The 2023 Open Championship was Brian Harman’s to lose as the 36-year-old delivered. Harman ran away from the field during the final round at Royal Liverpool to win his first major title by six strokes.
A 12-year PGA Tour veteran, Harman has been around the pro golf scene for quite some time, but the World No. 26 (to enter the week) is still a mystery to most golf fans.
If you didn’t know of the now three-time PGA Tour winner before he burst into a five-shot, 54-hole lead at the Open, let us be the first to teach you. Keep reading below for six things you probably didn’t know about Brian Harman.
He was a standout amateur
Before becoming a three-time All-American at the University of Georgia, Harman won the 2003 U.S. Junior Amateur. He didn’t stop there, either, winning the prestigious Porter Cup in 2007.
Harman made his PGA Tour debut at age 17 at the 2004 MCI Heritage and made his first cut later that year at the Buick Championship.
He also represented the USA three times in team competitions; competing in both the 2007 Palmer Cup and the 2005 and 2009 Walker Cups.
And as you can see from this image from the 2009 Walker Cup, he’s aged just slightly differently than follow ’09 Walker Cupper Tommy Fleetwood.
Talk about a glow up pic.twitter.com/hQZ3umDIjN
— Jack Hirsh (@JR_HIRSHey) July 22, 2023
Righty-lefty
Like Phil Mickelson, Harman is right-handed in everything besides golf. With an internal OB on the right side on three holes at Royal Liverpool, that choice seems to have been a worthy decision this week.
He’s an avid outdoorsman
Harman has a number of hobbies that take place in the great outdoors, but none are as notable as his prowess as a hunter and fisherman. He learned to skin a deer at the age of 8 and now owns a hunting facility.
According to his PGATour.com bio, Harman is also a “world-class scuba diver.” Perhaps that could be an advantage in Hoylake’s miserable weather Sunday.
Two aces
At the 2015 Barclays, Harman became just the third PGA Tour player to make two holes-in-one in the same round. He holed a 7-iron from 184 yards on the 3rd hole, then did it again on the 14th hole with a 4-hybrid from 220.
Most golfers will play their entire life hoping to make a hole-in-one.
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) August 18, 2021
Brian Harman once made two aces in a single round. 🤯#TOURVault pic.twitter.com/WhQU5Sm85g
Major-championship relations
Harman has been in this role before, leading the 2017 U.S. Open through 54-holes before Brooks Koepka won his first major at Erin Hills. But there’s loads of major championship experience up and down his bag. His caddie is Scott Tway, the younger brother of 1986 PGA Champion Bob Tway.
It’s been a while
As we said before, Harman is a two-time winner on the PGA Tour but hasn’t won since the 2017 Wells Fargo Championship. He got his first victory at the 2014 John Deere Classic. If Harman gets the job done Sunday, it will be 2,268 days between victories. In that span, he has 29 top-10s on the PGA Tour, the most of any player without a win.
