For the last couple of weeks, Harris English has been forced to create several important backup plans he might need for this week. No matter, he still co-leads the Open Championship.
English fired a four-under 67 on Thursday at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland, which puts him in a five-way tie for first after the opening day.
“I was looking forward to coming to this week, and immediately after playing the course, I really liked it,” English said. “I loved how it frames the tee shots and you get to see a lot more trouble than you would on a normal links course.”
And the fact that he did this with his backup caddie — technically, his backup’s backup — makes his seven-birdie round even more impressive. English’s long-time caddie, Eric Larson, has been denied entry into the United Kingdom due to a prior drug conviction. He was sentenced to 13 years in federal prison back in 1995, served just over 10 years and returned to caddying on the PGA Tour. (He worked for Mark Calcavecchia before and after prison and also spent time with Anthony Kim and Jeff Overton.)
But despite the conviction that’s now several decades old, new travel regulations for Americans visiting the U.K. made it difficult for Larson to get overseas for last week’s Genesis Scottish Open and this week’s Open Championship. Larson has tried to get an exemption to the Electronic Travel Authorization visa rules — applicants can be refused entry if they served 12 months or more in prison — but hasn’t had any luck despite efforts of English, the PGA Tour and R&A.
Joe Etter caddied for English at the Scottish Open (they tied for 22nd), but Etter is back on the bag for his regular player, Davis Thompson, this week. That means English called on Ramon Bescansa, his putting coach. They have worked together for about a dozen years on his putting and short game.
“He was kind of a Plan B in the books,” English said. “Obviously Eric was going to hopefully get over for this week. That didn’t work out. Then Davis Thompson got in kind of last minute to The Open, so Joe couldn’t caddie for me again. Ramon was nice enough to come over from Spain and caddie for me. He’s been caddying for Abe [Ancer] on the LIV tour. He’s caddied for me before in Canada years ago, so he knows my game probably as well as anybody on my team. He was the perfect guy to come caddie this week.”
No complaints on Thursday.
English birdied three of his first four and turned in three-under 33. He briefly got to five under to hold the solo lead, but ended the opening day with a share of it.
English ranked fifth in Strokes Gained: Off the tee and was 14th in SG: Putting.
“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,” English said. “These practice rounds really worked on it, and very comfortable with how he was delivering the information.
“But it is different. Eric has been caddying for me for eight, nine years now, be and you get so used to having that one guy of how he does everything, from little stuff of where he puts the Sharpies and markers and he always has tees in his pocket and just little stuff. You get used to that, but Ramon did awesome today.”
English, 35, has won five times on the PGA Tour — most recently this year’s Farmers Insurance Open — but is still after his first major title. He has four top 10s in 34 starts, the most recent of which came at this year’s Masters, where he was the runner-up.
