"To work with juniors, and new players who want to get started in golf, and here [Otumoetai] is the perfect venue to do that. It is a really relaxed, friendly place to be. We will get clinics started and new player seminars, plus I will make sure the current members are really well looked after.
"I want to see how we can add another extension to what is already here [Western Bay]. I am looking for a point of difference. We want new players. Golf clubs are declining in their numbers so we want to get the message out there that there is a variety of different formats to play now. It is not as strict as it was. It is not just 18-hole memberships.
"There are a shorter nine-hole scenarios and lots of learning opportunities, plus it is a lot easier to become a member of a club. You don't even need any equipment. I want to have those learner programmes in place so it becomes an easy scenario."
Higgins said the reason she had come back to Tauranga after so many years was all about timing.
"My son has just finished school, my parents are down here, nearly all my family is here. It has always been an aim to get back and then I just heard through the grapevine that this [job] had come up."
Higgins started playing golf at Omokoroa before she switched to the Tauranga club. She had a stellar amateur career, representing Bay of Plenty-Thames Valley and New Zealand. For three years she was ranked number one in New Zealand before she turned pro in 1991 and joined the Japanese Ladies Professional Tour.
After a promising start, her career was curtailed as she came home to have a baby. From 1995 she moved into coaching fulltime, where she immediately made her mark in Auckland.
And now it is time to give back to where it all started for her so many years ago.
