Brian Harman Deserves More Credit For His Open Masterclass

A week on from Brian Harman's dominant victory at The Open, Golfshake's Derek Clements reflects on the American's achievements in his latest View From The Fairway article.

MUCH has been said and written about The 151st Open Championship being something of a non-event.

I am sorry, but I really have to take issue with all the critics.

Would it have been a disappointing tournament if it had been Rory McIlroy giving the rest of the field a masterclass? Would we have been critical had it been Tommy Fleetwood winning the season’s final major by six shots? The answer to both those questions is a resounding ‘No!’

So why should it have been any less of a major just because it was won by Brian Harman, a golfer many people will not have heard of before? He is just 5ft 7in tall and weighs less than 11 stones. He does not pound the ball 350 yards. He does not punch the air in delight when he holes a birdie putt. He does not throw his club to the ground or abuse his caddie if he hits a bad shot.

To those of us who follow professional golf, Harman’s victory at Royal Liverpool was not a huge surprise. Yes, he had only won twice on the PGA Tour before his victory at Hoylake, but he racks up top-10 finishes for fun and has shown some truly excellent form this season. This was a victory that was waiting to happen and it takes his career on-course earnings past $31m, a not insignificant sum of money by anybody’s standards.

Let’s not demean his achievement. He won by six shots because he found lots of fairways, hit greens in regulation and putted like a god. He was expected by many to fold in the final round. He did no such thing. When he did make a mistake he bounced back immediately. He was the only person in a field of 156 golfers who broke par in every round.

There was some entirely inappropriate stuff said to Harman by a small number of fans, who told him that he wasn’t made of the right stuff to win over 72 holes. He proved them wrong but was rightly hurt by the comments.

Harman may or may not win another major. It doesn’t matter. For me, one of the absolute joys about sport is seeing the underdog have his day. And Harman had four of them!

A disappointing Open?

What about Christo Lamprecht’s opening round of 66? It doesn’t get much better than an amateur sharing the lead after the first 18 holes of The Open Championship. His swing is made up of many moving parts and he hits the ball miles. As he proved in the second round, it is not always going to come off for him but it was fun when it did.

And wasn’t that Tommy Fleetwood right up there alongside him, raising hopes of a local lad lifting the Claret Jug aloft? Sadly, it wasn’t to be, but Tommy gave us much to cheer about before that disastrous triple-bogey at the penultimate hole.

And what about Matthew Jordan, a member at Royal Liverpool since he was seven? He had the honour of hitting the opening tee shot, rewarded his home gallery with a 69 and then stuck around all week, to such an extent that he even managed to qualify for next year’s championship at Royal Troon.

Then there was Jon Rahm’s quite extraordinary third round of 63. It was all the more thrilling because he had shown little or no form over the first two days. But here was a spectacular 18 holes of golf that catapulted him to the fringes of contention - and finally put a smile on the most sullen face at Royal Liverpool.

We even had a mini-charge from Rory McIlroy in the final round that briefly raised hopes that he might be able to set a target that would give Harman something to think about. Rory insisted afterwards that he had played really well all week. Hmmmm.

Sky’s coverage of the tournament was outstanding. Dame Laura Davies gets better every time she picks up a microphone. She is both knowledgeable and fun.

It has been said that the atmosphere on the final day was almost funereal. It rained from the moment the first shot was hit until the second when Harman’s final putt fell into the hole. And when you have tens of thousands of spectators holding umbrellas it is pretty obvious that the applause it going to be muted - all the more so when they are unable to cheer for a home favourite.

A non-event? Definitely not.