Higgins tees it up for Great Britain & Ireland in PGA Cup

DAVID Higgins fabulous season on the Irish PGA domestic circuit continued through August and into early September with wins in Pro-Ams at St Annes, Kilkeel and Castlewarden and second place finishes at Cork, City of Derry and Cairndhu.

However, his greatest rival in the Irish Order of Merit Damian McGrane has also racked up a number of wins during that period to remain at the top of the money list with Higgins in second place and Simon Thornton in third, some way behind Higgins.

There are still a number of events left in the season for Higgins to win the Order of Merit but McGrane won’t go away, so the Waterville man will have to keep producing wins in order to overtake him.

This week however, Higgins and McGrane will be concentrating on the PGA Cup match which will be played at the Foxhills club neat Chertsey in Surrey.

First played at Pinehurst in 1973, the PGA Cup is rather like the format of the original Ryder Cup, and is played between the club professionals of Great Britain & Ireland and the USA.

Higgins is making his debut in the event and in doing so, becomes the first Kerryman to participate in it, while McGrane the only other Irishman on this year’s team, previously played on the losing side at Celtic Manor in 2000 where he won two and lost two matches.

Other Irish players who have participated in this event since the beginning include Stephen Hamill, David Jones, Ernie Jones, Niall Kearney, Jimmy Kinsella, Paul Leonard, Brendan McGovern & Leonard Owens.