The English professional golfer Tommy Fleetwood admitted he had no idea that $154,500 of his tournament winnings had been erroneously paid into the account of a U.S. man with the same name.

The cash, which was prize money for Fleetwood's 12th place finish at the British Open in July, was sent in error by the PGA (Professional Golfers' Associations) European Tour.

Speaking to reporters ahead of the U.S. PGA Championship at the Bellerive Country Club, St. Louis on Thursday, the world number 11 laughed it off as an honest mistake.

"They (the European Tour) are looking into it and I'm sure they'll feel pretty bad about it. It's a funny story," he said, before admitting he hadn't noticed the missing cash himself.

"It's just something I don't really look at, but I'll get on top of that."

The man who received the money is reportedly a 58-year-old Florida resident, also called Thomas Fleetwood. He is a golf club professional based at Streamstrong Resort in Florida, who was born in 1959 and contested the European Senior Tour's qualifying school four times from 2013.

The U.S.-based Fleetwood told Reuters that his attempts to get on the senior tour would explain why the European golfing body held his bank account details.

A friend of the Florida man posted a screenshot of his bank account on Twitter, adding it was a good thing that the American was an honest guy.

Tweet 1

The English Fleetwood has won more than $8 million in golf prize money over the last two years. So far there has been no word on a reward for honesty.