Harrison Endycott didn’t have a manual, nor would he have probably bothered to look at one. He just knew his life was never going to be the same. His mother, Dianne, had kept details of her ovarian cancer largely from him, and when she died with her son just 15, Endycott went to a “very dark place”.
Frustration. Anger. Rebellion. Skipping school. He felt, and did, the lot. How does a teenager find himself in the face of unimaginable grief? Well, golf for one.
The sport in which he wanted to represent Australia before his mother died proved a salvation, and a decade on the Sydneysider, who once played with former prime minister John Howard at their home club of Avondale, will make his PGA Tour debut on Friday morning (AEST).
Just last month, his dad Brian flew over to the United States when Endycott, 26, secured his ticket to the big time through the gruelling second-tier Korn Ferry Tour. It can be golf’s Bermuda triangle. Many a champion amateur or next big thing has rushed straight to America and had the life sucked out of them, disappearing into a blizzard of frustration and anger.
Endycott already had enough life experience before he even got to the Korn Ferry Tour to lose himself in golf.
“For me to go and earn a Tour card, I dedicated my life to that,” he told the Herald. “I guess [Korn Ferry] is like second grade rugby league, second grade AFL … everyone is so hungry to get to this point. I think you definitely feel that atmosphere on a week-to-week basis.
Harrison Endycott will make his first PGA Tour start.Credit:Getty
“To be able to experience the sacrifices they have done for me and for dad to be there to experience that, it was just unbelievable. There’s really no words to describe that. I would have loved to have had one other person with me. But to have my dad there was something I couldn’t buy, and I felt very privileged.”
Fittingly, Endycott found the road less travelled to make it to the big time in the United States. He played the Latin America Tour, for starters, where making it to the course on time and navigating the language barrier can be just as problematic as making a weekend cut.
“I came out of Golf Australia and playing Eisenhower Cup with the Australian team, it’s like being treated as a top 10 or top 20 player in the world,” Endycott said.
“When you turn pro it’s like doing the real thing again. I needed to put myself in an environment to harden me up. That’s what that tour is designed to do. I needed to get a slap across the ears a little bit and go, ‘You know what, you need to work hard’.”
Endycott will tee it up in the Fortinet Championship in California for his first PGA Tour start, and remains hopeful of returning for the Australian Open after already securing a start in the Australian PGA.
He will join fellow Australians Cameron Davis, a Presidents Cup pick, former world No.1 Jason Day, Cameron Percy and Aaron Baddeley in the PGA Tour season opener.
“Cam is a really good buddy of mine and we played a lot of amateur golf together,” Endycott said. “He’s very comfortable on the PGA Tour and all these guys were in my shoes at one point in their career.
“I’m not out there nervous about what I’m going to do, the nerves are more about if I’ve set my alarm early enough. I’m so excited to get going all you’re thinking about it getting into it.”
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