2023 British Open: While drowning out pro-England crowd, Brian Harman 18 holes away from major glory
HOYLAKE, England – Up in the hospitality tent, over in the grandstands, down by the rope line, they sang and danced and shouted, cramming Tommy Fleetwood’s name into whatever clever chant they could think of.
The partisan crowd here at Royal Liverpool was cheering on one of their own, with Tommy Lad representing England’s best chance for an Open winner in more than 30 years. The conventional wisdom was that the unconditional love for four hours would buoy Fleetwood. That it would inspire him. And that it would unnerve his opponent. But as powerful as the support may sound, it can also serve as a reminder of all those let down with each missed opportunity. On the most scoreable day of the week, with the fans in full throat, Fleetwood made just a single birdie and signed for a 71. Five shots behind at the start of the day, now he found himself seven back.
“Overall, frustrating,” he said.
Brian Harman expected to be drowned out amid the Fleetwood fanatics. He tried to prepare for it. On Saturday, he heard fewer cheers for himself than for “Ricky” – no, not Fowler, but rather former cricketer Ricky Ponting, with whom Harman apparently shares a resemblance. “Handsome fella,” Harman cracked.
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“I’d be lying if I didn’t hear some things that weren’t super nice today towards me,” he said. “I hear them, but at the same time, I don’t try to let that influence the decision I’m about to make.”
But about midway through the third round of The Open, Harman forced the tens of thousands of spectators to create the sweetest sound of all: begrudging applause. After a shaky start that sliced his lead to just two shots, Harman poured it on with four birdies, hardly missing a shot on the back nine, to regain his five-shot advantage heading into the most consequential day of his life.
“It would have been really easy to let the wheels start spinning and really let it get out of control,” Harman said, “but I just doubled down on my routine and knew I was hitting it well, even though I hadn’t hit any good shots yet.
“Staying patient out there is paramount. Sometimes it’s a lot harder than others. But really proud of the way that I hung in there.”
Harman’s 2-under 69 put him comfortably in front of Cameron Young, who – despite his immense gifts – doesn’t engender the same emotions from the crowd as Fleetwood. Compared to the folks who will follow Jon Rahm on the heels of his record-breaking 63, or Rory McIlroy trying to make a fierce comeback, or, yes, Fleetwood needing to mount his own charge, the final group Sunday should be able to play in relative anonymity.
This will be Harman’s second 54-hole lead in a major, and his first in six years. That year at Erin Hills, he admittedly thought too much about what it’d mean for his career, his potential finally fulfilled. He slept poorly. Didn’t eat right. And then got lapped on the final day by Brooks Koepka.
Harman is 36 now, a long way removed from his days as a hotshot junior and a world-beating amateur whose American squad took on Fleetwood and the rest of the best from Great Britain and Ireland in the 2009 Walker Cup. Harman is ranked among the top 30 players in the world, but when asked if he thinks he’s underrated, well, he said he doesn’t particularly care. He appreciates the hard work that professional golf requires. For him, right now, that’s enough. When asked about his greatest accomplishment to date, he doesn’t cite his two PGA Tour titles – it’s the fact that he’s one of just eight players on Tour who has kept his card for the past dozen years.
“I’m proud of that,” he said.
History suggests that his resume will soon need updating.
Of the 11 players who have held a 54-hole major lead of at five shots in the modern era, nine have gone on to convert that massive lead into victory. Harman’s molten-hot putter seems like the ultimate mistake-eraser, but Royal Liverpool’s dynamic closing stretch still introduces more jeopardy than a traditional links venue. There’s the pot bunkers that are an automatic pitch-out from the fairway. There’s the rough that is dense enough in spots to swallow clubheads whole. And then there’s the final two holes – the short 17th that coach Pete Cowen predicted could ruin a player’s career, and the par-5 finisher featuring out-of-bounds stakes that hug the entire right side.
That’s why there was at least one tense moment late, when Harman was looking for one last birdie that would maybe, just maybe, would make his goal of 10 hours’ rest tonight slightly more attainable. Though he’s an avid hunter with a steady trigger finger, Harman is a fidgety character on the course. On the 18th tee, he took 11 waggles. He re-gripped the club countless times. He did the FootJoy shuffle. His last drive of the day drifted meekly to the left, safely away from the OB line, and buried in thick rough. From a horrid lie he could advance the ball just 80 yards down the fairway, and then he flailed a 3-wood short and left of the green. A closing bogey could finally add some drama to a tournament that has largely been devoid of it because of the guy British tabloids have nicknamed, “Brian the Butcher.”
But Harman calmly pitched onto the green and then rolled in the 8-footer for par, giving a small fist pump and eliciting one last round of applause from the crowd. The diminutive left-hander had nipped the local lad by two, and the fans had no option but to salute him.
Now 18 holes from victory, Harman was asked about if he could visualize hoisting the claret jug.
“You’d be foolish not to envision it, and I’ve thought about winning majors for my entire life. It’s the whole reason I work as hard as I do, and why I practice as much as I do, and why I sacrifice as much as I do,” he said. “But tomorrow, if that’s going to come to fruition for me, has to be all about the golf. It has to be about execution and just staying in the moment.”
All while drowning out all the noise – the chirps and the quips, the cheers and roars, the songs and the chants.
For three days, Harman has had the best response of all.