NORTH BERWICK, Scotland — Harris English is spending the next two weeks in the United Kingdom for the Scottish Open and the Open Championship, two tournaments that could be critical in his bid to play in another Ryder Cup.
His caddie, Eric Larson, is stuck at home without being able to obtain a new Electronic Travel Authority visa for travel to the U.K., a regulation that now applies to Americans.
Grounds for refusal include an applicant who has been convicted of a criminal offense in the U.K. or overseas for which they served 12 months or more in prison.
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Thirty years ago, Larson pleaded guilty to sending cocaine to friends in the Midwest. He spent 10 years and three months in prison and was released from a halfway house in June 2006.
Mark Calcavecchia hired him back and got him on his feet. Since then, Larson worked for three players at the Ryder Cup — Anthony Kim in 2008, Jeff Overton in 2010 and most recently English, with whom he has worked the past eight years.
“I guess the United Kingdom doesn’t look highly on his past,” English said Tuesday at The Renaissance Club before his pro-am round. “And apparently it’s a work in progress.”
English, who is No. 19 in the world and 10th in the U.S. standings for the Ryder Cup, said he didn’t become aware of Larson’s plight until right after he tied for fourth at the Travelers Championship three weeks ago.
English said he reached out to Warren Stephens, the ambassador to the U.K. who put him in touch with his chief of staff.
“They wrote a letter. The R&A wrote a letter. The PGA Tour wrote a letter. A charity event Eric works for in the States wrote a letter. It’s not for a lack of effort,” English said. “I think it could be sitting on someone’s desk at the government somewhere.”
Joe Etter is filling in — for now — as his caddie. Etter, who started out working for English more than a decade ago, currently works for Davis Thompson, who is not playing in this week’s Scottish Open.
Thompson, however, received the final spot in the field for the Open Championship next week at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland.
“Joe was my Plan B,” English said. “Now we’re going to have to get a new Plan B.”
English is holding out hope that someone will pave the way for Larson to get the ETA visa he needs for U.K. entry. Larson has worked the past four years at the Open Championship for English and previously for Overton and Kim.
“It’s just a matter of the right people seeing it,” he said. “I didn’t understand how complicated the process was. Someone could see this guy had something in his past 30 years ago, he’s been fine the last 20. How long does this stay with him?”
