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Reigning Winner Bows Out Gracefully To Another Champion

By Ken Klavon, USGA

Joan Higgins, in her match against Ellen Port, had her short game going except for the putter. (Steven Gibbons/USGA)

Ocala, Fla. – On an oppressively hot day, the only coolness emanating from anywhere was in Joan Higgins’ grip on her putter on the ninth hole.

The reigning U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur champion brought the putter back smoothly, but the kinetic energy forward was too much and the 5-footer scooted left of the hole. And so it went Tuesday for Higgins in the second round of match play at Golden Hills Golf and Turf Club. It was another glaring miss by a putter that had always been her best friend on the course.

“My speed all day was off,” said Higgins, 53, who converted one of six birdie chances. “My game is putting. I would have given myself a grade of D.”

It turned out to be a classic case of a balky putter that was about as useful as a limp noodle. Coupled with that, 48-year-old Ellen Port relied on the savvy that comes with being a three-time Women’s Mid-Amateur champion, as she forged a 3-and-1 victory. And with that, Higgins’ hold of the top rung was pried loose.

Port, playing in just her third competitive event this year, took the lead with a birdie on the first hole and never trailed. When Port saw the matchup, she knew the pairing would be tantamount to a heavyweight tilt in this competition.

“Joan is a great player, but I was more concerned with myself and my game,” said Port, a physical education teacher from St. Louis.

After Higgins evened things with a par on the 295-yard fourth hole, the two reeled off four consecutive halves. That was until Port, champion in 1995, 1996 and 2000, glided in a 14-footer for birdie to win the par-3 eighth. Perhaps it foreshadowed the way the rest of the match would go for Higgins, who banged the putter off her head twice after pushing a 12-footer for birdie that would have kept things even.

Port carried a 2-up advantage to the par-3 11th after carding another birdie to win No. 10. Higgins slashed the deficit in half with the lone birdie putt on No. 12 by holing a 5-footer, but which didn’t bring an iota of emotion.

Despite the frustration, both players were an example of fine sportsmanship. They’d trade quips, such as on the sixth green when the official corrected Port over who was away. “It’s the first time I’ve ever been wrong,” Port bubbled. “The first?” Higgins shot back with a smile. Throughout the match, they offered encouragement to the other on well-executed shots and carried themselves as though they had been there before.

 Ingrained in the back of Higgins’ head had been a mantra of sorts – to always carry herself like a champion. She certainly had to put it to use on the 491-yard, par-5 15th, which turned out to be a critical hole in the match.

Having pulled to within one hole of Port, Higgins ran into the root of her problem on her second shot. The ball came to rest on an oak tree’s root and she was forced to punch out 70 yards, leaving her 72 more to the hole. There may not have been a better time to secure the momentum, because only a few minutes earlier Port had felt light-headed and weak from the heat.

Higgins instead wasted the prime opportunity by hitting a fat fourth shot; the ball came down several feet of the elevated green and rolled 30 feet down the hill. Suddenly the opportunity swung in Port’s favor and she won the hole with a bogey.

“I think 15 was it because all I had to do was make par,” said Higgins when asked what she felt was the key moment of the match. “I had thought I had gotten it up with the lob wedge and I knew she was over the green. That was a gift.”

Port thought the essential play occurred on the par-4 13th when she got up and down from a greenside bunker, her ball against the lip, to sneak off with a halve.

No matter, Higgins knew her time might come to an inglorious end. She admitted she didn’t sleep well this week, feeling the pressures that came with being the champion. It was an awful feeling to lose, she said, but walked away with her head still high.

“It’s been a fantastic year,” said the Glendora, Calif., resident. “It was strange winning last year because no one was there to see it. So players kept coming up to me this week and offering their congratulations. It was a nice feeling. That’s what winning does.

“No one knew who I was a year ago.”

Ken Klavon is the USGA’s Editor of Digital Media. E-mail him with questions or comments at kklavon@usga.org.