Royal Liverpool Golf Club has released video of a literal bomb going off beside one of its famed greens in a controlled detonation of a WWII-era artillery shell that was recently discovered beneath the 13-time Open Championship venue.
American Brian Harman produced a stunning six-shot victory to lift his maiden major title at the Open Championship, the year’s final men’s major, at Royal Liverpool. In capturing his third PGA Tour win, the 36-year-old became only the fifth left-hander to triumph in a major championship and he achieved the feat in style by outclassing a world-class field with some terrific golf over the weekend, which was played under treacherous links weather.
Good for you, Brian. You are now the Champion Golfer of the Year, and as Cameron Smith was tearfully reminded last week, you’ve only got a year before you have to give that special trophy back. So drink up.
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.
Beneath that veneer of positivity, there must surely linger some doubt. What does the Belfast boy need to do to turn things round? It is obvious: he needs to putt better.
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.
Australian Golf Digest
