For the past two weeks, Harris English has been forced to create some important spare plans that may need this week. No matter, he still leads Championship.
English rested from four under 67 on Thursday at Royal In northern Ireland, which puts it in a five -direction tie for the first time after the opening day.
“I was looking forward to coming this week, and immediately after playing the course, I liked it a lot,” English said. “I loved how you frame the tee shots and you get to see much more trouble than you will have in a normal course of connections.”
And the fact that he did this with his reserved reserve – technicallyHis reservation of his reserve-makes his round with seven birds even more impressive. Caddy for a long time English, Eric Larson, has been denied entering the UK due to a prior drug sentence. He was sentenced to 13 years in federal prison again in 1995, suffered just over 10 years and returned to Caddying in 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 it is now several decades, the new travel regulations for Americans visiting the UK make it difficult for Larson to take overseas for last week’s scottish Open and open championship. Larson has tried to take an exception to the rules of electronic travel authorization visa – applicants may be rejected if they served 12 months or more in prison – but there was no luck despite the English, PGA Tour and R&A efforts.
;)
What was the biggest surprise on Thursday in the open championship?
Joe Etter was tied to English in Scottish Open (they were tied up for 22), but Etter is back in the bag for his regular player, Davis Thompson, this week. This means that English called Ramon Bescansa, his determined coach. They have worked together for about a dozen years in his game and short game.
“It was a kind of plan B in books,” English said. “Of course Eric would hope to take over this week. It didn’t work. Then Davis Thompson went into the last minute to open, so Joe couldn’t do again for me. Ramon was pretty to come from Spain and Caddy. Caddy this week.”
No complaints Thursday.
English caught the bird of four of its first four and returned to three-nine 33 years old. He briefly reached five to keep the solo lead, but ended the day of opening with part of it.
English was ranked fifth in strokes: outside of tee and was the 14th in SG: Setting.
“Playero player or caddy has their different cadrea of how they like things. Fortunately for Ramon, he is working with me for so long and looked at me to play, he looked at my hit balls, so he knows what I like, and I feel like we got it right from the gate,” English said. “These practical rounds really worked on it, and very comfortable with the way he was providing information.
“But it’s different. Eric has been looking for me for eight, nine years now, be and get used to him to have a guy how he does everything, from a few things where he puts Sharpie and the markers and he always has the pockets in his pocket and only a few stuff. You get used to him, but Ramon did impressive today.”
English, 35, has won five times in PGA Tour – recently this year Farmers Insurance Open – but is still after his first major title. He has four 10 balls in 34 starts, the latest of which came to this year’s masters, where he was the contestant.
