Brian Harman – The 2023 Champion Golfer of the Year
The last of the four major championships of the year is in the books. Unheralded 36- year-old American Brian Harman ran away with the title for only his third tour victory. Harman jumped into a five-shot lead on Friday after shooting a day’s best 6-under 65 and followed that up with rounds of 69, 70 on the weekend to ultimately win by six. shots over four other players.
Most impressively, Harman exuded nerves of steel, bouncing back every time he wobbled. He made only six bogeys in the tournament and followed those up with birdies four times. On Sunday, he made quite a few incredible par saves when he seemed to be in big trouble.
He won thanks to consistent ball striking and outstanding putting, needing only 106 putts over four days, or 26.5 putts a round. That’s the fewest of any winner in the 20 years that putting stats have been tracked. For the week, he gained a tournament leading 11.57 strokes putting and unbelievably missed only one putt inside 10 feet.
Brian Harman and the power of perseverance
From every angle.
Brian Harman’s winning putt.
A moment every golfer dreams of. pic.twitter.com/5hBthWhk4U
— The Open (@TheOpen) July 24, 2023
Before last week, if you had asked golf fans which player had the most top-10 finishes on the PGA Tour since 2017, there’s a good chance most of them would have got the answer wrong. In all probability, even Harman might not have known the answer and he is the answer. Harman had 50 top-10 finishes on his resume since his last win on tour in 2017, the most of any player. That’s more than Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler, Jon Rahm, Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas or Dustin Johnson, to name just a few.
Yet he did not have a win to show for it.
As Harman acknowledged, an “active mind” would get in the way and his focus would drift from what he was doing to what might or could happen. At the Open, he worked hard on calming his mind by focusing on his routine. That helped to keep him in the present and not get caught up in future scenarios that may or may not occur.
Harman actually enjoyed a decorated amateur career, winning the United States Junior Amateur and playing on two winning US Walker Cup teams, when he was the youngest on the team.
Professional successes, however, were few and far between. He turned pro in 2010 and started on the minor tour. He won his first PGA event in 2014, waited three years for his second and another six years for his third.
Mastery of the elements.
Brian Harman claims a supreme six stroke victory at Hoylake.
A magnificent performance. pic.twitter.com/Ic3HRsF5my
— The Open (@TheOpen) July 23, 2023
Through it all he persevered. He kept working on his game, kept putting himself in contention and never stopped thinking that this day would come.
“I want to enjoy this because it’s been hard” Harman said after his victory. “A bundle of nerves. I’ve always had a self-belief that I can do something like this but when it takes so much time it’s hard to let your mind not falter. Maybe I won’t win again? When is it going to be my turn again?”
It was finally his turn on Sunday again at Royal Liverpool. At 36, Harman became a major champion.
It’s a good lesson in perseverance for anyone who has ever picked up a golf club.
Shubhankar Sharma makes history for Indian golf
At the start of the tournament, you would have got long odds on Shubhankar Sharma finishing in the top 10 . He had missed his last three cuts and had only one top-20 finish since the start of March. On paper, it wasn’t a recipe for success.
Perfectly judged.
As the rain starts to fall, Shubhankar Sharma makes a move with an eagle. pic.twitter.com/ILDY3yXMkA
— The Open (@TheOpen) July 22, 2023
Sharma, who turned 27 on the Friday of the tournament, showed Nick Faldo-like consistency in tough final round conditions, making 17 pars and one birdie. The only player to go bogey free on Sunday. He had a makeable birdie putt on the par-5 18 th hole to move into a tie for sixth after a stunning third shot, but the putt grazed the edge of the hole and stubbornly refused to fall in. Still, he shot par or better in all four rounds, something he had done only once this season – at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship back in January, where he finished seventh (his best result of 2023).
Since that tournament where he won 215,000 euros, Sharma had scraped together earnings of roughly 92,000 euros across 14 tournaments. He made 362,000 euros from the Open alone, effectively doubling his earnings for the year.
The win also moved him up to 54 th in the Race to Dubai European Tour rankings and gives him a chance to qualify for the second straight year in the season-ending DP World Tour Championship in November (the top 50 players in the rankings qualify). Importantly he will retain his playing rights for 2024, which he was in danger of losing and he gets into the 2024 Open Championship automatically for finishing in the top 10.
With his performance at Royal Liverpool, Sharma reminded us of his talent and potential. If he can harness the consistency, temperament, and quality of shot making he showed in the Open, then he due for his third win on the European Tour and starring in a few more majors. After all, Brian Harman is proof of what is possible if you persevere.
The agony of watching Rory McIlroy
There’s no doubt who the spectators at Royal Liverpool were rooting for – Rory McIlroy. If the will of the people meant anything in sport, McIlroy would have won the Open Championship by 10 shots. But sports doesn’t work that way. Instead, McIlroy teased and tormented his fans all over the world with false hopes and missed putts. Many, many missed putts. Every time he had a chance to apply a little pressure on the leader Harman or was on the cusp of getting on a roll, his putter let him down.
Rollercoaster Round — Rory McIlroy somehow saves par on 18 to escape round 1 at even par (71). He’s 5 back. @TrackingRory
— NUCLR GOLF (@NUCLRGOLF) July 20, 2023
The genius of Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods was that they made the putts that mattered more than they missed. With McIlroy, that trend is reversed. Faced with a big putt, you now expect him to miss it rather than make it.
The Athletic pointed out that McIlroy’s sixth place finish was his 20th top-10 since he won the 2014 PGA. That’s three more top-10s than any other player over that same span. He is now the only player since the first Masters began in 1934 to have that many top-10s over nine years in majors without winning.
There’s no denying McIlroy’s talent and he has already had a career most golfers would kill to have. Yet because he found the secret to winning majors early in his career, there is a feeling that he hasn’t fulfilled his potential. His drought now enters its 10 th year, and the pressure will keep building until The Masters comes around next April.
It’s clear McIlroy needs to do something different if he is to actually win that elusive fifth major.
The joy of watching links golf
In a round of links golf, imagination is imperative.
Adrian Otaegui had that in abundance with this creative escape. pic.twitter.com/pggHRMILvy
— The Open (@TheOpen) July 22, 2023
Over the last eight years, The Open Championship has been the major least influenced by driving distance. The average rank in driving distance for Open winners over that span has been 39.9 compared to an average of 18.7 for the other majors (hat tip to The Athletic for these stats). Harman was 51 st in driving distance this week but first by a mile in putting.
That not only opens up the field for more players, but it also means The Open tests more aspects of a player’s game, physical and mental. To win an Open, you have to be accurate to keep the ball in play, you need to have a good short game, and most of all, you need to have a good mental strategy, especially if the weather turns bad, as we saw on Sunday at Royal Liverpool. The weather turned formerly reachable par-5s into a proper three-shot holes. A player needs to be mentally tough to handle such different conditions or he will flounder.
That probably explains why of the 13 major winners aged 36 or older since 2013, six of them have come at The Open (again, hat tip to the Athletic). The Open rewards experience, patience and composure, all of which Harman demonstrated. It also rewards the ability to play different shots, especially around the greens.
That also makes it much more interesting and fun to watch than the repetitive bomb- it-and-wedge-it approach at most PGA tournaments.
Credits:-
Photo – The Open