Twenty-nine-year-old Harry Higgs has quickly made a name for himself on the PGA Tour. In addition to an impressive rookie season that was highlighted by seven top-25 finishes — including a runner-up at the Bermuda Championship — the New Jersey native also garnered plenty of love on social media with his endearing reaction to making an albatross, and a viral take on October’s “Dreams Challenge” — which featured Higgs lip-syncing to Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” while swigging cranberry juice.
It’s clear that Higgs possesses a certain je ne sais quoi that is basically catnip for golf fans. His easy smile and laid-back attitude is accentuated by his sunglasses, unbuttoned polo and undeniable swagger. Turns out, Higgs is well aware of the confidence he exudes on the golf course, and in this week’s episode of Subpar, he explained to hosts Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz where he thinks that self-belief comes from.
“I haven’t felt like, when I’ve had a chance to win, that I’ve done anything wrong,” Higgs said. “I’ve just gotten beaten. And I’ve always viewed myself in that way, that when the gun’s really gone off, when it really, truly matters, I felt like I was my best-performing self. I have no idea where that comes from. And really, for damn near four years of college and four years as a professional, [that confidence] shouldn’t have really been there anyway. Like, I didn’t have results to think or act or view myself in this way. But I just kept doing it and knew that if I, one, just keep getting a little bit better each day — I know it’s so cliche, ‘get better each day, get better each day’ but truly if you do that over and over and over and then think of yourself in the highest regard, it’s next to impossible, with a good break here and there, it’s next to impossible not to have great weeks more often than not.”
When Knost commented that the members of Higgs’ inner circle that he had spoken to said Higgs had more self-belief than anyone they had ever been around, Higgs acknowledged that it’s true.
“Can we all hit the cut 7-iron to a back-right flag over a bunker?” Higss said. “Yes. Who amongst us believes and knows that they’re going to do it? The best in the world. So either work your way to that frame of mind, but while you’re working to that, don’t ever think that you can’t pull it off. Don’t bail out left. And sometimes bailing out left is fine and you just shake it off and go get it up-and-down, because the best in the world do that too. But think that you can pull every shot off. Then decide whether or not you want to or whether or not it’s the time to.
“For most of my competitive golfing life, like the heightened college and amateur golf, and now professional golf, for a while there, I shouldn’t have been like that,” Higss continued. “But I just was. And I knew that in doing that and staying like that, kind of the eternal optimism, that I gave myself a better chance to be successful anyway. So it was a non-negotiable. That was the way I was going to be.”
For more from Higgs, including the nickname Knost and Stoltz hope will stick and what Higgs believes fuels Bryson DeChambeau, check out the full interview below.
Golf.com Editor
As a four-year member of Columbia’s inaugural class of female varsity golfers, Jessica can out-birdie everyone on the masthead. She can out-hustle them in the office, too, where she’s primarily responsible for producing both print and online features, and overseeing major special projects, such as GOLF’s inaugural Style Issue, which debuted in February 2018. Her original interview series, “A Round With,” debuted in November of 2015, and appeared in both in the magazine and in video form on GOLF.com.
