Brian Harman’s Open Championship win was as dominant as it was surprising.
With a six-shot victory, Harman’s performance left little doubt. He entered the weekend with a five-shot cushion and he maintained that lead over the final 36 holes. Each time it looked like he might waver, Harman calmly rolled in yet another birdie putt. By week’s end, there was no questioning who was the most deserving champion.
That’s not to say the win was expected, though. At the age of 36 and with just two PGA Tour wins to his credit, Harman was a known quantity to that point — a solid journeyman pro, with enough game to hang around the Tour for over a decade. But a dominant week like he put together at Royal Liverpool was wholly unexpected.
Unexpected to everyone but the late comedian Norm Macdonald, that is.
Five years ago, Macdonald actually predicted a major win for Harman. In a Twitter exchange with the future Champion Golfer of the Year, Macdonald, who died in 2021, not only predicted Harman would claim a major, but also that he’d do it on the strength of his putting.
“I love watching you, Brian,” Macdonald wrote. “You have it all. You can hit it a mile, and feather it around the greens, but what will win you your majors, the Masters likely being your first, is your easy perfection with the blade. Respect.”
Although Macdonald was incorrect that Harman would claim the green jacket, he was spot on in his assessment that the flatstick would carry him to victory. In his Open Championship victory, Harman gained 11.57 strokes with his putter.
“That, for me, was really cool because we are such huge Norm Macdonald fans,” Harman said on this week’s episode of GOLF’s Subpar. “I had saved that Twitter exchange and I look at it from time to time, but I’m surprised someone dug that up. That was really cool.”
Check out the entire episode of GOLF’s Subpar below.