Harmaggeddon! How Brian beat the boo boys to win the Open

Brian Harman was not going to let this opportunity pass.

The diminutive left-hander from Savannah in America’s ‘Deep South’ stood tallest here on the Wirral at a deluged Royal Liverpool Golf Club.

The huge ovation from the thousands of drenched souls in the grandstands when he holed his final putt was a fitting end after he had brushed off the cries from an unruly bunch on the first tee four hours earlier.

As Harman later revealed, the party spoiler was a role he relished.

“After I made the second bogey yesterday, a guy, when I was passing him, he said, ‘Harman, you don’t have the stones for this’.  It helped snap me back. ‘I’m good enough to do this. I’m going to do this.”

The boo boys did not succeed.

It is no secret that Harman will not be the most popular Open champion around these parts and perhaps that should come as no surprise.

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He flaunts his love of hunting and was never going to endear himself to a British golfing audience who can find him posing with a slayed alligator, elk and turkeys on his Instagram account. Let’s just say what passes for a hobby in the States doesn’t travel well.

In recent times, Merseyside crowds had got used to celebrating their favourite champions down the 18th hole on Sunday.

Tiger’s exhibition in 2006 and Rory’s day in 2014 stand out as some of the finest Open memories. The Butcher of Hoylake perhaps doesn’t compare quite so favourably.

But Harman will not care one bit, nor should he.

This was not a bolt from the blue for the 36-year-old but rather a week where everything finally came together.

He is a two-time PGA Tour winner and a stalwart of the American circuit who has enjoyed a stellar amateur career and began the week inside the world’s top-30.

There was a T6 in last year’s Open at St Andrews, whilst Brooks Koepka was the only man to beat him in the 2017 US Open.

He also considered a dozen consecutive appearances in the season-closing FedEx Cup Playoffs his proudest achievement before today’s denouement.

With respect, this is no Ben Curtis story.

The Champion Golfer of the Year. pic.twitter.com/wAFKiddk0e

— The Open (@TheOpen) July 23, 2023

Harman played almost flawless golf through four rounds under the most intense pressure to leave the world’s best golfers chasing his shadow.

He spoke about having an “active mind” at the halfway stage and perhaps that was of concern before the afternoon that was going to define his career. But he didn’t blink throughout the rain-soaked Sunday.

There was only one fleeting moment when this procession looked to be under threat.

Harman bogeyed two of his first five holes and his lead was reduced to three – but he soon settled into no-miss golf.

The broadcasters may as well have repeated yesterday’s tape as he composed himself with back-to-back birdies.

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Jon Rahm was fired up for a Sunday charge after his third round 63 and Rory McIlroy’s three early birdies may have unsettled a more edgy leader, but Harman was having none of it.

Just like the first three rounds, he negotiated these links majestically. The first time he found a bunker was at the 18th and the putts were pouring in just like the incessant rain.

Harman barely missed one outside the ten-foot range all week, surely one of the best major championship performances with the flat stick in history.

It makes him not only the new ‘Champion Golfer of the Year’ but also a dangerous Ryder Cup opponent.

Like it or not, it is Harman’s year at Hoylake and, on this evidence, the new world No.10 could be a fresh problem for the European team as the showdown in Rome looms.

An unfancied 200/1 long shot? This never seemed in doubt.

Ben Parsons joined bunkered as a Content Producer in 2023 and is the man to come to for all of the latest news, across both the professional and amateur games. Formerly of The Mirror and Press Association, he is a member at Halifax Golf Club and is a long-suffering fan of both Manchester United and the Wales rugby team.