LONG BEACH, Calif. – Harry Higgs wants to make one thing perfectly clear: he’s never, ever taking his shirt off at another PGA Tour event.
“It was maybe the craziest weekend in golf ever and to be a small part of it for something ridiculous is funny,” said Higgs. “But I’m never doing it again. It was a one-time deal.”
On Sunday at the 16th hole at TPC Scottsdale, Higgs pulled his shirt up and Dahmen followed suit by taking his off and waving it around above his head. It led to a roar from the crowd as loud as for the aces by Sam Ryder on Saturday and Carlos Ortiz on Sunday. Here’s the inside story on how Higgs and Dahmen ended up showing a little too much skin.
On Saturday, Higgs was paired with his friend Keith Mitchell. They share the same trainer and after Higgs warmed up and headed to the putting green, Mitchell and some other players dared Higgs to take off his shirt at 16. As an incentive, they pooled $8,000 to pay any potential fine and told him, “You need to do it.”
“I was like, ‘dude, I’m not doing that. I don’t want to be remembered for that,’” Higgs said.
He held firm and that likely would’ve been the end of it except for the fact that he played so poorly that day that he was nearly pulling up the rear and drew a twosome pairing with Dahmen going off the back nine first.
“Saturday night before I even had a cocktail the pairings come out,” Dahmen recounted. “If you’re in last place who do you want to play with? A friend.”
Dahmen put out a tweet that stirred the pot.
“I worded it perfectly,” Dahmen said proudly. “I didn’t put a number on it. I said if we got enough retweets Harry would take off his shirt. (In a private text, Higgs said it would take a million.)
“My phone started blowing up. Joel had tweeted, but I was adamant, no, no, no. It’s too much. We got around to 16 and everyone is cheering for it,” said Higgs, who hit his tee shot long and putted from off the green 10 feet past the hole. “I still had no intention of doing it. Had I missed the 10 footer for par I wouldn’t have done it. I would’ve just walked off the hole.”
As Higgs lined up for his par save, Dahmen recalls thinking, “If he makes it, he might do it. He poured it right in the middle and he did it. The place went nuts and the beers started pouring down. I was like, I can’t leave my boy hanging. I took off my glasses, my hat, take off my shirt and let’s go. And it was awesome.
“I will never leave a friend hanging. If I ask someone to do something, I’m probably going to do it myself. I didn’t really think about it. It was spur of the moment. I’ve never had that many people yelling for something. When you’re in the moment and you have 20,000 people chanting your name, what are you going to do? You’re going to take it off. Peer pressure is a very powerful thing. I’m not afraid to give into it either.”
“I kind of regret it,” Higgs said. “It was fun in the moment, but it’s a little too much.”
It’s a moment that may have consequences. Both Higgs and Dahmen said they had received phone calls on Monday from the PGA Tour and could be fined for conduct unbecoming.
“If you get a call from Andy Levinson, you’re in trouble,” said Dahmen, making it sound like he had been called to the principal’s office.
Dahmen, for one, is confused how the Tour can promote the video on its social media channels but also punish him for it.
“Where is the line and what is the line because we’ve completely crossed the line on that entire golf course. We’ve crossed golf boundaries. People want us to button our shirts and put belts on and wear pants and be these perfect robots but then you want us to party for one week and be one with the people,” he said.
Higgs at least can count on Mitchell and his crew to cover his fine, right?
“Maybe,” Higgs said. “Some of these guys are the cheapest millionaires out there.”