Mental strength pays dividends for Higgins

PHILIP REIDsalutes a battling display by the 39-year-old Kerryman whose efforts netted him a tied-10th finish and €78,300

FORTUNE FAVOURS the brave, or so they say. Unquestionably, though, David Higgins deserved whatever he got for a rather bold decision to play a driver off the deck through trees on the 17th hole of the final round of the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth yesterday.

Higgins’s bravado, demonstrating a new-found mental strength, was an audacious shot that set him up for a birdie on the penultimate hole which enabled him to sign for a finishing 70 for 284, four-under-par, that gave him a tied-10th and a cheque for €78,300.

Not only did his performance equal the best finish by a club professional in the championship of the modern era, it also put the 39-year-old Kerryman back in a position to work towards regaining a tour card as his first payday of the season moved him straight to 113th on the Order of Merit.

Unfortunately, and somewhat bizarrely, the top-10 finish didn’t get him a place in the field for this week’s Wales Open but it should open the door towards earning some sponsors’ invites down the line.

For now, Higgins – who lost his full tour card in 2007 and who has battled away on the Irish PGA region circuit and on the mini-tours since then – can rededicate himself to getting back where he belongs. On tour.

“I’m proud of myself. It’s a stepping stone. I’ve got Portrush (the Irish Open) and a couple of more opportunities and I’m playing well. Who knows where I’m going? I’m proud, hung in there and I’m happy for my mind more than my golf. My golf game was always okay.”

In helping to calm the mind and strengthening that aspect of the game, Higgins and his wife, Elizabeth, attended a four-day mindfulness retreat in London last week before playing in the PGA. “We went to a thing I’ve never gone to before in my life, to do with your mind and it paid off.”

Certainly, there was a mental strength to Higgins’s game as he recovered from an opening bogey and then had to contend with the mayhem generated by his playing partner Marcel Siem’s hole-in-one on the second hole.

To his credit, Higgins kept his mind on the task at hand. Prior to the week, he had set a goal of finishing in the top-10 and birdies on the seventh, 12th and 14th, with a bogey on the 13th, had him within tantalising reach of that target as he stood on the 17th tee aware that he needed a birdie on either of the finishing Par 5s to achieve it.

Higgins’s tee shot on the 17th was pushed into the trees, and he had the option of chipping out sideways or backwards  . . . or going for the bold play, of a driver through the trees. He went for the driver and then hit a wedge approach to 15 feet and rolled in the birdie putt that moved him into a top-10 finish, equalling the finish of Kevin Stables in 1994.

Asked how tough it was going into the final round in sight of his target, Higgins responded: “It was 50 times harder. You have to remember I haven’t been in a position like that in I don’t know how many years, so it was much harder for me. But my mind was great this week. I was proud of myself, to keep going and concentrate on my own game. I knew my game was good enough but I never proved it before because my mind wasn’t strong enough but today it was . . . I’ve done a good job, am on the right track.”