the putter remained cold in the second round. But at least he had the right perspective.
“With or without a Tour card, I’m going to be awesome but I’d rather have one,” he said.
Harry Higgs, who started the week at No. 132 and had missed three straight cuts, made birdie on two of the last three holes to shoot 70 on Seaside Course and make the cut on the number.
All told, 78 golfers shot 4-under 138 or better at Sea Island’s Seaside and Plantation Courses. Higgs didn’t need anyone to let him know what what at stake when he made an 11-foot birdie putt on 18 at Seaside to make the cut.
“No, I know. I know it all too well after this year. Oddly, I wasn’t really that worried about it or focused on it,” he said. “For the last two years I’ve been stressing, worrying about all this shit. And for some reason, I don’t know why, I don’t know that I even said it aloud, I might have just thought it briefly, like I’m just not really going to worry about it this week.”
Patton Kizzire, who entered the week at No. 130, channeled the same philosophy and made birdie on his final two holes at the Plantation Course to make the cut and give himself two more rounds to jump up a few more spots. He’s projected No. 129.
Four players ranked between No. 120 and No. 126 in the FedEx Cup Fall standings entering the week missed the cut: No. 120 Matti Schmid, No. 121 Doug Ghim, No. 123 Troy Merritt and No. 126 Henrik Norlander.
Here’s more about them and some other pros who weren’t so fortunate and had their season come to a premature end. And here are the Saturday tee times for those who did make the weekend.
NORTH YORK, Ontario – Wednesday on the PGA Tour was just different this week.
Sure, there were a handful of press conferences and a pro-am for the 2023 RBC Canadian here at Oakdale Golf and Country Club, and while players like two-time defending champion Rory McIlroy, Matt Kuchar and the Canadian contingent competing in their national open desperately want to keep the attention on the tournament, for many in the field of 156 players, the event isn’t their main focus.
On Tuesday the PGA Tour announced the formation of a new golf entity alongside the DP World Tour and with the backing of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which had been funding LIV Golf, a rival upstart circuit that has been a thorn in the Tour’s side for more than a year now. The vibe around the course on Wednesday was just flat-out weird, a sentiment echoed by the handful of players willing to talk about the news of the week. It’s not that players refused to speak, they just didn’t know what to say.
“I wish I knew more synonyms, but I would say somber,” said Harry Higgs. “Not in like a death in the family somber, but it’s a little difficult to go about business as usual … Part of me doesn’t feel like I really should be here right now, not that I should leave the tournament, this just feels kind of weird.”
“From the sounds of it, it was something that (PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan) thought about and couldn’t avoid. So it does distract you,” said Mackenzie Hughes. “I mean, I’m answering a question now about something that’s not really pertaining to this week or this championship … but once we get through today and we get going tomorrow, I think that the focus will be on the RBC Canadian Open and that’s where it should be.”
Mackenzie Hughes plays a shot during the pro-am ahead of the 2023 RBC Canadian Open. (Photo: Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports)
Fans and even players are learning about the new entity on the fly, and the press release offered little concrete information. What we know is all pending litigation between the Tour and LIV has vanished, and if approved, players would be united once again. Current PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan will be the CEO, while Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of the PIF, will be the chair of the board. The PIF will also be the sole investor and has right of first refusal for new money coming in.
“Sports is business and it’s big business. It’s hard to turn somebody away when they want to invest in what you do,” said Higgs. “There are certainly reasons why you could turn this investor away, many reasons, but eventually the dollar wins out.”
With the PIF as its sole funder, LIV Golf has long been criticized as a way for Saudi Arabia to sportswash its controversial human rights record, which includes accusations of wide-ranging human rights abuses, including politically motivated killings, torture, forced disappearances and inhumane treatment of prisoners.
Players used words like betrayed, frustrated, blind-sided and confused to describe their initial reactions to not just the news, but how the information was relayed. Corey Conners said it was “off-putting” for players in a member-led organization to find out on Twitter, while countryman Hughes noted how players are “used to having bombshells dropped every now and then” since the formation of LIV Golf.
“Even those that have agreed on this deal, it’s an idea,” added Higgs. “There’s no way to know what’s coming, even those that agreed on it don’t know.”
That’s where a lot of the frustration comes in to play. Players are the CEO of their own business, and they all want to benefit from the proposed changes. While most are cautiously optimistic for the future and what may come, they all want answers to their questions, sooner rather than later.
“We don’t know what professional golf is gonna look like and Jay and everybody, they don’t know either,” explained Higgs. “They’re working through this. We just have to trust that those that are working through this on our behalf are going to do so with everybody in mind, everybody to some degree. Certainly Rory should benefit more from this than me. It’s just a constant, ‘We don’t know, wait and see, a true who’s to say.’”
Like McIlroy, Higgs said he still has confidence in Monahan despite his dealings in the dark, but it’s “waning.”
“When you do what we’ve done and keep it a secret, you lose some trust, but I also understand why things were kept a secret, too. I get how business works and again, all of sport is a big business and now golf has a seat at that table,” said Higgs. “We are a big, big business now, which should be a great thing, but no one knows how it’s gonna go in the next 5-10 years, 5-10 weeks, 5-10 days. Sadly, it’s just a lot of wait and see, and that’s just a weird place to be as a professional golfer.
“We don’t know, and now we feel a little uneasy that we could wake up in a week to an email that could say something different. Things are gonna start changing and obviously professional golfers don’t like change, but it should be, in time, a change for the better.”
Time will tell if these players can earn their way into the 123rd U.S. Open.
The longest day in golf is just around the corner as players are preparing to chase their spot in the 2023 U.S. Open at Los Angles Country Club, scheduled for June 15-18.
Final qualifying will be held over 36 holes, and 10 venues around the country (and Canada) are set to host some of the biggest names in the sport.
Members of the LIV Golf League who are not already exempt into the field will take part in the annual tradition. Some of those names include Harold Varner III, Marc Leishman, Brendan Steele, Carlos Ortiz and Matthew Wolff.
There are several PGA Tour players participating as well, including both 2023 Ryder Cup captains, Zach Johnson and Luke Donald.
Here are the 10 venues set to host final qualifying.
Lambton Golf & Country Club, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Hillcrest Country Club, Los Angeles California
Pine Tree Golf Club, Boynton Beach, Florida
Hawks Ridge Golf Club, Ball Ground, Georgia
Woodmont Country Club (North Course), Rockville, Maryland
Canoe Brook Country Club (North & South Courses), Summit, New Jersey
Old Chatham Golf Club, Durham, North Carolina
Brookside Golf & Country Club and The Lakes Golf & Country Club, Columbus, Ohio
Springfield (Ohio) Country Club
Tacoma Country & Golf Club, Lakewood, Washington
Here are 10 players to keep your eye on Monday, June 5, as they try to earn their way into the 123rd U.S. Open.
It’s time for the weekend at the AT&T Byron Nelson in McKinney, Texas, and that means some in the field are packing their bags.
The 36-hole cut at TPC Craig Ranch came in at 4 under, which makes sense due to its score-ability. K.H. Lee won the last two Byron Nelsons with scores of 26 under and 25 under. Lee made the cut right on the number this time around.
Through the first two days, Texas local Scottie Scheffler holds the lead at 14 under after consecutive 64s. He leads Ryan Palmer and Mackenzie Hughes by a shot.
Here are seven players who missed the 4-under cut at the 2023 AT&T Byron Nelson.
Here’s a closer look at some of those not surviving the cut this week.
Not that anyone wants to miss the cut in a PGA Tour event, but if you did miss it this week at the 2023 Mexico Open at Vidanta, maybe you could console yourself with the thought there are worse places to be than near Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Or maybe not. Like Kevin Kisner (not in the field this week) likes to say: “This ain’t no hobby” and no one wants to not get paid on the PGA Tour.
Tony Finau leads after 36 holes at 13 under. Erik van Rooyen and Brandon Wu are a shot back. World No. 1 Jon Rahm, easily the biggest name in the field, followed up his Thursday 67 with a Friday 68 and is at 7 under.
Wyndham Clark birdied three of his last seven holes, including making a 13-footer on 18, to make the cut on the number. He extended his consecutive cuts made streak to 15, tying Sahith Theegala for longest this season.
It’s not just Harry Higgs’ personality that’s entertaining and unpredictable, his golf game has been the same.
SAN ANTONIO — After an unpredictable first day of weather at the Valero Texas Open, the sun emerged just after noon on Friday and the action at TPC San Antonio’s Oaks Course moved at a standard clip.
After Matt Kuchar and Padraig Harrington set the pace on Thursday, others upped their game on Friday, although the second round of play was not completed. The cut from 144 players will come sometime on Saturday morning.
With just a few days remaining until the eyes of the golf world turn to Magnolia Lane, the final two rounds at the Valero should provide plenty of drama, and, potentially, a dream of a lifetime to someone.
Here’s what you need to know about Friday’s action:
