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SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. (AP) -- Harry Higgs was ready to quit golf, burned out by the mental beatings he gave himself, shortly before becoming what he believes was the last of the 156 players in the U.S. Open field.
It was only Monday that he was added to the tournament as an alternate, so late that he never unpacked after arriving in New York. With his clothes still in his suitcase, he pulled the wrong item out Thursday morning, which is why he mistakenly showed up at Shinnecock Hills in shorts before a frantic wardrobe change allowed him to play.
Good thing. The Big Rig is trucking into the weekend with his first made cut of the year on the PGA Tour.
“I let the day build and build and build, and man, I felt like a rock star out there,” Higgs said Friday. “I felt like I could do anything.”
Higgs shot a 2-under 68 in the second round, boosted by a 75-foot putt for birdie after missing the 11th green, the kind of bad miss that for so long caused him to spiral. Higgs acknowledged that his tee shot was “the worst place you can hit it” but said he only had about a “3 out of 10 freakout.”
“That would have been, hell, even a week ago, that probably would have been an 8, 9, 10 out of 10 freakout that I would have blamed something or someone else,” Higgs said.
Not this week. Higgs told himself he was going to stop berating himself and play like he belonged. He goes into the weekend at 1 under, six shots behind leader Wyndham Clark.
“Again, there’s a lot of golf left, but I can just choose to be a factor,” Higgs said. “If the golf goes my way and the result goes my way, great, but I can choose to just, like, ‘Hey, you don’t have to be a small, insignificant piece of the 156 that was playing here,’ even though I think I was 156 of 156.”
Higgs has seen the highs of golf, with a tie for fourth in the 2021 PGA Championship and a top-15 finish a year later at the Masters. But he was having trouble dealing with the lows, and lately there have been many of them as he plays on the Korn Ferry Tour, missing the cut in all six of his PGA Tour starts.
He was ready to give it up while playing in a U.S. Open qualifier on June 8. He thought he was out of it early and this time perhaps never coming back.
“Through six holes in the 36-hole day, I was really close to quitting golf,” Higgs said. “It went the same way as it’s always gone. I missed a bunch of putts from short range early for birdie and then made a terrible bogey on 6. Took my phone out, booked a flight back home to Kansas City from Charlotte.
“We were playing just outside Charlotte and was, like, I’m just going to go home. I’m going to walk off after the ninth hole. I’m just going to go home. I don’t even know if I’m going to go to Amarillo and play the Korn Ferry, and I don’t know that I’m going to keep doing this.”
He stuck around and played well over the final 27 holes. It wasn’t good enough to qualify, but he did secure one of the alternate spots. When Bud Cauley won the Canadian Open last weekend and became automatically into the field, Higgs got his spot, getting the official call when he was preparing to fly from Texas.
The flight was delayed, so he didn’t get to Shinnecock until Monday afternoon. Then came the fashion faux pas, when he grabbed gray shorts instead of gray pants after his 3:30 a.m. wake-up Thursday. He borrowed a pair until his wife rushed his own to him, which was good, because the golfer who is listed at 235 pounds and leaves unbuttoned the top two on his golf shirt with the Dude Wipes logo thinks the other pair would have ripped.
He stayed positive then and thinks that can continue.
“I haven’t had that feeling in a while,” Higgs said. “I would love to recreate it over the next two days, and if I don’t, I’m just going to try my damnedest and see what happens.”
U.S. OPEN NOTES
SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. (AP) -- A brief look at the second round of the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills (all times EDT):
LEADING: Wyndham Clark made a 35-footer on No. 18 to shoot 1-under 69 and head into the weekend with a four-shot lead at 7-under 133.
CHASING: Former champions Matt Fitzpatrick and Xander Schauffele are part of a four-way tie for second at 3 under.
ALSO THERE: The others in second place are Sam Stevens and Tom Kim.
SEE YA NEXT YEAR: Bryson DeChambeau led a parade of former champions who missed the cut. The list included Jon Rahm, Brooks Koepka and defending champion J.J. Spaun.
YOU FORGOT WHAT?: Harry Higgs showed up for the first round wearing shorts, which is verboten at the U.S. Open and most pro golf events. He had to borrow a pair of long pants from a friend and his wife rushed over with more options before the first tee. He’s at 1 under heading into the weekend.
TEMPER, TEMPER: Joaquin Niemann got penalized two shots for throwing a club in frustration on the sixth hole in the first round. He carded an 11 there. And then, on Day 2, he shot 65 to make the cut.
SCOTTIE WATCH: Scottie Scheffler broke par for the first time in his last 11 U.S. Open rounds. He'll start the weekend at even par after shooting 68.
NOTEWORTHY: Led by Ryder Cowan (even), five amateurs made the cut, marking the first time that many will play the weekend since 2015.
QUOTEWORTHY: "I was on top of the world in my game, at least when I won the U.S. Open, and then had some good years. Then, next thing you know, I'm apologizing for breaking a locker." --Clark, the 2023 champion who broke a locker out of frustration at Oakmont last year.
KEY STATISTIC: Clark’s four-shot lead is tied for the fifth biggest after 36 holes at the U.S. Open. Of the others who held a lead of exactly four at the halfway point, only one has gone onto win.
TELEVISION: Saturday, 10 a.m. to noon (USA), noon to 8 p.m. (NBC, Peacock).