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.
With Brian Harman sitting five strokes clear at the top of the leaderboard early Saturday morning, many UK golf fans were finally forced to learn who the hell Brian Harman is. He’s a lefty. He looks like a former Australian cricket captain.
Royal Liverpool has been defenceless in the early going of Round 3, the byproduct of wet confines and little rain. But the course does have one curveball to throw at the field:
In football terms, the language of the Liverpool galleries, Tommy Fleetwood’s five-shot deficit through 36 holes to Brian Harman at the Open Championship is not unlike his beloved Everton FC being a few goals down at halftime in a home game at Goodison Park. It’s not ideal, but it’s not ever either.
It’s been a dream start to the Open Championship for Brian Harman, and when his 15-footer for eagle rolled in on 18 after hitting his two best shots of the day, which followed two hard-fought pars on 16 and 17, it completed the dream finish … at least for 36 holes.
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.
“Home favourite” has always been a label imbued with good and bad vibes. The biggest benefit is obvious: support from one’s own people always carries with it a psychological boost. But there is a downside in the added pressure the recipient can feel in trying not to let anyone down.
Royal Liverpool member Matthew Jordan knew he was never going to walk alone, even when his girlfriend had to leave the gallery Thursday morning to go to work.
The current majors rota of the Masters, US Open, Open Championship and PGA Championship has been established since 1934, when the Masters was inaugurated, and since then, there hasn’t seemed to be much appetite from fans or the golf establishment to add to that. Chamblee calls that thinking “antiquated”.
Australian Golf Digest
