HOYLAKE, England — Brian Harman said Friday you don’t get to pick your nickname, but he approved of a British tabloid tabbing him “The Butcher of Hoylake.”
“I like that one better than the Harmanator,” said Harman, who enjoys hunting for animals in his spare time. “That made me chuckle. Someone texted me that yesterday. That’s funny.”
On Saturday, Harman, 36, continued to chop up the field and signed for 2-under 69 at Royal Liverpool to maintain a five-stroke lead over Cameron Young heading into the final round of the 151st British Open.
Harman overcame a shaky start, making bogeys at the first and fourth hole. Just like that, his five-stroke overnight lead was trimmed to two strokes over Jon Rahm, who shot a bogey-free 63. But Harman bounced back with birdies at the fifth and ninth to return to double-figures under par and shoot even-par 35 on the opening nine.
Brian Harman’s 5-shot lead is the largest through 54 holes at The Open by an American since Tiger Woods in 2000 (6 shots).
— Justin Ray (@JustinRayGolf) July 22, 2023
“It would have been really easy to let the wheels start spinning and really kind of let it get out of control, but I just kind of doubled down on my routine and knew I was hitting it well, even though I hadn’t hit any good shots yet,” he said. “Really proud of the way that I hung in there.”
He continued hunting for birdies, sticking his approach at the par-4 12th to 5 feet and rolled in the birdie putt. Harman complained that his TaylorMade Daddy Longlegs putter was misbehaving not long ago and he considered benching it, but it has been more friend than foe. He drained a 20-foot birdie putt at the par-3 13th and finished with five straight pars to card a 2-under 69 and a 54-hole total of 12-under 201.
Harman enjoyed a celebrated junior and amateur career, including playing on a winning U.S. Walker Cup team, and has won twice on the PGA Tour, but when asked to name his biggest achievement in the game, he noted that he has qualified for the FedEx Cup playoffs the last 12 straight years, an accomplishment achieved by only eight other players. (Harman is one of five on track to make it again.) It speaks to his consistency, but also to the fact that he has never really won any of the biggest events in the game. He slept on a 54-hole lead at a major once before at the 2017 U.S. Open at Erin Hills, but he didn’t have a five-stroke lead that time. This is unchartered territory.
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