‘If I had a fiver for every time…’
Higgins defied the odds and won each time. Whereas Harrington was already an established star in the amateur game and would make his third appearance in the successful British & Irish Walker Cup team at Porthcawl 12 months later, his opponent was only emerging from the shadows at the time.
However, those outstanding victories seemed to suggest that Higgins and Harrington would arrive on the professional first tee on similar terms. They duly came through the 1995 European Tour School and for a time, their twin-track progress to stardom was straight and true. What has unfolded since, however, totally disregards their potential at the time Harrington is the seventh-ranked player in the world and a multi millionaire. Higgins, however, is still struggling to even find a regular niche on the European circuit. Just how has that situation come to pass...
"If I had a fiver for every time I was asked that question, I'd be a wealthy man", says Higgins as he contemplates the paradox in the comfort and warmth of the Lobster Bar and restaurant on a wild day in his native Waterville.
"But there's a long way to go yet. I have a lot of good things going. I might not achieve what he has achieved but I have my own things (I want to achieve). If it was him or somebody else, I'd still have to play the same golf. He went off and did whatever he did. But that man is on a different plane. The two fellas I've seen practice most at tournaments are Vijay Singh and Pádraig Harrington. Why is he doing so well? That's why he's doing so well. I can't do it. If I practised for eight hours, I'd be worse than I was going in there. Believe me, I've tried it. I'm not making excuses but just from watching him, I can see Pádraig loves it, he loves to practice. He's very professional and that's why he is where he is.
"When I beat Pádraig in two finals the Close at Portmarnock and the South at Lahinch it was at two great courses, so there could be no talk of flukes or anything like that. I couldn't see anything in him at the time that suggested he would become one of the best golfers in the world.
"I remember in 1995, the year we got our first cards on tour and we went to South Africa for one of our first tournaments. The two of us made the cut and afterwards we were going somewhere on a bus and he looked at his cheque and it was something like £5,000 and he said, 'I can't believe it, they've given me £5,000 for this and I haven't even played any good.' He was seeing it at an early stage, not that it was easy, but telling himself what an opportunity he had, making that kind of money without even playing well.
"He won very early that year in Spain and that was huge for him. I finished third in the BMW, I know it was only two rounds, but I shot 64 the first day, 70 the second, and who knows what would have happened had it gone on.
"That was one turning point I didn't win, he did. He went one way, I went another. It didn't help when I broke my wrist and elbow in a riding accident in 1997 and I came back much too early. That was another mistake. I shouldn't have played that year. I should have got a medical exemption, practised my golf and come back at the end of the season in a few small events.
"There are fellas you'd never see on a practice ground. I'll never forget Montgomerie. I played a few tournaments with him. Now, he probably practised at home but I never saw him on the range. Ever. And yet he won seven European Tour titles. I played the last two rounds in front of him one year at Crans-sur-Sierre in Switzerland. He shot 61, 64 and he didn't go on the range before either of those two rounds. He hit balls into a net up by the first tee and that was it."
While Higgins unstintingly admires Harrington and Montgomerie for what they have achieved on the golf course, he makes no secret of his belief that Raymond Burns, his great friend from the amateur days, had more natural ability than most golfers.
"The man had more talent in one finger than I ever had in my whole body. I think back now at the things I saw him do and the shots he hit Raymie was doing back then what the top pros are doing today. We used to say 'how did you do that Raymie', and he'd say, 'I don't know, I just did it'. There was no doubt in the man's mind. It was go, go, go all the time, attack, attack, attack."
Alas, the burly man from Banbridge who won two East of Irelands with record low totals, played Walker and Eisenhower Cup and made an immediate mark on turning professional, lost all that genius somewhere along the line and largely confines himself these days to the activities of the domestic Irish PGA Region. That disappoints David Higgins. They are still good friends even if their paths rarely cross nowadays. But David himself has yet to see his own career ignite as surely befits a player of his natural talent. Just listening to him and watching him conveys the pain he has experienced for much of the past ten years but there is no self pity or recriminations just an acceptance that at the end of the day it's really up to himself to make his way in one of the most competitive sporting arenas.
Above all, he doesn't attempt to camouflage the mistakes he has made or to in in any way tell himself that at the age of 32 it is too late to turn things around.
"I feel I'm a much better player now than I was two or three years ago", he insists. "I'm learning more and more. You find what's right for you. My mind-set is the thing that has held me back. But I know I'll get my card back. I know I will and when I do, I'll appreciate it more. When I look back on the years when I had my card, I didn't appreciate it enough. I thought it would come a lot easier than it was coming.
"Was I working hard enough? Probably not. Was I working on the right things? Probably not. Just a totally different mindset, getting more and more out of every single tournament, not saying, alright, I'll do it next week. That's not right. You should examine what happened, where did it go wrong and ensure it's not going to happen the following week. Just getting more out of it and enjoying it. I didn't enjoy it as much as I should have.
"I worked with Jos Vanstiphout (the much respected European Tour mind guru) for a while. Again, it's all stuff we knew as kids, how to deal with pressure. I'm not saying I know it all but there is stuff that I would know myself. It's negative thinking I would have to avoid. I found it beneficial and it still is. I remember what he said and still work on it. I know Harrington works with Aidan Moran as well as Bob Rotella and I've also sat down with Aidan for a few hours. He says very similar things to Jos.
"Do I ever get frustrated, that I feel I have the ability to achieve more from this game than I have done? If you asked me that two years ago, I would have agreed. I was kind of lost and didn't know what the hell I was going to do, maybe get a good club job and relax because this thing was driving me absolutely crazy. I knew myself I could do it but it wasn't happening. I was holding myself back. But the last two years have been good for me. I restarted my whole career. Like in my amateur days when I always set myself a goal at the start if the year, I set myself the target of getting my card back. And I told myself, once you've done that, try and win a tournament. I came up short but I'll do it this year by winning on the Challenge Tour and finishing in the top 15.
"I remember when I won my first tournament on the Challenge Tour (the NCC Open in Sweden in 2000 when he also captured the Hamburg Classic and the Rolex Trophy). Everyone else was gone home but I was sitting alone in my hotel room because I had to wait for the presentation. I looked at the trophy and wondered if this is all it is. After all the work you've put in, there is more to life than winning a trophy. It's about coming home to your family or your girlfriend. I didn't really have that at the time. I wasn't looking at things that way. I was focusing 100% on winning, thinking this is everything, which it is not.
"I'm not saying it's not a big deal but if you could bring it all home and share it with people ... I think having people behind you and supporting you is vital. I didn't have that. It's not that my family wasn't there for me, rather a case of me not allowing them to become involved. I didn't share the disappointments, I bottled them up and beat myself up. I did my own thing and you can't do that. I'm lucky enough to have been with Chubby [Chandler, his manager] since I turned pro but I never picked up the phone and spoke to him even though the man had so much good advice to give me. These are just the stupid things I've done.
"With the card I had last year, I didn't know which tournaments I was getting into. Chubby would say, don't worry, we'll get you into this one and that one. At the end of the year, I finished fifth in Lisbon which got me into Morocco. There was no way I was getting into the big one the following week in Donnington, unless I finished in the top ten. Before going to Morocco, I rang Chubby and he told me not to worry, you're playing well and we'll get you in anyway. Now, whether he could or he couldn't, I believed he could a weight off my mind. As a result, I went to Morocco and finished fifth. I told myself to stop worrying about getting in the following week and I did quite well in the two tournaments which in turn opened other doors for me."
Chief among them was a full Challenge Tour card for 2005. As it happened, the campaign began in December with three tournaments in South America and David duly finished third in the Mexican Open, won 16,080 and immediately put himself near the top of the order of merit and already ideally positioned to be one of the 15 players who automatically win cards on the regular tour the following year. (He is currently fifth with Ulster man Michael Hoey in third place).
"I played nicely in Mexico even if it was an event I could have won", he declared. "To me, it was a big thing. It was the third biggest event of the campaign. I'm in a good position and I know I'm playing well to compete at this level and win these tournaments. I have two great coaches in my brother, Brian and Michael Hebron in Palm Beach and have a wonderful partner in Elizabeth (Conlon). Waterville Golf Links, the Irish Golf Trust and Kearys Toyota in Cork have been excellent sponsors and supporters.
"I've won three Challenge Tour events and at the end of last year could have won three in a row. When I get into that position against these young lads and some who are not so young I'll know how to deal with it better. As for the regular tour, I was lucky enough to get into the European and Irish Opens and the Volvo PGA last year. I know I can compete at that level."
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