Amateur Golf Strength Is Point of Pride for Harris English at BetLM

Amateur Golf Strength Is Point of Pride for Harris English

From Patrick Cant­lay to Tom Lewis to fel­low Geor­gia Bull­dog Rus­sell Hen­ley, Har­ris Eng­lish is excited to be a part of a cohort of ama­teur play­ers mak­ing a splash in the pro­fes­sional ranks.

Eng­lish – already a win­ner this year on the Nation­wide Tour as an ama­teur – lost in a sud­den death play­off to Danny Lee at the WNB Golf Clas­sic last week in Mid­land, Texas, mov­ing him into the top 75 on the Nation­wide Tour money list. He hopes this is just the begin­ning for him, as well as his peers.

“The com­pe­ti­tion is amaz­ing,” Eng­lish said Wednes­day in an inter­view. “I really like see­ing my peers do well.”

Eng­lish doesn’t believe his cohort of play­ers tran­si­tion­ing to pro­fes­sional life have gar­nered more atten­tion than they did when they com­peted for free, but he does real­ize fore­bear­ers have given fans a rea­son to notice.

“Look at Rickie Fowler, he didn’t even fin­ish col­lege at Okla­homa State and he’s doing great on the PGA Tour,” he said. “I think it makes peo­ple say, ‘Wow, look at all these col­lege guys that are com­ing out right now.’”

The newly minted pro was a part of an ama­teur Dream Team at the Walker Cup. Though his heav­ily favored Amer­i­can team lost to Great Britain and Ire­land, Eng­lish feels that only fur­ther con­firmed the depth of the global ama­teur game.

“Going over there, I had never heard of some of their play­ers. Maybe some peo­ple had heard of Tom Lewis, or maybe Jack Senior, but they just never play over here,” he said.

“Lots of guys we haven’t heard of over here are really good. There’s not that big of a dis­per­sion between Euro­peans and Amer­i­cans [n the ama­teur ranks].”

Play­ing in Chat­tanooga, Tenn., this on the Nation­wide Tour, Eng­lish had an eye on his Walker Cup teammates.

Eng­lish was happy to see Patrick Cant­lay get another PGA Tour start, paired with Tiger Woods for the first two rounds of the Frys.com Open. The UCLA prod­uct is rid­ing a four-event streak of top-25 finishes.

Peter Uih­lein is also on English’s radar, as the Okla­homa State star and 2010 U.S. Ama­teur win­ner has said he will com­pete in Q-school purely for the expe­ri­ence. Eng­lish said he under­stands Uihlein’s moti­va­tion to get experience.

“Peter’s try­ing to get all of the expe­ri­ence he can so he can be ready for when he turns pro next year,” Eng­lish said. “I would not be shocked at all if he got through.”

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