HOYLAKE, England – Brian Harman skipped football practice one day when he was 11 years old. His mother, Nancy, drove him from their home in Savannah, Georgia, to Sea Island, Georgia, where he took an hour-long lesson from Jack Lumpkin, a fixture on every list of top golf instructors. Growing up on a golf course, Harman had picked up the game on his own and showed raw potential, but he wanted to find out what one of the best teachers thought of his ability.
“He didn’t tell me to get lost,” Harman recalled. “He told me I was doing well and come back in a few months and he’d check me again. For me, that was like a rite of passage.”
Harman passed his biggest test on Sunday, enduring a typical English summer day of a steady rain and a rocky start to shoot 1-under 70 at Royal Liverpool and win the 151st British Open by six strokes over Tom Kim (67), Sepp Straka (69), Jason Day (69) and Jon Rahm (70).
At 5-feet-7, Harman is one of the shorter players on Tour, but it hasn’t stopped him from beating competitors that are bigger and stronger. All his life he’s been told he’s too small, but Harman’s never paid attention. Instead, it served as motivation to prove them wrong. Asked once how long he’s played with a chip on his shoulder, Harman, said, “I think since my dad dropped me off at football practice and told me to not be disappointed if I didn’t get to play at all. I played a lot.”
Gifted with an all-around game and a silky-smooth putting stroke, he’ll never be confused for one of the game’s long knockers, but his hard work and bulldog mentality helped him win two previous PGA Tour titles heading into this week. He proudly noted that this will be the 12th straight year that he’s qualified for the FedEx Cup Playoffs, something only eight other players can stake claim to and only five of them are on track to do so this season.
But Harman has been the leader of a dubious distinction: he has been a top-10 machine but hasn’t won since the 2017 Wells Fargo Championship, recording 29 top-10s since the start of the 2017-18 PGA Tour season, the most of any player without a win in that span. Asked on Friday after he built a five-stroke lead with a bogey-free 65 to explain why he hasn’t won more often, Harmon said he wish he knew.
Relentless from Brian Harman.
A 40 foot masterstroke from the long-time leader.
He is now on the verge. pic.twitter.com/NXEOg0kk0X
— The Open (@TheOpen) July 23, 2023
“I think about it a lot,…
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