THE MODERATOR: Harry, 5-under today. Clearly top the leaderboard. A ton of guys still out there. How would you assess your round through today and then through 36 holes?
HARRY HIGGS: I mean, I'm beating a lot of people, so it's pretty good. Yeah, hell, I've been playing pretty good golf. I don't really have many results to show for it, but it was nice to have two days worth of it. Hopefully do the same thing and keep going and have four days to show for it.
Yeah, no, sir, driving it okay. Irons have been great. Starting to see some putts go in the hole. Some weird reads out here, which is probably helping me. Not just like, Eh, looks like it's just a little outside the right. There are some weird ones. Very happy with how I've done so far.
THE MODERATOR: How did the course hold up after the rain that came through this morning?
HARRY HIGGS: It was totally fine. One mud ball that I was almost crying and moaning about and just dealt with it and actually hit a very nice shot.
It barely rained. I really enjoy this golf course. It's really a ton of fun to play. It's pretty rare. I don't think I can give a single hole a hard time, and that's pretty rare, especially -- well, for all of us, but especially me.
Q. You had mentioned coming into the event you felt like you were playing pretty well, but you didn't have a lot to show for it. Mentally what's it like to deal with the struggles of -- you know what I'm saying?
HARRY HIGGS: Yeah. I mean, how long do you have? You think about everything, right? Why is it not working for me? I've struggled before, and this is different. This is like, wait a second, I'm doing things like really pretty well in comparison to when I was struggling maybe a couple of years ago, two, three years ago.
So that's probably almost harder knowing that I have quote, unquote, a lot of arrows in my quiver right now, but I'm not picking any of the right ones. Three years ago there might have been a lone arrow. That was it.
Yeah, it's difficult. You think about everything. You think about how can I continue to get better? Am I doing the right things? Do I need to do more of them? Do I need to do less of them? Do I need to do better mentally? Do I need to do -- well, you always need to do better mentally. Do I need to be nicer to myself?
I tried to just continue to give myself some grace that's, like, this is a long year, this has been kind of garbage to this point, but it really didn't feel like it. Eventually it was going to not be garbage.
I hope it's this week, and if not, I think I'm really going to start playing some good golf hopefully for a little longer. I think I'm going to have my run hopefully this week and soon-ish.
Q. Was there any point out there yesterday or today where you felt like it was kind of starting to click for you?
HARRY HIGGS: I started on 10 yesterday, so the second hole I hit a great 3-wood that goes just into the rough. With the wind and where the flag was, it was going to be a good shot to hit it on the green.
I judged the lie awesome and hit it up in the air, and it was going to be close, but just covered the bunker, and I probably had, like, 12 feet. That's a really good shot from there even though it's a wedge. It hits up on top of the lip of the bunker and goes all the way down. Not to throw anybody under the bus. Pretty poor rake job. I don't know who it was, but pretty poor rake job. And hack it out to probably 14 feet.
I almost did the woe is me. Like, holy cow, the three shots that I've hit. To get it out of the bunker was a Herculean effort as well. The three shots that I hit on this hole do not deserve 14 feet for par. Then it was, like, dude, I mean, it's not even noon on Thursday yet, and this is the second hole that I've played. It's okay.
Fortunately, I made the putt, which I almost wish I didn't just to see if I could have snapped out of it because I've been -- I can get angry. I can get really angry, and I'm allowing myself to get angry, but I can't have the anger, like, just totally basically own me. It's okay to do it for a little bit. Preferably not loud and not -- which sometimes I have to work on.
I'm curious how I would have been. I don't know that I would have been standing here. I like to think that I would, but I don't know if I would have been standing here if I didn't make that putt. Those four shots that I just hit do not deserve five, but in golf you don't really get what you deserve that often either.
So it was nice to see that go in, and then really it was pretty easy after that.
Q. What was an example of maybe how you would have handled what happened today between 17 and 18?
HARRY HIGGS: Yeah, I don't really know how bad the tee shot that I hit on 17 was. I mean, where it landed was about 30 yards left of a flag that was 170-some yards. For us that's pretty bad, but I think I was standing there and howling in off the left. I was maybe going to be a little too aggressive, but I felt good, I was just going to hold the draw against it the whole time. I don't think the wind really did much because it drew the whole time.
Yeah, after that I didn't really hit any bad shots, and I made five. I think I did a much better job of almost using my anger after 17 on 18 and the way that 18 was playing just then, a four was fantastic. I was probably going to be between 6- and 7-iron. If 7-iron puffed up at all and wasn't low enough, I might hit it in the water. So I did a nice job of actually let's just murder the 6 to the back of the green and get out of here with four and be done for two days.
So I did a really good job, to be clear-head and make that decision. Yeah, I guess I'm pretty proud of that. I'm talking my way into that. I'm pretty proud of that. I need to do more of that tomorrow.
Q. On a much lighter and ungolf-related note, I saw a clip where you had made a bet with your trainer that you were going to be able to dunk a basketball in a couple of years.
HARRY HIGGS: We talked about it in the rain delay. I am of the belief that I and anybody, you can train yourself to do anything. I think somebody brought up marathon. I think a marathon would be easier, and I know looking at me, that sounds ridiculous.
I have been getting stronger in the gym, more explosive to hit the ball further, and I have started to hit it further, which is great. I said it in passing. It's not a couple years. I said I think I could do it within a decade.
Now, I'm 33. I understand that the decade is going to be a little short. If I were to do it, which I'm never going to, I think I have, like, two to four years of -- probably two years of straight training. I think it would be possible.
Now, I sat at a second breakfast after the rain delay, 1:30, 2:00. Quick math, how many guys? Half the guys in there. I think everybody heard it and/or had something to say, and no one in the morning wave today believes that I could do that.
That doesn't deter me, though. Now, we're not really going to find out, although I think they would go hand in hand to some degree. If I trained to dunk, I would probably start hitting it further and further and further too. Just more explosive, but I do worry that maybe I would hurt myself, and as much as I don't always maybe show it or tell myself, I do like what I do. I would like to be able to do this for a long time and maybe not hurt myself, so we'll see. Maybe, yeah.
Q. I happened to follow you from early morning today. You hit a great drive on 2, but a pretty poor wedge.
HARRY HIGGS: Oh, yeah.
Q. Then you hit a great putt and another great putt on 3. If you would have missed any of those two, do you think that would have changed the round?
HARRY HIGGS: I mean, yeah, it could have. In a perfect world it wouldn't have. It was still just raining, and I couldn't really get -- I should have gotten more comfortable over the wedge on 2. It was pretty simple, and it was a good number.
You just worry that when it's raining a little bit and the ground is wet, wedges knock spin off, and it can go further. I just kind of babied it and pushed it into the right bunker.
Yeah, again, if the putt on 2 had just missed, I think I was going to be okay because that was the start of the day. I could kind of start seeing it because there are some really odd breaks and green changes here. I really saw that one well. It was nice that it went in the hole.
Again, I would like to say that I would have been nice to myself, and I almost in the back of my head was saying, you know, the result of what happens on this putt doesn't really matter. It's kind of how ready can you get and how -- you know, how much can I calm myself down before I hit it too?
It was nice to get the one in on 3 as well. Did I birdie -- yeah, birdied the next hole. It was nice to get off to a good start.
Made a little easier after having a good start the day before. You can almost afford a bogey or two to start, and then you can get back into it. Yeah, I guess I'm glad we'll never know, but I think I was ready. I think if I wasn't, I'm getting really close to ready to doing a better job of dealing with the anger and frustration that comes with silly bogeys like that.
Q. You seem to be about the only player that has figured out the greens as far as I've seen. Everyone has mentioned that they're being really tough. How did you figure them out? If you can't, what do you do?
HARRY HIGGS: Well, it was real hard at the end because there's not a ton of grass. That's not to say -- they're in perfect condition, but they're almost -- you know, Bermuda gets a little frictionless, and they're fast. With the wind blowing, it moves it even more.
Then I hit 18 putts today. I think 15 to 16 of them the grain at some point is going the opposite way of the slope that it's on. It's wild. That's where our rules officials are really good. Very frustrating, but really good at setting up the golf course.
Yeah, I kind of just trusted that it was going to -- almost all of them at some point stopped breaking. It's very rare. The slope and the grain don't go in the same direction all the time, so it's going to break a little bit and then it's going to straighten up.
Then, yeah, I had good touch too. I think you've got to have some pretty soft speed here too to get it to do both of the breaks. Yeah, I think 15, 16 putts I hit today were darn near double breakers. Even short ones. I mean, 5-, 6-footers go two ways. It's wild.
Hopefully I can continue to see the greens well because you can definitely just keep burning a bunch of edges and lose your mind. Didn't burn edges and didn't lose my mind.
Q. And you outdrove your playing partners by 30 to 50 yards today. Is that normal to you? Has that happened gradually?
HARRY HIGGS: A couple of times. Patrick Fishburn, he pounds it too. So does Henrik. I'm trying to get faster. It's only going to help. I'm never going to get super fast, Rory fast or anything like that, but it has certainly helped.
It threw me for a loop in Dallas last week. It's a place I've played countless times, and now all of a sudden I'm flying the ball probably I would say close to 15 yards longer. I'm not used to having to hit it over there versus there, right?
Not to say that -- I did a lot of other things not so great either, but yeah, it's a nice, really nice, tool to have. Yeah, and I've been driving it even straighter.
So more explosive exercises in the gym. I know it doesn't look like it, but a lot of gym. A lot of gym. Move heavy stuff fast.
Q. I just want to do see what your overall impression has been of the tournament considering it's only in its second year?
HARRY HIGGS: It's fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. I don't think you could get better than it was last year. It was so good last year. If it's not better yet, it's just as great.
Everybody is thrilled that we're here, which is not always the case, and that's very nice. This is obviously an opposite field event. It's fun playing an opposite field event. There are people everywhere. The people here play and love and know golf. That's awesome.
Then once you walk in the doors here, I mean, the food has been fantastic. The treatment has been -- courtesy cars for an opposite field event. Look, I love it. I love it.
I haven't done a ton in Myrtle Beach. I don't know if I would love that, but we've got a great house, and I've just really enjoyed hanging with a couple of buddies and cooking up some dinner. I think it's my turn again tonight. It's been awesome. The tournament is fantastic.
Q. Who are you staying with?
HARRY HIGGS: Joel. Three weeks in a row. Played together in New Orleans by choice. Played together last week. Not by choice. Then staying together. Joel did some awesome steaks, though, the other night.
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