How does the ‘process’ lead to winning golf? Harry Higgs explains

When it comes to developing sustainable success at the elite pro level of golf, many pros use the P word. They repeat it over and over again – on good days and bad. If they could just develop a great PRocess and stick to it, good golf will follow. It’s not so much about trying to play good golf as it is about sticking to a process that will eventually bring it out.

The theory goes that golf is too fickle to ever master. It also involves too much randomness and luck to let any outcome determine your game. This is why players strive to create high-level processes that hopefully bring out their best. Little things can become big things: visualization, a consistent game-day routine, even going through a common golf checklist in a specific order to give a little boost to consistency in every shot in a round when they strokes and conditions can be very different.

When professionals decide and stick to a process, it paves the way for good opportunities to become great achievements. Harry Higgs made this happen as did everyone – well, anyone not mentioned Scottie Scheffler — in 2024. Higgs began the year ranked No. 421 in the world, a far cry from his peak of No. 91 in 2021. He had left the PGA Tour and returned to the Korn Ferry Tour. Worse still, he had struggled through the spring without much to show for it.

Higgs missed four straight cuts and followed them up with T43 and T50 finishes before arriving at the Kansas City stop on schedule. That’s when his best golf came out and he found himself in contention. He had created a simple and effective process for this course show that week that really narrowed his focus, and he explained it in a recent episode of The No Laying Up Podcast.

“I felt it coming,” Higgs told host Chris Solomon. “I remember walking to the first tee on Thursday being like, ‘Oh, s—.’ Ready to win. Ready to compete to win THIS the tournament.

“On this, okay, so let’s focus on a small portion of things that they are not that. Let’s not go around saying I will win, I will win, I will win. Let’s focus on like meI will give my best chance to win.”

HOW was the Higgs process. His retelling resulted in four parts, which we have listed below and slightly synthesized.

1. Don’t hit a shot without a clear goal.

Just know what exactly you are trying to do with the ball.

2. Don’t hit a shot without a test to accomplish that goal.

Practice that very intention in the form of movement. A practice swing on purpose!

3. Accept the result, after the shot.

Whatever happens, happens. Go ahead and accept it.

4. Walk with your head up.

Through this acceptance, you feel confident in your game and how it is being designed. Walk in that faith.

“I would just check my yard book — yes, do, walk, look again, yes, do, walk — and I did it in four days,” Higgs continued. “I was very lucky to win that golf tournament. I bogeyed the 72nd hole the fourth place. And ended up winning. Obviously next week he can do the same.”

Those who followed the Higgs run this summer know what came next. He used it a week later in Knoxville, Tennessee, stuck in the same process, and won again. Of course, he admitted, it was much easier to stick to that process the second week when she had delivered a win the week before. Naturally. But he did it in a playoff, too, a situation he’s not too keen on, especially when he had surrendered a lead entering that playoff in the first place.

But this is where the back half of his process really began. Higgs could have choked or blown as he walked between shots, playing the same par-5 over and over again until he won. But he had reached a level of acceptance that wouldn’t let poor shots affect what was left of the tournament.

“I was completely calm about whether I won or lost this golf tournament,” he said.

You can hear Higgs talk about his process, mental health on Tour, his thoughts on the future of the PGA Tour and much more in the podcast below.