The Open 2023: ‘Butcher of Hoylake’ Brian Harman keeps cool head amid golfing Armageddon
rom the moment he teed off on Thursday afternoon, Brian Harman was no one’s pick to win the Open.
The bookmakers had him down as a 200-1 shot and no pundit was talking up his chances. As for the spectators, they were pining for local lads Matt Jordan and Tommy Fleetwood, or else for Rory McIlroy to end his nine-year barren run in the majors.
All three threatened to make a push for the Claret Jug at different stages but all lacked the consistency of Harman over the course of the four days.
This will not go down in history as a vintage Open but predominantly because of Harman’s dominance and his steadfastness in horrible conditions on a final day which he likened to golfing Armageddon. For his rivals, it must have felt that way.
A capitulation from the American briefly loomed on the horizon with bogeys on the second and fifth holes of his final round taking him back to 10-under, but that and the threat of a contest were immediately extinguished by back-to-back birdies on the very next two holes.
By the time he sunk his final putt on the 18th, his winning margin was six strokes, the biggest at the Open since Louis Oosthuizen in 2010.
It was Harman’s 60th putt inside 10 feet over the course of his four rounds. Of those 60, he missed just one and, while his chasers almost seemed to be magnets for the myriad bunkers, he found the sandy stuff just twice all week, the second on his final hole.
Accuracy: Harman was automatic with the putter as he led wire-to-wire at Royal Liverpool
/ Getty ImagesSuch statistics go a long way to explaining how the unheralded Harman managed to triumph and pocket a winner’s cheque for £1.8million.
While he was unheard of to most on these shores before this week, this wasn’t quite the shock the bookies would have you believe. Harman began the week at 26th in the world and showed he had a penchant for links golf when finishing sixth at last year’s Open. And yet, he had not won on tour since 2017. What a time and place to correct that.
In the aftermath, he admitted the numbers had bothered him. “It’s been hard to deal with,” he said. “Someone mentioned that I’ve had more top 10s than anyone since 201, so that’s a lot of times where you are like, ‘damn it, man’. It just didn’t happen for whatever reason. I don’t know why this week but I’m very thankful that it was.”
Now he is inside the world’s top 10 and has almost certainly done enough to be an automatic pick for the American Ryder Cup team, which will be skippered by his good friend Zach Johnson.
If the Americans had a single 10-foot putt to win the Ryder Cup, Harman would undoubtedly be their pick
Harman had this week revealed a penchant for hunting with a bow and arrow, and then eating his prey. Such an admission had earned him the nickname the Butcher of Hoylake, one which he seemed to embrace.
Harshly, there were boos for him on the first tee, the negative reception playing a role in him staying well out in front.
He recalled: “A guy when I was passing him said, ‘Harman, you don’t have the stones for this’. That helped. It helped snap me back into thinking, ‘I’m good enough to do this. I’m going to do this. I’m going to go through my process and the next shot is going to be good’. If they wanted me to not play well they should have been really nice to me.”
His plan of celebration to return home and mow the lawn on a brand new giant orange tractor hardly gave the impression that Harman is going to be any sort of rabble-rouser when it comes to trying to down Europe on home soil in Rome later this year.
He’s no Patrick Reed nor Ian Poulter but, if the Americans had a single 10-foot putt to win the event, Harman would undoubtedly be their pick.
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