Harry Higgs says he will be fine without golf, but is not ready to call time on his career

Harry Higgs does not believe his professional career is nearing its end, but he is learning to accept that any outcome is possible. After the second round of the AdventHealth Championship, he spoke candidly about the pressure of results, the fight for tour status and a life beyond golf.

On Friday, Higgs answered a five-word question from PGA Tour communications staffer Kevin Prise. Higgs had just shot a seven-under 65 in the second round of the AdventHealth Championship on the Korn Ferry Tour. The score carried him through the cut and into the weekend. The conversation lasted about two minutes, but it addressed a much larger issue: whether Higgs still loves the pursuit of professional golf.

“Yeah, I love the pursuit,” Higgs began. “And I’m focusing much too much—which is not how you should say that—but much too much on the result of everything. And that’s just the way the business is, right? The better the results are, the more self-belief you have, the less doubt you have, and you’re usually happier. I’m trying to come up with ways to not worry about the result and just worry about the pursuit.”

This has been a difficult season for Higgs. He has made only three cuts in 11 PGA Tour starts. He has also divided his schedule between the PGA Tour and the Korn Ferry Tour, where he has made five cuts in 11 events. He will likely finish his 12th year as a professional without a PGA Tour victory.

That record does not tell the whole story of his career. Over 12 years, Higgs has collected approximately $5.7 million in PGA Tour earnings, played in major championships and done more than simply make up the field. At this year’s U.S. Open, he was tied for seventh after two rounds. Many golfers would regard a career like that as an achievement in itself.

Professional golf, however, requires more than the ability to compete. Higgs’ results have placed him in a difficult position in both status systems. He is ranked 184th in the PGA Tour’s season-long points race, where the top 100 receive full status. On the Korn Ferry Tour, he is ranked 141st, while the top 60 receive full cards.

As a result, Higgs will likely have to find a way to continue through one of the available routes while also producing strong results late in the season. His exact path is not yet clear. At home, his wife and newborn son are waiting, so the uncertainty involves more than a tournament schedule; it also affects family life.

“This year has been a lot of enjoying it more Monday through Wednesday instead of Thursday through Sunday because I’m just not being super nice to myself,” Higgs said. “And just getting down—it wasn’t even that bad of a shot or I really wasn’t that far off. Or I wasn’t really ready, which is something I can control. That pisses me off.”

The conflict between enjoying the process and dealing with results is familiar even to the game’s best players. The GOLF.com report noted that Scottie Scheffler discussed a similar challenge at a press conference during The Open Championship a year earlier. When results do not match expectations, the daily work of playing golf can become exhausting.

Higgs said the love of the game is still there. “But I do love it,” he continued. “I wouldn’t say that I’m—I don’t think I’m nearing the end. But I think I’m coming to grips with, like, yeah, this is, golf is cool—and it is really cool, being able to do this, and the every day, almost every hour, pursuit of trying to get better at this thing is a lot of fun.”

His goal for the rest of the season is to push the results into the background and enjoy the competition more. He acknowledged that nobody can completely eliminate thoughts about outcomes, especially with next year’s status at stake, but he believes his response to those thoughts can change.

“I need to kick the results—who cares—which is impossible to do completely and totally—and enjoy the competition a little bit more,” Higgs said. “That’s definitely going to kind of be the goal as I finish this year out, which is going to be a stressful finish. You know, how do I set up, what’s going to be next year, all this stuff.”

At the same time, Higgs has become more comfortable with the possibility that his playing career could end sometime in the next several years. “But yeah, if I finish playing in the next handful of years or who knows, I’ve come to grips with I’ll be OK, too,” he said. “I’ve got a great family, and I’m enjoying being here and playing that dad role and cleaning up after everybody and trying to do my part. But if it’s not golf, I’ll figure it out.”

He added that he wanted this discussion to become only “a blip on the radar” and planned to move forward. Higgs has not abandoned his ambitions. He still believes he can accomplish significant things in the game.

“And I really do think I can achieve some pretty great things in the game still,” he said. “I just got to keep that belief for the five hours as we walk around. And when it gets hard—when I’m not feeling my best or swinging my best or whatever—keep that belief and go from there.”

Higgs was scheduled to play his final round of the AdventHealth Championship on Sunday. The tournament offered another opportunity to improve his position in the status battle and to test the approach he described: judge himself less by one number on a scorecard and focus more on the round in front of him. His season is not over, but Higgs has already drawn a clear line for himself: he still believes in what he can accomplish on the PGA Tour, while knowing that his life will not end with professional golf.