Brian Harman Was Not on Anyone's Short List for the British Open, But the Claret Jug Is His
HOYLAKE, England — He is not the victor they came to see, not the local boy from just up the road or the accomplished player who carries the same passport or even a man from the nearby country who has secured so many titles this year.
No, Brian Harman was not the first choice of the locals who were out in full force on Sunday. They carried their brollies in the rain at Royal Liverpool, and throughout the week visited the storied venue in northwest England where Bobby Jones and Tiger Woods won British Opens and where a local amateur named Harold Hilton won it all the way back in 1897.
Harman, whose own family would have been unlikely to back him at the start of the week, saw his name engraved onto the same Claret Jug, however, having put together a remarkable performance over the past four days, never wavering, claiming golf’s oldest trophy, by six shots over a foursome of others.
He might not be as accomplished as Tommy Fleetwood, who is from nearby Southport, England; or Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy, whose Open title came here nine years ago, or Spain’s Jon Rahm, the Masters champion who shot 63 on Saturday and briefly made things uncomfortable on the front nine.
But Harman is the Champion Golfer of the Year, and while he heard some boos and catcalls in the early going, for the rest of his days he will be embraced in these parts for that heady accomplishment.
"I never knew how much I'd appreciate it until the first time I came; I played in 2014. I just didn't know what to expect,’’ Harman said. “You grow up in Georgia, it's all the Masters. It's all proximity.
"But I came here and I was like, 'wow, man, this is unbelievable.' The fans are incredible. Everyone understands golf over here. It was just a delight to play. Man, I'm stoked. Stoked to come back here."
Harman, 36, who had but two career PGA Tour victories and none since 2017, grabbed the lead with a 65 on Friday and almost never looked back. Time after time, when it appeared there might be a chance to unravel, the former University of Georgia golfer recovered.
Two early bogeys on Sunday through the fifth hole let Rahm get within three strokes, but Harman immediately birdied the 6th and 7th holes to reestablish his comfortable lead.
When another Georgia Bulldog, Sepp Straka, got within four shots late in the round, there was Harman to bury the dagger with consecutive birdies at the 14th and 15th holes. He finished with a 1-under 70.
Straka, Rahm, Tom Kim and Jason Day finished tied for second.
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That it never got too close was a testament to his own abilities. Harman is certainly not the longest hitter, but he has all the shots, a solid short game and his putting was brilliant. At one point Sunday, he had made 47 of 47 putts for the tournament from inside 10 feet.
For the tournament, he led the field, hitting 42 of 56 fairways. He also hit 47 of 72 greens in regulation and led the field in strokes-gained total with a whopping 18.8 strokes gained on the field.
"Last week and the last couple tournaments he's played in does not surprise me in the least," said Zach Johnson, the U.S. Ryder Cup captain and two-time major champion who lives in the same Sea Island, Ga., neighborhood as Harman. “He is a very formidable competitor, number one.
“Number two, hey, what does Brian Harman do really well? Well, he does everything quite well. He's a very good driver of the golf ball and a very, very, very good putter. Then if everything else is good, then it can be pretty lethal. Our games are very similar except for the fact that he stands on the wrong side of the golf ball.
“He hits it a little further. He's gritty. He's got a great ensemble of coaches and a team. What I've seen has not surprised me in the least."
Well, it certainly surprised the rest of the golf world. Although ranked 26th in the OWGR and 29th in the SI World Golf Rankings coming into the tournament off a tie for 12th last week at the Scottish Open, the lack of overall resume had nobody thinking Harman would emerge a winner this week. His odds at various bookmakers this week were north of 100 to 1.
He said Saturday that his biggest accomplishment in the game was qualifying for the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup playoffs for 12 straight years, and while that is a nice run of consistency, it’s not exactly the kind of goal you put at the top of your dreams.
Of course, Harman has had loftier aspirations, as he said Saturday evening when taking a five-shot lead into the final round.
“I’ve thought about winning majors my whole life,” Harman said. “It’s the reason why I work as hard as I do, why I practice as much as I do, why I sacrifice as much as I do. Tomorrow, if that’s going to come to fruition for me, it has to be all about the golf. It has to be execution and just staying in the moment.”
Harman is a nice reminder that the professional game is not always about the stars. There are dozens of players like him who put in the work week after week, travel about the country or the world with coaches and trainers and nutritionists, working their hardest for a day such as this.
And Sunday was miserable as far as weather. The course was packed with revelers, but it certainly was not easy. If Harman was to stumble, perhaps the rainy conditions would be the reason.
"I think it’s pretty fitting," said Harman’s longtime caddie, Scott Tway. "He’s a grinder. And this is definitely a day where you had grind for sure."
There can only be four major championship winners a year, a fact often taken for granted when more is expected of the likes of Rory McIlroy (who tied for sixth) or Rickie Fowler or Adam Scott or Jordan Spieth.
Sometimes there are others who step out of the shadows to achieve glory. This time it was Harman, who now has a Ryder Cup in his future and a couple of decades in which he gets to return to the land of the Open.
For the next year, the Claret Jug will be in his possession, and Sunday night he said it will be Guinness that will flow to and from the old trophy.
"I’m not going to let it out of my sight for the time being, that’s for sure," Harman said.