Long before John Daly, there was Liam Higgins. Higgins has been the head pro at Waterville Golf Links since this magnificent course in County Kerry opened in 1973, but he had actually won the position five years earlier: Irish-American businessman John Mulcahy, so awed by the drives he saw Higgins belting on a range in Killarney, promised him the job even before acquiring the land on which Waterville would be built.
Now sixty-four, Higgins has played around the world and loves to tell stories, none so remarkable as the one about when Mulcahy (who died in 1993) brought him to the States for the first time to challenge a long-hitting member of Westchester Country Club. He was greeted at JFK Airport by boxing legend Joe Louis, the first person of color he’d ever met. The contest was held before a crowd on the roughly 360-yard ninth hole of Westchester’s South Course. On his first swing, Higgins blasted the ball to the back of the green, at which point his opponent picked up and left.
Today, Higgins can still be found out on the course or in the bar after his daily round. He also gives occasional lessons (at about eighty dollars per half hour). Over the years, people have told him that given his ball-striking ability, he could have achieved great success as a tour pro. “Maybe I could have,” he says without a hint of arrogance, “but I wouldn’t have given up the chance to see the world with Jack Mulcahy for the American Open or the British Open or anything.”
Waterville Golf Links Waterville, County Kerry, Ireland
Architects: Eddie Hackett and Claude Harmon, 1973; Tom Fazio, 2003. Yardage: 7,325. Par: 72. Green Fees: $285–$300. Contact: 011-353/669-474-102, watervillegolflinks.ie.
