Higgins a qualified success?

THE bookmakers rate him 1,000/1 and even his most ardent supporters in Kerry and Cork could hardly quibble with that. But David Higgins is quietly confident that he can make an impression in this week’s Open Championship, his self-belief soaring last night after he had completed his first full practice round over the Turnberry links.

It was so familiar to him that at times he felt he was being transported back home to places like Ballybunion and his beloved Waterville.

And while liking a course is no guarantee of playing well when the real business begins, Higgins is satisfied that he can capitalise on the outstanding achievement of qualifying last week at Glasgow Gailes by claiming one of four places available in a field of 96.

“It was five and a half hours of torture waiting to see if I had qualified,” he recalled. “Two of the guys in the last few groups had played well the previous day so it came down to the very last group before I knew I had qualified. It is like a dream come true for me. I grew up playing courses like this and something you always want to do is play in the Open, so it’s fantastic.

“Turnberry is unbelievable. It’s just like home. If I play well, my game is good enough to do well out there. I am really looking forward to it. It is not easy but it is very scoreable if you are hitting the ball well off the tee. But if you are not, it is goodnight and goodbye, thanks very much. It suits my game because I hit the ball straight so I should be comfortable out there.

“It is all in front of you. If you hit it straight, the course is not very long. But if you are a couple of yards off line, you could be going in with five and six irons for your third shot into a par four. My cousin Andy Daly from Mallow will be caddying for me and trying to keep me as relaxed as possible. I’d be very comfortable on this course. It is like playing holes in Ballybunion, holes in Waterville. It is something we would all be used to, coming from Ireland.”

It’s easier said than done, of course, playing an Open Championship in front of so many people and with so much at stake. Mentally, it can be very draining and so David Higgins is just one of those who seeks diversions, if not quite distractions, to help get the job done.

“I guess you have chats with yourself and try and pretend you are going around Waterville, try to feel as if you are playing at home,” he mused. “Standing on the tees, the fairways here look very tight but if you picture a hole at home, you go for a hole you have played hundreds of times and do it again. There are shapes. There is a lot of Ballybunion in this golf course, such as the 9th. There are a few holes with no bunkers out there. It is like playing Ballybunion on a Friday morning. If you miss the fairway you know you can’t get up in two. It is made for me.

“It is just the surroundings that are different, with all the people and the whole lot. If I can get over that I will be fine. I wouldn’t be concerned about who I am playing with (his partners are two other qualifiers, Englishman Jeremy Kavanagh and Australian Daniel Gaunt).”

So Higgins has come to Turnberry in a good frame of mind. Most observers doubtless believe he would do well to make the cut and that has to be the first priority for a man who has been unable to clinch a regular, year-to-year card on the European Tour and who lost almost all of 2008 to illness and loss of form. And just as Pádraig Harrington believes he was right to play the Irish Championship last week on a links rather than the Scottish Open at Loch Lomond, Higgins feels he is also helped in the same way.

“Pádraig has gone from pure links to more of the same,” he pointed out. “We grew up playing these courses. This is the golf we knew. And if the wind blows, I feel I would have an advantage over a lot of guys. I’d see the shot quicker than a lot of guys and maybe play the six iron from 130 rather than hitting a hard nine up in the air.

“I went from Glasgow to the IPGA Championship at the European Club and that was a big disappointment. I tried my hardest on every shot but played poorly for the first three days running up nines and stuff like that and even lost four golf balls. But to come from there to here is good because there is nothing harder than last week.”

How would David feel about playing late on Sunday afternoon?

“I would love that,” he declared. “Why would I come over here otherwise? Hopefully on Sunday there will be a big crowd and you have to be ready for it and comfortable in that atmosphere. That’s why we’re here. That’s why we keep practising and going to Q-Schools and all sorts of stuff. It’s for days like these.”