Harman has devised an entire strategy around what he can do best: win around the corners. It has led to 12-year career on the PGA Tour and wins at every level he’s played. And now, an Open championship victory.
The ice-cool left-hander, who took a five-shot lead into the final round and won by six, doesn’t plan on his life evolving too much now that he’s the Champion Golfer of the Year.
It was a week that every professional golfer hopes to have – one where you’re in control of all facets of your game during a four-day span on the game’s biggest stage where everything seems as easy as ever.
Harman was 36 holes away from weekend of his life, one that could end with him capturing the claret jug, and he had to play in front of fans who didn’t want to see him do it.
Travis Smyth, the 28-year-old Asian Tour pro from Kiama in New South Wales who played part of last year on LIV Golf, may not claim the claret jug this year, but he can always claim a Hoylake tournament first.
It wasn’t the flat patch of land or Hoylake’s calm conditions that defined the opening 18 holes of the year’s final men’s major, but, rather, the devilish bunkers (81 overall) that litter the place.
A new legend unknowingly joined the Open Championship broadcast while hitting balls parallel to the course. He didn’t just get a moment of glory but a swing breakdown from golf great and former Ryder Cup captain Paul Azinger.
Leading into the tournament we were warned about all of Hoylake’s internal out-of-bounds and told by one top coach that the course’s new par 3 “could ruin somebody’s career”. But it was an old links standard that caused this disaster: the pot bunker.
Australian Golf Digest
