Harrison Endycott details newfound sobriety: 'I got sick of feeling like crap all the time'

NAPA, Calif. – Harrison Endycott recently thumbed through some old credit card statements. As a wine lover, it was easy to find when he first traveled to Napa for the 2022 Fortinet Championship.

“I was like ‘God I spent some money here a year ago,’” he said with a chuckle.

He can laugh about it now – only because of his hard work over the last two months.

Endycott is sober as of the Wyndham Championship. Consumed with the stress of being a rookie on TOUR and trying to keep his card, alcohol had become a crutch – one that only worsened his situation. It put him in “a really bad place” mentally. He wasn’t prioritizing his physical health. His performance stagnated, and he quickly began to resent how it made him feel. So, he cut it out of his life.

“It just wasn’t right for me,” Endycott, 27, divulged at the back of driving range at the Silverado Resort of his second appearance at the Fortinet Championship. Endycott is participating in The Turn, a PGA TOUR docu-series detailing the inaugural FedExCup Fall. “I got sick of feeling like crap all the time.

“You’re dealing with stress and you’re trying to work hard on your game. It just wasn’t helping me. It was just putting me in this really awful area where I didn’t want to be out there playing. It got to a stage where I’m playing on the best tour, in amazing situations that anyone would die to have, and I didn’t want to be there. It was a really worrying part but at the same time a really happy thing to experience that … because now I see the benefit of making these changes.”

Endycott is approaching six weeks without alcohol. The first month was one of the most challenging times of his life, battling cravings and a body going through withdrawal. Without any tournaments to prepare for, he attacked the time head-on. He put down his clubs and focused on himself. His family, friends, sponsors and swing coach helped him through. He looks back at the month glowingly, calling the time off after the Wyndham Championship “the best thing that could have happened to me.

“When I was drinking, I wouldn’t say not taking my job seriously, but (I was) not taking myself seriously, like not looking after myself,” Endycott said. “It’s hard to see how many people are really behind you and just want the best of you. At the time, the relationship I was having with alcohol was making me so angry, anxious, depressed.

“You don’t see anything getting better because you have forgotten where reality really is.”

He found a renewed love for cooking and has gotten healthier. He finds himself in the gym more often and energized by the prospect of long days working through his swing on the range. He also moved from Scottsdale to Nashville. It’s a wholesale change from where he was just two months ago. There will be more tough times ahead. This week at the Fortinet Championship was his first tournament sober. It’s hard to avoid wine in Napa Valley, but Endycott wasn’t tempted. He went out less than usual, opting for making his own meals at his rental house accompanied by a quiet night with a movie. He has no problem being around others who drink, but better to avoid temptation when he can.

“You can tell he’s in a better spot mentally, which is fantastic,” said caddie David Gies, who went without alcohol for four months earlier this year.

It didn’t result in better golf – yet. He shot 70-74 to miss the cut at the Fortinet Championship, a disappointing result considering he finished T12 in this event to start his rookie season. He is projected to drop to 131st in the FedExCup standings. It was his 17th missed cut of the season.

Endycott isn’t sweating the results, though. He played his best golf last fall and should aid in returning to golf courses he’s seen before, a luxury rookies don’t usually have. It didn’t benefit him this week, but Endycott is bullish about his fall on the golf course, and off of it for the first time in a while.

“I’m just in a better place. I feel healthier. I feel fitter. I’m happier about my life. I’m just in a really vulnerable, great spot to be in. I’m so excited to go to work.”