Thomas Higgins is a patient man. So is his young son, Julian, for that matter. Every year Thomas enters the Golf Masters, his star line-up going by the name of Julian's Ninth, Julian's Tenth, Julian's Eleventh, etc, in reference to the young fella's age. As the years have worn on Julian must have wondered if he'd qualify for a free bus pass by the time his father's team finally triumphed.
"I think the first one was Julian's Eighth," said our Dundrum manager, but like ourselves he'd lost count. A couple of years back Thomas climbed to second in the leaderboard and was so convinced he'd never see his name in print again he kept the cuttings just to remind himself of the glory days.
It was, then, with extreme pleasure that we broke the news to Thomas this week: where Julian's First, Second, Third, etc had failed, Julian's Thirteenth had prevailed. Who ever said 13 was an unlucky number? "I came near enough before, won a couple of polo shirts, but I ran out of transfers when I needed them. Usually I'd bring in a player who had been doing really well, but as soon as I brought him in he . . .". Bombed? Yes.
Well, Thomas and Julian finally had their day, thanks to Niclas Fasth, Bernhard Langer and Jose-Filipe Lima, who filled the top three slots at the BMW International Open, and Justin Rose, who brought in another €34,250 from the Travelers Championship - Darren Clarke and Paul Lawrie, who both missed the cut last week, brought the team total to 285,250.
Thomas, then, moves up to 1,759th on the overall leaderboard, but, more importantly, fills top place in the weekly leaderboard, which will make today's cutting worth preserving. Better still, he's off to his "favourite" course, Druids Glen, for a fourball, with a Nike wind vest thrown in. "I can't believe it," he said.
