Brian Harman made his debut on a links course during the Palmer Cup in 2006. He did so at Prestwick, the course that this year celebrates one hundred years since it last hosted an Open Championship. That player bears little resemblance to the one who was crowned champion at Royal Liverpool in 2023 and who this year, at Royal Portrush, is once again leading after delivering the best scorecard among the early starters.
That left-handed American boy insisted on lifting the ball with every shot and clung to the lob wedge for every chip. At Prestwick, he lost all four points he played and didn’t make it past the 15th hole in any of them. “I wore myself out. I didn’t understand anything. I tried to chip as usual, and the ball wouldn’t cooperate. The firmness of the ground was so unique that I couldn’t adapt,” he now recalls, laughing. He lost, among others, to Alejandro Cañizares in a match that was decided 5&3.
Everything changed in 2014. After winning the John Deere Classic, he entered the Open field in Liverpool at the last minute. He went without expectations, without pressure… and fell in love. “I couldn’t believe how much I enjoyed it. I loved being able to hit stingers that travel miles on the ground. It was a revelation,” he confesses. Since then, his relationship with links golf has been a story of growing affinity, although he admits that he then had “four pretty bad Opens” where he missed the cut. In 2021, he finished in the top twenty, sixth the following year, and winner in 2023.
He loves the creativity that links demand: “These courses force you to think, to invent, to use up to ten different clubs from the tee. It’s not like in many tournaments, where everything is aerial, and you have to fly the ball to the green. Here you can do it your way, use your head, find solutions. I love that,” explains a smitten Harman. “I love links golf. It’s the purest form of golf there is. It’s not just about hitting a driver as hard as you can and then a 7-iron as high as you can… I feel very comfortable. You have to know how to control the trajectory, and you can’t get frustrated.”
And while many still debate his style, his methodical swing, or his low-key profile, Harman remains unfazed. When he won the Open in 2023, much of the media focus wasn’t on his golf but on his passion for hunting and fishing. He didn’t hide. On the contrary. “I don’t understand why so many are bothered. It’s something I believe in, an essential part of my life. I sleep like a baby at night,” he stated firmly. “When I play golf, I think about golf. When I hunt, I think about hunting. I’ve got it all compartmentalised.”
His victory at Hoylake earned him the status of Open champion and even greater respect among British fans, who are as knowledgeable and devoted to golf as few others. “Everyone plays here. They love this sport. I love coming back. It’s the purest there is,” he assures.
And in Portrush, once again, he has found his comfort zone. Neither the wind nor the narrow fairways seem to faze him. With an approach as simple as it is effective —“I only worry about the first shot of the day and then go hole by hole, without heroics”— he has positioned himself at the top of the leaderboard with two rounds of 67 and with the same patience of someone who already knows what it’s like to lift the Claret Jug.
Anyone would say that the boy who almost left Prestwick in tears is now, without a doubt, one of the great links specialists of this generation.
