It may be just the first round of a long PGA Tour season, but Thursday’s opening session at The Sentry taught us a lot. Really, we just found out what pros have been up to during this first real offseason, when players felt like they could take a break without losing ground on their colleagues.
Tiger Woods and Patrick Cantlay have been grinding in PGA Tour negotiation rooms. Viktor Hovland went home to Norway and found himself shoveling snow. Camilo Villegas went home with his family to a much-warmer Colombia, and found himself cycling. As for your Champion Golfer of the Year, Brian Harman? He’s been hunting beavers and attending Georgia football games. And also, parading around the Claret Jug wherever he pleases, including Augusta National.
To the victor go these spoils, Harman has learned. His six-shot win at Royal Liverpool grants him a full year of doing whatever he likes with one of the most cherished trophies in sports. “It’s an antique, it’s a relic,” he said Thursday in Maui. “It’s like a golfing past.”
Sure enough, one of Harman’s first stops after the Ryder Cup, in Rome, was a buddies’ trip down Magnolia Lane alongside fellow pro and Georgia Bulldog Kevin Kisner. “It was the Georgia/Florida weekend,” Harman said. “So a couple Georgia guys — some dear friends — we went up there, watched the game, played golf, and had some good food.
“Just bro’ing out up there.”
Just bro’ing out at Augusta National.
Harman didn’t detail his ANGC trip any further other than to say it was “pretty neat” to hold one of the game’s crown jewels in one hand while hanging out at “the next incredible golf landmark.” Sure, pretty neat.
That trip came during Halloween weekend, during an enjoyable break from PGA Tour events. A week later, Harman was on the sideline for Georgia’s home win against Missouri, and a week after that he was right back at Sanford Stadium for a night game against Ole Miss. Only that time he was honored on the field with his wife and children in front of 92,000 strong. Yep, jug in hand.
“That was probably the highlight of the partying with it so far,” Harman said. “It’s quite the party trick. It’s been a lot of fun to possess for a year.”
It feels safe to declare Harman as one of the winners of the offseason, but there’s clearly another war he’s been waging throughout the fall. An avid farmer and hunter, Harman has engaged in quite a beaver battle.
“We’ve got these very aggravating beavers building their cities, so we’re really mad at them,” he said with a laugh after opening with a 67 at The Sentry.
How’d you take care of it? What club?
“An MB 750 [trap] is what we did. Those that know, will know.”
And if you don’t know, uh, now you do.
