With the Claret Jug Safely at Home, Brian Harman Is Back on the Road
It’s time to go back to work for Brian Harman.
The British Open champ said he’s eager to get back to golf although admits it is going to take a few days for him to get his game back in shape after a couple of weeks at home and enjoying the spoils of his victory at Royal Liverpool.
"I will say that life is better as a major champion than not. It's been a wild ride, man," Harman said Tuesday at TPC Southwind, site of this week’s FedEx St. Jude Championship. “I've kept the Claret Jug right on top of our kitchen counter. My wife has asked me to move it several times, and it's like, no, that's a hard no, it's going to stay right here.
"I've caught myself walking by it looking at it, and be like, damn, man, I still can't believe it happened. I'm very grateful, very thankful. It was a very wild experience."
Harman said he had a chat with No. 1-ranked Scottie Scheffler about dealing with the aftermath of such a big win. Scheffler won the Masters in 2022 and has been a contender and top-ranked player in the ensuing period.
"I’ve always enjoyed going out to dinner when I'm on the road by myself, just going to a hole-in-the-wall place and getting dinner, and it's probably going to be a minute before I get to enjoy that again," Harman said. "There's guys that have to deal with it to a much greater scale than I've had to. I've asked a few of them how they kind of handle it."
Asked when the six-shot victory—the third of his PGA Tour career—sunk in, Harman said:
"There's like different layers of it sinking in," he said. “So I go visit my family—we rented a lake house, and after a few days I started feeling kind of normal, and then I go home and I have this just overwhelming support and a greet-and-meet at the airport. Then it takes a few days for that to sink in.
“Then yesterday I come out here to hit balls, and I was seeing all my fellow players, and it's the first time I had seen them, and everyone is congratulating me. It'll be another few days to try to let all that sink in."
Harman said there have been several memorable moments with the Claret Jug, one that occurred in the wee hours after his victory.
"We had a moment, my agent and I, Jeremy Elliott, he's been very instrumental to my success," Harman said. "We had a moment together. We got done partying Sunday night and we were getting picked up at 3 a.m. for our flight, and it's 1:30, and I'm like, do we go to bed, and he goes, 'no, we're not going to bed; are you crazy?' So it was just him and I and the jug sipping a cold beer at 1:30 in the morning, just like, man, how cool is this.
"Then flying home and having so many buddies and friends and people there to greet me when I got back, just that kind of stuff, just it means a lot."
Now Harman has to get back to work. And he heads in to the first FedEx Cup playoff event in sixth place in the overall standings, assured of making it to the Tour Championship in two weeks. (He's also seventh in the SI World Golf Rankings.)
"I'm going to try to push it as much as I can, try to improve my position every week," he said. "Just going to try to play the best golf that I can and see where that winds me up."