‘Having fun with it’: Higgins finishes a narrow second in league tournament
Kaila Higgins, a freshman on the women’s golf team, led the field after shooting +1 in her opening round of the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) No. 2 tournament, but finished second to the top-ranked golfer in Division III. Above, Higgins tees off at the SCIAC No. 2 tournament April 11. Photo courtesy of Larry Newman.
On the other side of the country, the same weekend Hideki Matsuyama put on his green jacket as the winner of The Masters in Augusta, Georgia, Kaila Higgins was having a tournament for the books. For 36 holes on April 10 and April 11, the freshman women’s golfer battled University of Redlands’ Hannah Jugar in a duel similar to that of Matsuyama and Masters runner-up Will Zalatoris.
While Higgins didn’t emerge the victor, she finished just one stroke behind Jugar, the top-ranked NCAA Division III golfer in the nation. Despite the tough competition, Higgins kept a cool head.
“Every tournament I go into, it’s good to have the mindset that you want to win it,” Higgins said. “That’s what we’re there to do; we should be expecting to compete for first.”
A freshman with only a brief resume of collegiate play to her name, Higgins has gotten off to a hot start.
“From the beginning I could tell that she was good, but I don’t think there (were) any expectations per se,” said Kirsten Lee, a junior teammate. “We’re all very happy for Kaila.”
Coming into the match, Higgins was ranked ninth in NCAA polls for individual women’s golf. After her performance, she shot up to fourth. If she stays on that trend, according to Ming Lao, head coach of Chapman golf, she’ll find herself playing in the national tournament.
“The overall goal is to make it to national championships,” Lao said. “If she just treads water right in that spot, it will justifiably get her a spot in the national championships. It’s really a chip shot; it’s looking very positive.”
The optimism comes after Higgins shaved 14 strokes off of her game in comparison to a Feb. 27 tournament. With a most recent mark of four-over-par in this second Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Association (SCIAC) tournament, the improvement has come in part as a shift in mindset.
“For the last tournament (March 15) that I was leading, I put a lot of pressure on myself,” Higgins said. “I was like, ‘All right, we have to do this the second day. We need to get it done.’ My mindset switched. I realized that you can’t force it to happen; you play the best when you have fun.”
The prospect of going shot-for-shot with Jugar could have seemed intimidating. But with a new attitude, Higgins simply looked forward to the opportunity.
“Laid back but having fun with it,” Higgins said of her mindset the weekend of April 10. “I was leading after day one, and I knew that the next day I definitely had a shot at it ... (I won’t) force anything to happen; what happens, happens.”
Despite this being her first year with the program, Lao praised Higgins’ demeanor and ability to maintain focus in tight matches. He believes with more competitive experience, wins will inevitably follow.
“She just needs to be put in that position enough times so it becomes more comfortable and less stressful,” Lao said. “The only thing I can hope from her is to be put in that position as many times as she can. Then, we’re going to win one.”