Thomas Higgins got a brief taste of what life near the top of the leaderboard is like on his professional debut at the Amgen Irish Open and although he fell away to a four-over 74 after a bright start he was pleased with his overall first outing at Doonbeg.
As the wind and rain battered the Trump owned course on Thursday morning, Higgins’ name shone on the electronic scoreboards when he made the turn in two-under 34. Things were going swimmingly for the 23-year-old rookie but as golf finds a way of doing, he was brought back down to earth as he followed bogeys on 11 and 13 with back to back double bogeys on the par-3 14th and par-4 15th to give him an early harsh lesson. To his credit, he played 16 to 18 into a stiff breeze in three pars to end the day on a calm note.
“I played lovely there for the first twelve holes to be honest,” said Higgins. “Just three holes on the bounce that tore the round to pieces really. Other than that I played very solid golf. If you take out the three holes I am happy with my performance. Try and play some more solid rounds tomorrow and hopefully the score is lower.
“It’s surreal to be here now. To make my debut at the Irish Open is unreal. Just really grateful to Golf Ireland for the invite. I couldn’t have imagined a better place to start my pro career than here.
The Roscommon star made an early birdie on the par-5 4th and recovered from a bogey on 7 with a superb eagle on the par-5 8th where he launched a 3-iron from 241 yards to five feet and made the putt to a nice cheer.
“It was a 3-iron. It was kind of lucky it clipped the hill in front of the ball and took all the spin off the ball and managed to run up there which was nice. Not really how I drew it up but I will certainly take it. It was really nice to roll it in for eagle.”
Higgins looked the part out there and flushed a 3-wood for his opening tee shot as a professional so settle any early nerves.
“Pretty good, pretty nervous. I was pretty happy to flush a 3-wood down there and that settled me into the round nicely. I settled into it nice and early, played lots of solid golf going out, was definitely happy with how I started.”
Even some of the players he aspires to emulate in years to come were impressed with his ball striking prowess, even if Jon Rahm was humbled to see the youngster smash a 3-wood 50 yards past the Spaniard in a practice round.
“We all hit 3-woods down the first and he was walking down to his one, thinking it was the further one and it wasn’t the case! It was nice to play with Jon and Tom. It was a good experience to see how they prepare and go about their business on practice days.”
Higgins was backed by a strong Rossie roar and the unique experience of being inside the ropes at an elite professional event was something that certainly will take getting used to for him.
“That’s something that was a unique experience. It’s something that I will get better at. On 5, there was people walking across the fairway and I was stopping for them but they weren’t stopping so I was like I am just gonna hit. I feel like there are a lot scenarios where people are talking and you just have to get on with it and deal with it. It makes it a bit harder to focus at times but that’s part of life out here and tour golf, I better get used to it!”
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