I think it’s part of the kind of Tiger Woods hangover … where really no one had to be any good at their jobs.
Is there a topic Harry Higgs is afraid of? If so, we’ve yet to uncover it.
While chatting with Higgs, who lost his PGA Tour card last year but has played in a number of events already during the season on sponsor exemptions, we pitched the idea of him taking over a new TV station devoted solely to golf. All Harry, all the time. He wasn’t averse to the concept.
Higgs will appear on Golf Channel during the second Tito’s Shorties Classic at Butler Pitch and Putt in downtown Austin, Texas, on Jan. 11. Close buddy Keith Mitchell was also part of the fun, along with Joel Dahmen and Beau Hossler.
And while the former SMU star and current Dallas-area resident was happy with the content the hit-and-giggle provided, he’s got grander plans for the game’s broadcast side, and some worries that understandably are bubbling as the game’s most marketable personality (Tiger Woods) continues to drift off slowly into the sunset.
Keep an eye on this mix of veterans and rising stars in 2023.
After taking a nearly two-month holiday hiatus, the PGA Tour will return to action the first week of January with the 2023 Sentry Tournament of Champions in Hawaii.
The last time we saw the boys in action, Adam Svensson earned his first win on Tour at the RSM Classic in November. Tom Kim earned his second career win a month before at the Shriners Children’s Open.
There were 12 first-time winners on Tour in 2022. Golfweek predicted two of them, while four won on other tours. So who do we have our eyes on for next year? From veterans to rising stars from the amateur ranks, here are 10 players who we predict will hoist a trophy on Tour for the first time in 2023.
When he saw a second appearance at the Tito’s Shorties Classic pop up on his schedule, the affable Higgs was eager to let loose.
After finishing tied for 14th at the Masters last April, Harry Higgs has seen the walls of competitive golf close in a little tighter, much of the fun of a game he grew up adoring squeezed dry.
He does what he’s supposed to, hitting the range for hours on end, and following with a thorough routine of putting and chipping drills, often at his home club of Trinity Forest near Dallas.
But even Higgs, known for his gregarious personality and insightful one-liners, admits that some of the fun has been sucked out while competing at the game’s highest level. He missed five straight cuts after leaving Augusta and lost his Tour card after a disappointing year that saw him finish just once inside the top 10.
So when he saw a second appearance at the Tito’s Shorties Classic pop up on his schedule, the affable Higgs was eager to let loose and have a little fun.
The event, held at Butler Pitch and Putt in downtown Austin, Texas, is a four-person skins game on a postage stamp in the heart of one of the most vibrant cities in the country. Drinks in hand. Trash talk flying. Dogs and PGA Tour pros walking together. And in the end, perhaps just the potion Higgs needed after a rough stretch.
The event took place in November but will air on Golf Channel on Jan. 11, 2023, at 7 p.m. ET, with Amanda Renner and the Bob Does Sports crew handling commentary. Tito’s donated to the charity each was playing for, with a total donation of $290,000.
“I went on a guys trip with four guys from my club, and I’ve done a few other things for fun here or there, but every time I do something like this, I think and say aloud to basically anybody that will listen, and obviously knowing me that turns into everybody, that holy s—, it is so nice to be reminded of it, but this is supposed to be fun, right?” Higgs said.
“One of the things that surprised me the most in, now, this is now my fourth year, how quickly this turned into a job, which I probably knew was coming, but maybe not as quick as it did.”
The Shorties Classic doesn’t feel like a job, even though he got paid for the event, along with returning player Joel Dahmen and newbies Keith Mitchell and Beau Hossler.
Joel Dahmen raises his hands during the Tito’s Shorties Classic, which will air on Golf Channel while Keith Mitchell and Beau Hossler watch. (Photo courtesy PGA Tour Entertainment)
Higgs and Dahmen will forever be linked through their half-naked escapade at the WM Phoenix Open last year and Mitchell is an old friend who Higgs often lived with while playing on the PGA Tour Latinoamérica. Hossler is a University of Texas grad and the player Higgs called “the smartest guy in the foursome, although he thinks he’s even smarter than he is.”
And according to Higgs, this year’s version of the event lives up to the debut, which featured Pat Perez getting shutout and Harold Varner III winning the top prize for charity by sinking a 15-footer on the final hole with one hand on his putter and the other wrapped around a beach ball.
“This is why we got into the game or anybody got into the game was to hang out with their friends. You know, to be outside and maybe travel to some fancy places. But you don’t travel around. You just go to a place like Butler, because, you know, you might just live just down the street. That’s why we all got into the game, was to have fun with our friends,” Higgs said. “Obviously, enjoy some competition here and there. But like, oh s—, just go have fun with your friends. That’s exactly what this was.”
Higgs is known for fun. And he hopes his game is trending in the right direction after making the cut in his last two events, both sponsor’s exemptions. The SMU product shot a second-round 62 at Mayakoba en route to a T-31 and then followed with a T-21 at the RSM Classic.
And while he can’t reveal how he played at Butler, it fits that he might have shown off the skills that helped him to 13 top-25 finishes in his first two seasons on Tour.
Most important, he thinks the foursome kept it clean enough to give Golf Channel a healthy 22 minutes of programming, something he worried about last year.
“I think we did a pretty decent job at entertaining folks this year, certainly in person and I would imagine it’ll come across on TV as somewhat entertaining,” Higgs said. “Last year I couldn’t believe they found 30 minutes without curse words based on how we had gone. I was shocked when I saw it, I was like holy cow, they didn’t have us cursing at all, because we cursed the entire time.”
“I’d heard some stories about Butler before I agreed to play here last year but I’d never been. I had some friends in Austin, or here in Dallas who got wind that we were going there and basically gave me a heads up,” he said. “But every major city, or not so major city, needs something like this. Butler kind of makes the event, right? There were probably, I would say, close to a thousand people in there, kind of walking around and hanging out, and to a man or woman, they were either saying it out loud or you can see it expressed on their face, how proud they were that we were there at their local pitch ‘n putt.
“I do not believe that PGA Tour pros should necessarily be in the business of growing the game. That gets talked about a lot and I’ve always been a little like, eh, you shouldn’t listen to us. But if you ask me, we need more courses more things like Butler. And you know, maybe having us come and highlight those courses for the area, and obviously for a good cause like we did, that will certainly help grow the game.”
Harry Higgs shot 63 to vault into a share of the 36-hole lead with Cole Hammer and Andrew Putnam at 12 under in the RSM Classic.
ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. — After shooting 7-under 63 on Friday, Harry Higgs was asked whether he has been putting pretty well of late. He smiled and corrected the writer. “No, I’ve been putting really good,” Higgs said.
Indeed, he has. Higgs gained more than three strokes to the field on the greens at Sea Island Resort’s Seaside Course on Friday, the second best performance in the field and it propelled him into a share of the 36-hole lead with Cole Hammer and Andrew Putnam at 12-under 130 in the RSM Classic.
“It’s usually pretty good,” Higgs said of his putting. “I feel like I have very good touch, and I feel like I read the greens really well, so that should be pretty easy. The only poor putt I hit today was kind of the first one that I had that was slow and I just kind of laughed.”
His ballstriking has been equally as impressive. Higgs has hit 33 of 36 greens in regulation through two rounds.
“The way that I’m putting, I just have to get it somewhere on the green and it’s probably going to come close to going in the hole,” he said.
Higgs struggled last season and is playing out of the Nos. 126-150 category this season. His confidence lagged and it took a hard look in the mirror to realize he’s been his own worst enemy.
“It’s miserable, it sucks, but it’s part of what we have to do,” he said of battling to keep playing privileges each season. “You have to deal with it. It’s OK to be fearful, it’s OK to feel the pressure. It’s just kind of how you react to it, right? Whether you kind of want to run and hide in the corner. Like I wouldn’t say I necessarily ran and hid in the corner, but I was very down on myself.”
Higgs spoke recently about how instead of spiraling down, he’s trying to spiral up and not be so hard on himself. His attitude on the course has improved, and he’s shown some signs of finding life in his game. His Friday 63 marked his fourth bogey-free round of 65 or less already this season.
“I’m going to at some point get out of this rut, which I felt like I was really close to doing in Bermuda and then played a poor day Friday. You know, a couple weeks ago in Mexico it felt like I was at least – the tires were spinning the other way, I was going to get out of it,” he said. “Come here and sure, I could do a lot of things better than I did this week so far, but I think I’m tied for first place, so you can take it easy, man. Like it’s OK to hit a few poor shots and smile a little bit and joke.”
“Henley’s a guy when he gets going he’s not scared to keep the pedal down and that’s what he’s doing this week.”
Shooting 8-under 63 at El Camaleon Golf Course is impressive, but to back it up and do it two days in a row that qualifies as golfing your ball.
Add in the fact that Russell Henley is the only player in the field that is bogey-free through 36 holes and well, let’s just say Henley is in the zone as he improved to 16-under 126 to lead by three strokes over Will Gordon and Sam Ryder at the World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba in Riviera Maya, Mexico.
“I felt great the last two days,” Henley said. “Mentally felt confident and believing in what I was doing. Hit a lot of fairways and had some nice par saves today that kept my round going. Obviously very happy with where I am.”
As he should. Henley, who last won in 2017, made birdie on three of his final four holes to pull ahead. Henley going low early is nothing knew for him. Since the start of the 2020-21 season, of the seven opening 36-hole scores of 126 or better on Tour, Henley has recorded three of them.
“He’s a guy when he gets going he’s not scared to keep the pedal down and that’s what he’s doing this week,” said Sirius XM PGA Tour Radio’s John Rollins.
Henley has hit 24 of 28 fairways on a course that demands accuracy off the tee and he’s taken advantage of preferred lies being implemented after more than an inch of rain on Wednesday.
“Just being in a good head space for those tee shots is a good start,” Henley said. “Things were going my way.”
That’s putting it mildly for the 33-year-old Henley who is bidding for his fourth PGA Tour title.
“We got blessed today with a beautiful day on the island,” said Smotherman.
Austin Smotherman prepped for the Butterfield Bermuda Championship by playing in a member-guest last week. Arjun Atwal played in his home club’s weekly Friday game. It may not sound like the typical way to get ready for a PGA Tour event but there’s no arguing with their results. On a day when the wind off the Atlantic Ocean decided to lay down and the conditions were ripe for scoring, Smotherman shot a career-low 9-under 62 at Port Royal Golf Course in Southampton, Bermuda, to share the first-round lead with rookie Harrison Endycott, who bogeyed his first two holes but rallied with two eagles. They are a stroke better than six golfers, including Atwal, who wasn’t even in the field when he woke up Thursday morning, and Adam Schenk, who drove to the airport without his clubs and had to re-book his flight.
“We got blessed today with a beautiful day on the island,” said Smotherman.
The 28-year-old second year pro played in the second group out in the morning and took advantage of soft, smooth greens. He needed just 23 putts and said the longest one he made was no more than 13 feet on Thursday. Last week, he played in the member-guest at his home course in Dallas, Trinity Forest, which formerly hosted the PGA Tour’s AT&T Byron Nelson.
“Shout-out for The Crony,” Smotherman said of the member-guest tournament. “We had our greens rolling maybe 13 and it blew 25, 30 all weekend. I was thinking I was coming here, getting these conditions, it’s almost the opposite of what I just had. I was like, ‘Come on, where’s the wind?’ Like we were just practicing that.”
Smotherman, who has been working hard on his wedge game, said his ballstriking with his short irons was dialed in. That’s been the part of his game that has held him back.
“How do we find three shots a tournament and it’s some of these wedges,” he explained. “I was missing these wedges short-sided.”
Smotherman last made headlines when he double-bogeyed his final hole of the Wyndham Championship to miss the cut and ended up losing his Tour card for this season. But he received a reprieve when several players defected to LIV Golf, making him fully-exempt this season. How did it feel to shoot his career low?
“Good, let’s go better tomorrow, why not,” he said. “We’ve still got room.”
The first two rounds of the 2022 Sanderson Farms Championship at The Country Club of Jackson are complete. It’s the second event of the PGA Tour’s 2022-23 season. Scores were lower during the second round, as numerous players climbed up the leaderboard to put themselves in position ahead of moving day.
Thomas Detry fired his second consecutive round of 5-under 67, and he leads at 10-under 134. Mackenzie Hughes caught fire Friday, shooting 8-under 64, and he’s one back of Detry. Sepp Straka is tied with Hughes after his round of 6-under 66.
The cut was 2-under 142. There are 78 players moving on to the weekend.
Here’s a look at a few notable names who missed the cut at the Sanderson Farms Championship:
Just a few hours later, PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan released a memo to players saying: “We have been preparing to protect our membership and contest this latest attempt to disrupt our Tour, and you should be confident in the legal merits of our position.”
This week in Greensboro, North Carolina, is the final event of the 2021-22 PGA Tour regular season, the Wyndham Championship.
Several players in the field, and a few on social media, have responded to the lawsuit.
Here’s a look at some of the players in the field at the 3M Open in Blaine, Minnesota, who failed to make the weekend.
Cameron Champ looked to be toast.
The defending 3M Open champion opened with 75 and was 6 over through 26 holes. The odds weren’t in his favor to play the weekend this time. But the 27-year-old Northern California native refused to quit. He snagged a birdie at No. 18, his 27th hole of the tournament, before catching fire on the final nine holes. He closed with four birdies on his final five holes, including a 21-foot birdie putt at No. 9 to shoot 68, which secured him weekend plans in the Twin Cities.
A gutsy performance, indeed. Same goes for Rickie Fowler, who straddled the cutline most of the day and made it on the number after a bogey at No. 16, posting a 36-hole total of 1-over 143. So did Maverick McNealy, who had missed just four cuts all season. Double bogeys at Nos. 9 and 11 stacked the deck against him, but he canned a 40-foot birdie putt at 17 and an 8-foot birdie at 18 to give himself a one-strike cushion and lock up a tee time for Saturday.
Here’s a look at some of the players in the field at the 3M Open in Blaine, Minnesota, who weren’t so lucky.
AUGUSTA, Ga. — Harry Higgs has one competitive round under his belt and claims to have found the answer to Augusta National.
“There is no secret out here,” Higgs said. “There’s one place to miss, and one place to hit. It just falls on you to execute it.”
The Dallas native posted 1-under 71 on Thursday and is vying to continue the recent trend of first-time participants making a weekend splash.
Since 2019, seven competitors have broken par in every round of their debut, while Sungjae Im (2020) and Will Zalatoris (2021) finished as runner-up.
“I don’t think it really takes more than three or four rounds around this place beforehand,” Higgs said. “Most of the young guys, I don’t think they really pay attention to the moment. They get lost in what they’re trying to do. They trust their ability.”
Prior to 2019, only 14 first-timers had ever posted four sub-par rounds in the history of the Masters Tournament, dating to 1934.
So, why the recent splurge?
Higgs’ hypothesis is simple:
“A lot of guys just want to show off. They want to prove to themselves and everybody else that they’re capable of winning these things.”
Flags on top of the Masters scoreboard blow in the wind during the first round of the 2022 Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club. (Photo: Adam Cairns/The Augusta Chronicle)
In 1984, Larry Mize accomplished the feat in his Masters housewarming, and gave two reasons why the current crop is experiencing early success.
“First-time players are good, obviously, that’s the number one thing,” Mize said. “Also, the length some of these kids is a big asset around here. When you’re hitting short irons into greens, that’s the whole thing about this golf course: put the ball in the right spots on the greens.”
Mize noted that before his first competitive round, he had only played Augusta National twice. Today, however, notable collegiate programs are often invited for annual outings.
For Scottie Scheffler, who clipped par in each round of his debut in 2020, his teams at the University of Texas were invited to play each season.
“I know Georgia, Georgia Tech bring the kids over here to play it,” Mize said. “That could definitely play a role.”
Still, no first-timer has left Augusta in green since Fuzzy Zoeller in 1979. For Higgs, he doesn’t view inexperience as a liability.
The SMU product played practice rounds at Augusta National in December, March, and then spent Sunday and Monday picking the brain of Dustin Johnson.
“D.J. was a wealth of knowledge,” Higgs said. “Kudos to him. The best piece of advice is that this golf course is really hard. Four holes play under par year after year, and those are the par 5s. There’s nothing wrong with making pars.”
Higgs donned an Amen Corner belt on Thursday, and was asked if he plans to wear the item all week.
“I have another Augusta belt, and then a Trinity Forest belt,” he said. “We’ll see.”
