After mental reboot, Harry Higgs starts strong in Bermuda

SOUTHAMPTON, Bermuda – Harry Higgs said he went on a “deep dive” to right himself for this week’s Butterfield Bermuda Championship at Port Royal Golf Course, where he opened with a 7-under 64.

He was missing shots left, going through the motions, and generally “having a bad attitude” last season, when he missed the FedExCup Playoffs.

Missing left? OK, fine. But hang on. Harry Higgs with “a bad attitude?”The guy who brought the house down at the WM Phoenix Open, has 80,000 Twitter followers, and seemingly connects with fans by the busload?

Yes, that Harry Higgs. He confessed that his attitude has been miserable but after starting strong in Bermuda, he asked that you hear him out.

“I know there are a lot of people who watch and follow me no matter what I do,” said Higgs. “And that’s great. The last couple of years I’ve had some notoriety for things not tied to my successes on the golf course and I understand that.

“But I want to be really good at this game,” he continued. “I have lofty goals. I’m self-aware that I play my best golf when I’m smiling and happy … but in the last six months there have been dark thoughts. I legitimately have not played good golf since (finishing T-14) at the Masters.”

Higgs followed his Masters high with 10 missed cuts in 14 starts and only one finish inside the top 30, missing the Playoffs for the first time in three years. That hurt, and while he wants people to know that his sour attitude didn’t impact the big picture (“I still consider myself very lucky to be doing this”), he knew he had to make an adjustment.

That has meant kicking himself “in the rear” and letting his lousy season shock his system. Be that as it may, he added with a laugh, that doesn’t mean you won’t see Higgs enjoying himself. You will. Often.

“That is who I am,” he said. “It’s not an act.”

His improved attitude came into play on his first hole Thursday, when he split the fairway at the par-4 10th and found his ball in a divot. “I could have said to myself, Great, so this is how it’s going to go,” said Higgs. “But instead, I said, I can still hit a good shot here.”

He did, too, and while it carried a little long and to the back of the green, the 30-year-old from Camden, New Jersey, got up and down for par. It was the first of many highlights (just 24 putts; he saved par all seven times he missed a green) in a bogey-free round. Higgs did what one has to do on a day when scores were low – he kept himself in it, just two off the torrid morning pace established by Austin Smotherman (62).

“It’s very nice to get off to a good start,” Higgs said. “… Fun to get in the mix. Fun to at least look at your name close to the top of the leaderboard again for the first time in a long time.”

Fun. He said it twice, and insists that is still a very big part of his persona, but he vows to throw in some better golf to make it even more fun.