HIGGINS' HONORS With retirement of Ellis, A&M golf coach ready to put stamp on new era By Tom B. Turbiville

J.T. Higgins gives you fair warning. The new Texas A&M golf coach says you wouldn't want to bet on him to shoot par any more than you'd want to bet on Coach Rick Majerus in a slam dunk contest. In fact, Higgins is just as proud of breaking 90 as most of us are, and he takes it in stride when he doesn't.

"When young kids are looking for a golf coach, I don’t think they’re are all that interested in one that can beat them on the course," he said.

Indeed, Higgins was picked to replace longtime coach Bob Ellis for his recruiting skills, not his putting skills.

"I don't think Coach (Dave) Williams at Houston ever broke 100," Higgins said. "And I’d say UH had pretty good success under him."

J.T. Higgins came to A&M from New Mexico.

Indeed, the Cougars won 16 NCAA titles coached by the old duffer Williams, and it’s a space for one of those golden trophies that Higgins hopes to dust off in the Aggies’ display case.

Higgins came to A&M from the University of New Mexico, and his career has been full of new chapters, the latest being this past August 25, when he returned to Albuquerque to marry Julie Parsons.

He immediately swept Julie away from her lifelong home to move to College Station.

"She’s really excited about it," he said. "She’s scared a little because her whole family lives in New Mexico but she’s looking forward to it."

Higgins left the Lobos after four years of what’s been a decade of coaching a sport he admits he knew little about. It was 10years ago UNLV Golf Coach Dwaine Knight pulled Higgins out of the Runnin’ Rebels sports information office.

"Son, I think you’d make a pretty good coach," Knight told him.

"I had thought about coaching, but baseball and basketball, not golf," Higgins recalled. "I told coach Knight that I didn’t really play golf and didn’t know much about it. But he told me he’d teach me everything I needed to know."

Higgins, who grew up in Los Angeles, played baseball at Eastern Oregon, and his first job out of college was as public relations chief for the triple-A Las Vegas Stars, a job that led him to the UNLV sports news office and then to the assistant golf coach’s chair.

He stayed with Knight for six years before going to New Mexico, where in his first season, the Lobos hosted the 1998 NCAA men’s golf championship in Albuquerque. Ironically, the UNLV team that he had helped recruit won the title handily.

"If New Mexico couldn’t win it, I was thrilled that UNLV did, since I had a hand in bringing a lot of those player there."

Through his travels out west, Higgins learned a work ethic that his A&M team will meet head on.

"We are going to get them to work harder than they ever thought they could," Higgins added. "They thought they’d worked hard in the past. Now they are going to find out that they have a little more in them."

Higgins plans to have his team working in the weight room three days a week and on the course every day they can.

The recently-retired Bob Ellis.

"We expect them to get great grades in the classroom and to work hard on the golf course. I’m one of those guys who believes that if you work hard for what you want, good things will happen."

Ellis, whose 27-year career at A&M officially ended Aug. 31, was an accomplished golfer, a rare coach who combined recruiting skills with teaching skills. And Higgins knows Ellis leaves big shoes to fill.

"Coach Ellis brought in some great players and laid the groundwork for where we want to be," Higgins said. "It’s going to be tough to follow him."

He relishes the realization that he’ll go into the recruiting battles armed with a sharper sword than Ellis ever had.

"We are getting two more great facilities in Traditions and Miramont," Higgins said.

Both new courses are under construction and both are due for completion next year. Texas A&M is a partner in the development of the $275 million Traditions Golf Course and Country Club at University Ranch scheduled for opening on Labor Day 2002 in west Bryan. Miramont is a private venture in east Bryan headed up by Bryan banker Don Adam and is due to be completed next spring.

The sooner the better for Higgins.

"With these two courses, along with Briarcrest and Pebble Creek, we will have four real good golf courses," he said. "Especially with the practice facilities they are building at both new courses, it’s going to help us not only in recruiting, but in making the players we have even better. With only two championship courses in town, it’s been tough to find space for everyone to practice – with the high school teams and our two teams at A&M. And, of course, all these courses have members they need to consider first."

Although the new courses are still far from complete, Higgins says he’ll have no problem fitting a recruit with a hard hat and taking him out to

watch bulldozers.

"There are a lot of college programs in the country – including one down the road that I believe is a pretty big rival – that are telling kids that they are going to build a university course. It’s not that they aren’t telling the truth, but there’s a big difference between just telling them that and the kids actually going out and watching ground being moved. When you are recruiting a young man for just four years of college eligibility, there’s an advantage in showing them the construction rather than just telling them there’s going to be a course built some day."

Ellis hardly left Higgins a bare cupboard for his first season. The team returns three players whose stroke average last year was 75.5 or better, including top returner Stephen Reed (74.4), just a sophomore who had two top 10 finishes and played in the U.S. Amateur in August. Also returning are junior Dwayne Morley (74.7), and senior Josh McCoy (75.5).

The Aggies lost three seniors, and one key player, Duke Butler, transferred to Florida. But before he retired, Ellis signed solid prospects in freshmen Rand Arbuckle of College Station and Tyler Garrett of Houston. Also transfers Parker Briley from SMU and Mark Schultz from LSU, both sophomores, should give Higgins’ first team a chance to compete admirably this fall and spring.

Higgins expects all his players to love the game, have the desire to play every day, and have the desire to eventually play for pay.

"If they’re not interested in trying to play pro golf, then they’re probably not ready for the type program that we’re going to put together here," Higgins said. "In reality, if you have a team of 12 players – maybe, just maybe – one will eventually play on the PGA Tour. But maybe half of them will play some sort of professional golf either in Canada, overseas or on one of the US mini-tours."

Playing golf for a living is a lofty goal, but Higgins makes it clear that he wants more than that from his players.

"They have to want to play golf more than anything else," he said. "That's what separates the great players from the okay players. There are people with talent, and they can make a living playing the game. But that’s all they’re interested in – they don’t really enjoy it. Hopefully, those guys will find that out at a young age and go get a good degree and do something else. You’re not going to make it on any tour if you don’t love it. It’s just too hard out there."

It seems that A&M found the right man to coach golf, a sport that features mental demands far greater than its physical demands. J.T. Higgins may not always hit it straight, but he talks straight.

"College golfers are the cream of the crop in college athletics," Higgins said. "They play by the rules, they are gentlemen, and they are well-mannered. Our guys are no different. They know how to conduct themselves on and off the course. As a coach, every day I look forward to going to work and being around these kids."