PORTRUSH, Ireland \u2014 Give Harris English and his caddie for this week in the Open Championship credit for making the most of a disheartening situation for the five-time PGA Tour winner.<\/p>\n
The troubles that Harris\u2019 caddie of nine years, Eric Larson, faced in being denied entry into the U.K. because of a drug conviction 30 years ago made headlines when the American player arrived for last week\u2019s Scottish Open. And the chatter may have died down except for this: English fired a four-under 67 late on Thursday in the opening round at Royal Portrush to get into a five-way tie for the lead with a close and golf savvy cohort on the bag.<\/p>\n
Looping for English this week is his longtime Florida-based short game and putting coach, Ramon Bescansa, who has been carrying the bag of late in LIV Golf events for Abraham Ancer. Bescana also coaches and loops for one of the instructor\u2019s notable students, 16-year-old Miles Russell.<\/p>\n
The two obviously meshed on the course, with Harris reaching five under at one point with five birdies and no bogeys over his first 13 holes. He parred in the rest of the way.<\/p>\n
“Yeah, it’s tough,” English said after his round. “Every player or caddie has their different cadence of how they like things. Luckily for Ramon, he’s been working with me for so long and watched me play, watched me hit balls, so he kind of knows what I like, and I feel like we kind of got that right out of the gate.<\/p>\n
“These practice rounds really worked on it, and very comfortable with how he was delivering the information.”<\/p>\n
Still, it\u2019s been difficult for English to accept what happened with Larson. The caddie was denied entry into the U.K. for failing to get an Electronic Travel Authority visa, a new category that stipulates that Americans who have committed a crime that carries at least a 12-month prison sentence can be subject to review. Larson went to prison for 10 years for shipping cocaine across state lines and was released in 2006.<\/p>\n
Despite vigorous attempts by lawyers and letters written by the PGA Tour, R&A and English himself, Larson was ultimately denied entry.<\/p>\n
\u201cI did everything I could to help,\u201d English told the U.K. website bunkered.co.uk earlier this week. \u201cHe had a lot of people helping him out, and I guess it just didn\u2019t get in the right hands or the right people to see that he is not a threat to society. That he\u2019s just going to be over here caddying for me for two weeks and helping me do the best I can to try to win an Open Championship. I think it is a bit silly.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve had a good major run. I mean, 12th in the Masters, second in the PGA, didn\u2019t play great at Oakmont [T-59 in the U.S. Open], but I made the cut. It is what it is, but it sucks.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s just disappointed,\u201d he added of Larson. \u201cI think he had a lot of optimism that he was going to be able to come over.\u201d<\/p>\n
English said Thursday he has kept in communication with Larson these last two weeks.<\/p>\n
“I’ve been texting him earlier in the week. I’m sure he’ll give me a big pump-up text after today’s round,” he said. “I’m sure he’s watching every shot and disappointed that he’s not here. But hopefully we can get it worked out for next year.”<\/p>\n
Heading into the Open, English, ranked 19th in the world, was enjoying a strong campaign. Winless since 2021, he notched his fifth tour victory in January\u2019s Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines. In the PGA at Quail Hollow, the Georgia native charged with a 65 on Sunday and tied for second in Scottie Scheffler\u2019s dominating victory.<\/p>\n
In Larson\u2019s last tournament with him, English finished T-4 in the signature Travelers Championship.<\/p>\n
Whatever happens this week, his boss is missing him personally.<\/p>\n
\u201cEric\u2019s story is impressive,\u201d English told bunkered. \u201cHe put his nose down in prison and got a degree and did all the things he was supposed to do and did it right.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s been locked up for 10 years, so he knows what bad is like and there\u2019s no day on the golf course that he\u2019s not having a good time. \u2026 He\u2019s not really proud of what he did. He knew he was in the wrong and he knew do the crime, do the time. He knew he messed up but he\u2019s turned his life around and he\u2019s been awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n
Is it the British Open or the Open Championship?\u202fThe name of the final men\u2019s major of the golf season is a subject of continued discussion. The event\u2019s official name,\u202fas explained in this op-ed by former R&A chairman Ian Pattinson, is the Open Championship. But since many United States golf fans continue to refer to it as the British Open, and search news around the event accordingly, Golf Digest continues to utilize both names in its coverage.<\/p>\n
MORE GOLF DIGEST BRITISH OPEN COVERAGE<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PORTRUSH, Ireland \u2014 Give Harris English and his caddie for this week in the Open Championship credit for…","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17625,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"csco_display_header_overlay":false,"csco_singular_sidebar":"","csco_page_header_type":"","csco_page_load_nextpost":"","csco_post_video_location":[],"csco_post_video_location_hash":"","csco_post_video_url":"","csco_post_video_bg_start_time":0,"csco_post_video_bg_end_time":0,"csco_post_video_bg_volume":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[118],"tags":[6051,79,3943,84],"class_list":["post-17624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-harris-english","tag-british-open-2025-missing-his-caddie-who-was-denied-entry-into-uk-for-long-ago-drug-charges-harris-english-fires-xx-to-share-lead","tag-harris-english","tag-openchampionship2025","tag-story","cs-entry","cs-video-wrap"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/vive.im\/@fogolf\/117476539945774783","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17624"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17624\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}