AUGUSTA, Ga. – When Derek Ernst departed Augusta National Golf Club, turning right onto Washington Road from Magnolia Lane that Friday afternoon in 2014, he figured he’d be back.
He was right, though Ernst’s Masters return has come a dozen years later – and not in the way he’d ever envisioned.
Ernst, who last played a PGA Tour event two years ago and is now the assistant men’s golf coach at the University of Tennessee, will caddie for Vols sophomore Jackson Herrington as the reigning U.S. Amateur runner-up makes his major debut.
Ernst, 35, is the first Masters competitor to later return to the tournament as a caddie since Trip Kuehne looped for his brother, Hank, in the 1999 edition, four years after he debuted.
“Never would’ve thought this. Never,” Ernst said. “When you’re a 23-year-old who had just won on Tour within the last year, you’ve got to be a little cocky. Other people have asked me if I ever thought I’d be caddying in this. I’m like, if you told me that day, I would’ve said no way, I’m going to be winning one of these. But things have changed, and it’s going to be a great experience for me, and all I want to do is do my best for Jackson out there and give him the opportunity to play his best.”
Ernst earned his only Masters invite by winning the 2013 Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow. It was his only finish better than T-44 during that rookie season. He shot 76-76 to miss the cut that next spring at Augusta National, though there were some highlights – a practice round with Jordan Spieth, an eagle on No. 13 during the second round (and some crystal), and that Masters was the first tournament that his now-wife, Laney, watched him play in.
Ernst joined Herrington at Augusta National a couple weeks ago for Herrington’s last allotted day of advanced practice. He expects the emotions to be tenfold once the tournament starts.
“I think being inside those ropes is going to bring me back into that moment again,” Ernst said.
Ernst’s last start on Tour came at the 2024 Puerto Rico Open. The season prior, he earned 11 starts, mostly due to players leaving for LIV Golf, though made just two cuts. He was already teaching on the side in Dallas at that point, so after deciding not to enter Q-School in Summer 2024, he reached out to nine different college coaches within a seven-hour drive. The first coach to respond was Baylor’s Mike McGraw, who didn’t have an opening but knew of someone who did: Oklahoma State’s Alan Bratton.
Ernst was an assistant on the Cowboys’ 2025 NCAA Championship-winning squad.
Now, he’s under Brennan Webb at Tennessee, where he’s made an instant connection with Herrington, whom people call, “Fridge.” Ernst has introduced some training and nutrition habits to Herrington, who has lost about 20 pounds since losing to Mason Howell in the U.S. Amateur final at Olympic Club last August. They also share some common threads, including the fact that both have overcome traumatic right-eye injuries. Ernst was in second grade and attempting to make his mom a gift when he sliced his right eye with a shard of PVC pipe. The scar tissue that developed affects Ernst’s depth perception and has clouded his vision. Herrington was 6 years old when he took a knee to his right eye while jumping on a trampoline. He was diagnosed with a concussion and later alternating esotropia, and he went through months of therapy and pain before doctors finally did surgery to save his vision.
“He’s a quiet, confident kid,” Ernst said. “That’s kind of how I was as a player.”
Herrington brought up the idea of Ernst donning the white caddie jumpsuit at Augusta National last fall before officially asking Ernst in January.
“Obviously, I played in the Masters, I’ve played in over 300 PGA Tour and Korn Ferry events. Hopefully, I can help him learn from the mistakes that I’ve made and the things that were good and navigate him through all that,” Ernst said. “I’ve never caddied in a professional event in my life, but coaching in college, you’re basically caddying for guys, you’re just not carrying the bag. Sometimes you’re even walking with one guy only for an entire round.”
Ernst says the left-handed Herrington, who is coming off two of his three best finishes of the college season (T-6 at the Cabo Collegiate, T-14 at the Pauma Valley Invitational), already hits the ball far, but he’s been working in recent months on softer, more controlled-spin shots.
“He can move the ball pretty far, but it’s learning to dial it back and control that distance,” Ernst said. “If he can drive it the way he normally drives it and controls that spin and then has the confidence rolling with the putter, he can have a great week.”