Brian Harman to be hunted at Royal Liverpool

HOYLAKE, England — When Brian Harman missed the cut at the Masters in April, he blew off steam over the weekend by hunting for turkeys and pigs. Harman’s prowess with a bow and arrow drew the following question from a reporter on Friday: I take it the sheep and the cows are safe around here at the moment, are they?

“Sheep don’t taste as good as the turkeys do, I would imagine,” he said.

Harman, 36, is hunting for one thing and one thing only this week – a Claret Jug, the prize awarded to the Champion Golfer of the Year – and through 36 holes, the Georgia grad is doing it better than anyone else. On a sunny Friday with the wind blowing gently off the Dee Estuary, Harman carded four straight birdies starting at the second hole and capped off his 6-under 65 at Royal Liverpool with a 15-foot eagle at the last. Harman improved to 10-under 132, matching the lowest 36-hole score in British Open history, a mark previously set by Tiger Woods in 2006 and tied by Rory McIlroy in 2014. Both of those 36-hole leaders posted their record-low figure at Royal Liverpool, too, and went on to victory.

“I’ve had a hot putter the last couple days so try to ride it through the weekend,” Harman said. “Thirty-six holes to go, so try to rest up and get ready.”

Harman made his British Open debut here in 2014, qualifying at the 11^th hour by winning his first PGA Tour title at the John Deere Classic the Sunday before the championship.

“Had the 4:45 tee time on Friday, finished at 10:15, made the cut, loved the golf,” he said.

But then he packed his bags early in his next four trips across the pond for the major and couldn’t figure out why his game didn’t translate here. He finished T-19 in 2021 but after a slow start last year, he wondered, “Golly, I love coming over here but I’m getting my teeth kicked in.” He rallied to finish T-6 at St. Andrews and that gave him confidence. He played well the rest of the season, just missing a spot on the U.S. Presidents Cup and had two runner-up finishes in the fall.

“Then I just hit this odd sort of wall at the beginning of the year and I couldn’t claw my way out of it. Just kind of doubled down on my process and started playing some really good golf here of late,” said Harman, who also noted that his putter spent some time on double-secret probation. “There was a time middle of this year to where we were seriously thinking about going to the bullpen and pulling out something different. It’s…