Harry Higgs wasn’t so much digging his early wake-up call Thursday morning at the Sony Open in Hawaii.
“It's tough for me starting first off when the sun is barely getting up; I don't know when to put my sunglasses on,” said Higgs, who started his round at 7:10 a.m. local time off of Waialae Country Club’s 10th tee. “It's a little hard for me to see and it's a little dark for me.”
But Higgs managed to do just fine, opening with a 5-under 65 that had him three shots off of leader Peter Malnati’s pace after the morning wave. The round was highlighted by a crazy front nine that saw Higgs card just one par among five birdies and three bogeys.
“I damn near made every putt I looked at,” Higgs said. “I turned to my brother [Alex Higgs] on 15, I guess it would be the tee of our sixth hole, and I said, ‘I haven't even made a par yet.’ I happened to par that hole and didn't par anymore until the front nine.”
Higgs went bogey-free on his second nine while carding three birdies in his final five holes.
“The front nine was a little bit calmer,” Higgs said. “… I don't know that I hit many good shots nor many bad shots, but just had some from the rough kind of go squirrely on me and go different directions opposite what the wind was doing. So, left myself in some spot that weren't lovely but just made bogey and moved on.”