Higgins has 80 reasons to smile

EIGHTY euro may not seem like a lot of money these days.

But to Waterville professional David Higgins it has thrown him a lifeline where his golfing career is concerned.

He realised there were a number of bonuses associated with second place in the English Challenge Open at Donnington Grove on Sunday.

Not least was the very welcome prize money of €12,200, again not a whole lot when set against the €1.4m Ernie Els picked up for his victory in the HSBC World Match Play on the same day at Wentworth. However, for Higgins it was the perfect fit for it moved him to 45th place on the European Challenge Tour by just 80 points and in turn meant he had claimed the 45th and last place in the field for this week's season- ending Grand Final at Golf du Medoc near Bordeaux.

Having failed to progress from the first European Tour pre-qualifier in mid-September and with little or nothing happening on the Challenge Tour, he accepted that his career was "in serious trouble".

"It would have probably meant taking off for Asia, South Africa or the mini-tours in America, which is okay when you're young, but I didn't want to go through all that again."

But respite was just around the corner. To keep a Challenge Tour card, a member must compete in six events and at that stage Higgins had played five and didn't qualify for the remaining tournaments.

In stepped Alain de Soultrait, the director of the tour. It helped that Higgins is one of the gentlemen of Europe's professional golfing circuit and de Soultrait was happy to offer him an invitation to the Estoril Challenge Open in Lisbon starting on the last day of September.

"I had been playing well all year and won seven or eight times on the Irish domestic circuit and so I was confident enough I could get things going again," says Higgins.

"I finished fifth in Lisbon, which put me into the Moroccan Classic the following week, and I again came fifth there and that in turn meant I qualified for Donnington. Those placings also got me into the second pre-qualifying school. Things got better with the second place at the weekend, which means I now go straight to the final qualifier in San Roque next month.

"And if I win in France and nothing else will suffice then I won't have to go there either as I'll make it through my Challenge Tour ranking. If the worst comes to the worst and I don't qualify for the main tour, I'll still have a full Challenge Tour card in 2005."

Higgins enjoyed a glittering amateur career during which he won the Irish Close and South of Ireland Championships in 1994, beating Padraig Harrington in both finals.

He turned professional that year, at the age of 21, and came through the 1995 school to qualify for the regular Tour in '96. He did reasonably well and kept his card by finishing in 99th place, with a best place finish of tied third in the BMW International in Munich.

After that though, it was a struggle, with most of his activity confined to the Challenge Tour, where he enjoyed his biggest success in 2000 when he captured the Gunther Hamburg Classic, along with the NCC Open and the Rolex Trophy.

A second place finish in the money list behind the Swede Henrik Stenson put him back on the main tour in '01, but 124th in the rankings saw him back to the lower division.

It's been difficult ever since but he has always been grateful for the assistance from the likes of Bill Keary of Toyota, Cork, Waterville Golf Club and Team Ireland.

"Yeah, it's been tough but I never lost faith in my game," says Higgins, who celebrates his 32nd birthday on December 1.

"I played well throughout this season and have won the Irish PGA Region for the second successive year, which guarantees me a place in the European and Irish Opens and Volvo PGA Championship next year. That kept me going but mostly you're only playing one or two-day events so when I went on the Challenge Tour I wasn't sharp enough for 72 holes.

"When I missed out on P-Q 1, I asked myself, 'what am I going to do now,' but the turnaround in a month has been incredible. Now I feel I have a good competitive edge, and with the reassurance of a place at the school finals and a full card for the Challenge Tour next year, I'm heading for France with a lot of confidence. I'm playing well and see no reason why I can't finish off the year by winning the Grand Final."

David has good reason to feel positive about Bordeaux after the way he finished the Donnington Grove event on Sunday.

Fifth place had become rather familiar after Lisbon and Morocco and that's exactly where he stood going into Sunday's final round.

"It was cold, windy and miserable as we set out but I'm used to that and it didn't worry me," he recounts.

"I don't know what it is but I felt good on the range and comfortable standing in fifth place. I told myself that a good score was definitely in me and that it would move me a long way up the rankings. I got just the kind of start I needed. I knocked it to four and three feet at the 1st and 2nd for birdies and picked up two more at the 7th and 9th with short putts. I was playing very well and that filled me with confidence.

"I knocked in a 10-footer for my fifth birdie on the 10th and got a huge boost at the 12th which was playing into the teeth of the wind. A five iron from 170 yards finished 10 feet from the pin and I rolled in the putt. The 17th, a par three of about 220 yards, was also playing really tough and when I holed a vital 12-footer for par, only two shots separated the leader Matthew King and myself. And my hopes were really high after a grandstand finish on the last where I hit a drive and six iron to 12 feet and got the putt for a round of 65. To give Michael his due, he stood up to the challenge well and got a birdie of his own at the 16th and beat me by two."