Harry Higgs remains on his 'upward spiral' to grab a share of the lead in RSM Classic

ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. -- It’s hard to imagine Harry Higgs being anything but upbeat but seriously, who could go from a solid finish at the Masters to missing 13 of 18 cuts on the PGA Tour, and do it with a smile?

“It’s miserable and it sucks but it’s part of what we have to do,” Higgs said on Friday after a 63 at the Sea Island Club Seaside Course vaulted him into a three-way tie for the lead in the RSM Classic with Cole Hammer (66, Seaside) and Andrew Putnam (65, Plantation Course) at 12-under-par 130. “It’s okay to be fearful, it’s okay to feel the pressure. It’s just kind of how you react to it, right?”

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Higgs’ reaction in his last two starts, in his own words after a 62 in the second round of the WorldWide Technology Championship in Mayakoba, Mexico, has been to “spiral upward.”

Higgs followed that score with a tie for 32nd after weekend rounds of 69-71 but since he got into that field unexpectedly, thanks to PGA Tour buddy Keith Mitchell interceding with the title sponsor (WorldWide Technology is one of Mitchell’s sponsors), it was a welcome couple of strolls on the weekend after he missed the first three cuts in the 2022-23 season and seven of his previous nine.

Higgs was trending up at Augusta

Higgs, who reached the PGA Tour off his fifth-place Korn Ferry Tour points standing in 2019, seemed on that upward spiral last spring when he tied for 14th in his first Masters Tournament – a spot courtesy of his tied for fourth the year before at the PGA.

But he missed his next five cuts, eight of his next 10 and fell out of the top-125 on the FedEx Cup points list to finish 147th, leaving him with conditional Tour status.

One of the most outgoing and upbeat players on the PGA Tour (he once lip-synched Fleetwood Mac's "Dreams" for a pgatour.com video and joined Joel Dahmen in shucking their shirts at the rowdy 16th hole at TPC Scottsdale), Higgs admitted that he didn’t know where the ball was going when he was over it.

But he kept working and then took advantage of his chance to play in Mexico, thanks to Mitchell.

“A friend like that reaching out, getting me into that event, I feel like it's really close to having changed my career,” Higgs said. “Just what I learned there about myself, what I put into play, how I executed it has led me to now this point through two days. Hopefully you fast forward another couple days and it's a win that obviously changes my life and my career.”

Putnam, Hossler also hungry to win

It also would change the lives of the other two players tied with Higgs.

Putnam has one PGA Tour title, the 2018 Barracuda Championship that was opposite the World Golf Championship Bridgestone Invitational and as a result, carried fewer FedEx Cup points, less money and didn’t earn a spot in the Masters.

A victory would be a seismic jolt for Hammer, a PGA Tour non-member who turned pro this summer, earned conditional Korn Ferry Tour status through a fifth-place finish on the PGA Tour University rankings, but also didn’t better his status when he tied for 59th in the Korn Ferry Tour national qualifier.

Hammer received a sponsor invitation and so far is making the most of it. The last sponsor invitee to win on the PGA Tour was Martin Laird at the 2020 Shriners Hospital for Children Open and the last non-member on a sponsor invitation to win was Matthew Wolff at the 2019 3M Open.

Higgs started his day with a pair of 25-foot birdie putts at Nos. 2 and 6, then started hitting the ball closer and made five more from 16 feet or closer. He ended the day with a 16-footer for birdie at No. 18 to join Putnam and Hammer at the top.

Regardless of some issues finding fairways and greens (Higgs was 157th in driving accuracy and 189th in greens in regulation last season), Higgs said he’s never lost faith in his putting and was 35th in the Tour’s overall putting index.

“I feel like I have very good touch and I feel like I read the greens really well, so that should be pretty easy,” he said. “I have fun with myself over the ball sometimes … ‘okay, let's see if I make this one in the middle or the left center or right center.’ Most of the time I'm pretty darn good at picking it out, but they all pretty much went in the middle today.”

Higgs is spot-on with his ball-striking this week, hitting 33 of 36 greens.

“The way that I'm putting, I just have to get it somewhere on the green and it's probably going to come close to going in the hole,” he said.

Hammer rebounds from early bogeys

Putnam birdied four holes in a row from Nos. 5 to 8 at the Plantation to take the lead, then gave one back with a bogey at the last. But he has a stellar day tee-to-green, hitting 12 fairways and 15 greens.

“I didn't really miss too many shots,” he said. “Hit a lot of close iron shots and just played really great golf. My driving accuracy's been probably the best in my career this last year, so that's really helped. The putting's back to pretty good like it normally is and my irons this week have been pretty sharp. Pretty much every part of my game has been pretty good right now, so it's a fun time to play golf.”

Hammer, who looks about a decade younger than his 23 years, looked wobbly at times in the second round with four birdies and three bogeys. However, he smoothed things out with a short birdie putt at No. 9, then drained a pair of 18-foot birdie putts at Nos. 10 and 12 and had a bogey-free card for his last 10 holes.

“It was massive,” he said of the turnaround. “I was a little bit depressed after [bogeys at] 7 and 8, for sure. I put myself in great position to make birdies and I walked out with two bogeys, and that's almost inexcusable, especially when there are birdies to be made out there. But coming back firing on 9 and then making a birdie on 10 kind of erasing those bogeys on two of the tougher holes right away was huge for momentum and for confidence.”

Lingmerth in contention after a 65

A sunny, cool day on the Golden Isles, with little wind, yielded low scores on two courses in superb condition. Each of the top-27 players on the leaderboard have shot two rounds in the 60s and 10 players are double-digits under par, including David Lingmerth of Ponte Vedra Beach, who threw up a 65 at the Seaside Course and is 10-under, with only one bogey.

“Nothing flashy but I’m feeling pretty good,” said Lingmerth, who regained the PGA Tour card he lost in 2018 by winning on the Korn Ferry Tour Finals. “Hitting a lot of greens and not getting myself into too much trouble, which is good. A pretty solid day.”

Lingmerth got his round going with a birdie putt of 39 feet at Seaside’s par-4 10th hole and had a 23-footer for birdie at No. 6.

Joel Dahmen (64, Plantation), Beau Hossler (67, Plantation) and Sahith Theegala (63, Seaside) are tied at 11-under and Kevin Streelman (64, Seaside), Seung-Yul Noh (64, Plantation) and Callum Tarren (68, Plantation) are tied with Lingmerth at 10-under.

The field averaged in the 60s on both courses, 68.622 on Seaside and 69.293 on Plantation. The 4-under cut, matching the second-lowest on the PGA Tour this season.

Among the players missing the cut were Webb Simpson, who shot 67 with a hole-in-one at the Plantation on Thursday, but played his first two holes at 3-over and had a 74 at the Seaside. It was his first missed cut in 11 starts at the RSM Classic.

Also missing the cut were major champions Zach Johnson, Stewart Cink, Jason Day and Jason Dufner, two-time RSM champion Robert Streb, 2012 Players champion Matt Kuchar and UNF graduate Philip Knowles, in his rookie season on Tour.

Contact Garry Smits at gsmits@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @GSmitter

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Harry Higgs remains on his 'upward spiral' to grab a share of RSM Classic lead