PGA Tour caddie misses out on huge payday after | Golf News

Eric Larson, a long-time caddy for Harris English, missed out on a potential $125,000 payday final weekend when English secured second place at The Open, as Scottie Scheffler claimed victory.

Larson, who has been half of English’s crew for eight years, was unable to attend Royal Portrush for the fourth main of the golf season due to a drug conviction from over 30 years in the past. Larson, who admitted to distributing cocaine to mates, spent more than a decade in prison as a end result.

Despite having served his time, Larson’s previous continues to prohibit his skill to journey freely to the United Kingdom, due to a new rule in the abroad journey system that limits former convicts. This led English to call upon his short-game coach, Ramon Bescansa, to carry the bag all through the match – but the change did not appear to influence his sport considerably.

By the top of Sunday’s play, English clinched a second-place end at the Open with an total rating of 13-under-par, just 4 strokes behind match winner and world No. 1, Scottie Scheffler.

Thanks to his efficiency, English walked away with a substantial runner-up test of $1.76 million, while Scheffler claimed the fifth main title of his profession and a hefty $3.1M payday.

PGA Tour golfers sometimes reward their caddies with seven per cent of their match winnings, which might have resulted in a substantial $125K payday for Larson had he been on English’s crew at the Open. Speaking to the Daily Mail, Larson expressed his disappointment about lacking out on the match, stating: “This is my second chance at life.

“When I acquired out, I needed to caddy again, I needed to win golf tournaments, I needed to caddy in the Ryder Cup, in the President’s Cup, and I’ve achieved it all. My next aim is to win a main.

“Well, they took one of my goals away from me because of something for which I’ve paid my time. No one knows more than me how wrong I was to do what I did. But I did all the right things when I got out and, here I am, 20 years later, getting penalised for something I’ve already paid a heavy price.”

Although English has yet to clinch a main victory, he is come tantalizingly close twice this yr, including a T2 end at the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow alongside Bryson DeChambeau and Davis Riley with a rating of six-under. Scheffler once again emerged victorious at that occasion, ending an spectacular 5 strokes forward of his closest opponents.

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However, English has loved appreciable success on the PGA Tour with Larson by his facet. The pair have been instrumental in three of English’s 5 tour victories, clinching wins at the Sentry and the Travelers Championship in 2021 via playoffs, as properly as triumphing at the Farmers Insurance Open earlier this yr.

Post-Open, English mirrored on his collaboration with Bescansa: “Ramon and I did a great job of coming up with a strategy. He kind of knows how I operate.”

With his sights set on the Ryder Cup, English is keen to secure his place: “Hopefully I can get in that top six to lock up a spot,” he mentioned, aiming to climb from his present eighth-place place in the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR).