Brian Harman (-9) has ended nearly two years without victories by winning the Valero Texas Open, the last PGA Tour tournament before the Masters. The 38-year-old American golfer did almost everything you shouldn’t do in a final round when leading the classification, but none of his pursuers were able to take advantage, handing him a title on a platter, the fourth of his career on the circuit, for which he pockets more than 1.7 million dollars.
It seemed that the player who was twice All-American for the University of Georgia and who has an Open Championship won at Royal Liverpool in 2023, his last trophy, wanted to clear the field from the start. He started strong with a great birdie on the second hole. But from there, he began to collect errors, opening the door wide for anyone who wanted to enter. Missed fairways, poor approach shots, little success with the putter…
In his defence, it must be said that the day was complicated in San Antonio, with lower temperatures than the rest of the week and a wind that made things difficult. But his strategy didn’t seem the smartest considering he was playing with a lead. He took too many risks at times when, given his situation, the most practical thing was to be conservative. And he seemed too focused on what his rivals were doing, especially Andrew Novak (-5), who was also seeking a spot in the Masters.
With a bogey on the 4th and another on the 6th, the leader quickly went over par for the day. Until on the 12th hole, with a terrible tee shot that went completely to the right, forcing him to drop with a penalty, he made a double bogey that reduced his lead in the classification to just one stroke. But inexplicably, the more Harman failed, the worse his rivals did. It seemed as if no one wanted to slip through the gap that the Georgia player opened time and again.
Tom Hoge (-4), who completed the leading trio of the featured match, closed his first nine with a score of four strokes over par, with two bogeys and a double bogey. Out of contention. Keith Mitchell (-3), who started the day fourth, five strokes behind the leader, began the day with a bogey on the 1st and a double bogey on the 3rd. Goodbye to any chance. And of the rest of the pursuers, only Ryan Gerard (-6), who shot 69, completed a good final round, but he started from too far back.
Novak, for a moment, had a chance to really get into the fight. But with three bogeys in the last four holes of the first half of his round and another on the 13th, he completely cleared the way for Harman. Thus, the golfer from Georgia, with no one managing to overshadow him, calmed his nerves, made a couple of good birdies on the 12th and 14th, and experienced a relatively comfortable tournament finish. Not even his bogeys on the 15th and 16th had any significance because Andrew failed on the first, came up short seeking the birdie on the second, and played an absolutely dreadful 17th hole.
So much so that, from fighting to win, he ended up losing even the second place after a disastrous tee shot on the 18th that went completely to the left and a second shot that he hit while standing on a rock next to the creek. In short, he made a mess of it. Harman, who had missed everything and more on Sunday, ended up securing the victory by three strokes with a round of 75, three over par for the course, to end his drought and warm up before the Masters where there will be no new names because he was already qualified and the prize of playing it was only for the winner. Brian won the Open in the midst of a deluge and today he has triumphed in the gale. He will surely dream of a week of bad weather in Augusta, where things seem to be going his way…
