Brian Harman is used to being the hunter.
“When I go out turkey hunting,” Harman says, “I can spend all day out there.”
On Sunday at Royal Liverpool, Harman was the hunted. But none of Harman’s pursuers, the closest a whopping five shots back entering the final round of this 151st Open Championship, could catch him. Harman, wielding quite the weapon of his own (his putter), spent a long, cool, and rainy day on England’s west coast dodging bullets and sinking putts.
He didn’t just escape, though. By the time he holed out for par on Hoylake’s par-5 18th hole, Harman had turned back into the hunter – a big-game hunter – and a major champion for the first time.
And soon, he’d have the ultimate prize, the claret jug, in his hands to life high into the grey, drizzly sky.
Not that Harman never looked susceptible. For the second straight day, he bogeyed two of his first five holes with no birdies. The slow start allowed Jon Rahm, with a birdie at the par-5 fifth hole, to pull within three shots. While Rahm got a fortunate break after yanking his drive into the gorse left of the fifth fairway and was able to play his second shot, Harman’s tee shot on the same hole wasn’t so lucky. Harman had to take an unplayable, yet hit a nice third shot to avoid carding anything worse than bogey.
But just as the charging Spaniard had Harman in his crosshairs, Harman, the championship’s leader in strokes gained putting for the week, sank birdie putts on each of the next two holes, Nos. 6 and 7, to stretch his advantage back to five shots.
None of Harman’s challengers got closer again.
Rahm played his final 13 holes in even par to shoot 70 and finish in a share of second place at 7 under with Sepp Straka (69), Jason Day (69) and Tom Kim (67).
A shot behind that foursome was Rory McIlroy, who birdied three straight holes early but cooled off and shot 68.
Harman, meanwhile, canned a 40-foot birdie putt at No. 14 following another bogey and then added an 8-foot birdie make at the par-5 15th hole. His closing 70 gave him a six-shot victory, and he avoided joining an ominous list of players to cough up a 54-hole major lead of five or more strokes.
Instead, Harman is projected to move to No. 11 in the Official World Golf Ranking, a career-best mark. He should also solidify a spot on Zach Johnson’s U.S. Ryder Cup team, too.
Captain Johnson could use a hunter on his 12-man squad.
