‘Without Harman’ What Could Have Been at the 151st Open

‘Without Harman’ was the bookmaker’s final column on Sunday morning, showing reduced odds for everyone else in the field, creating a new tournament between the rest without our runaway winner, the diminutive Georgian who took Hoylake by storm.

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‘Without Harman’ had Jon Rahm as the favourite, with a smattering of others behind him.

When you take twelve under par out of the tournament and make six under the new leader, those as far back as even almost have a sniff. It becomes an Open for the ages.

Fleetwood, Rahm, Rory, Sepp Straka, Jason Day, the Fitzpatrick brothers, Tom Kim on the charge, Cam Young not far behind. The wind blowing, the rain coming down, and a fistful of the biggest names vying for the Claret Jug, is all we wanted as golf fans.

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But, that is likely too much to ask.

We cannot be disappointed with the 151^st Open, the manner in which it was won was emphatic, and a true performance of how to swing your swing and golf your ball. Brian Harman dusted the field – it wasn’t even close. It’s not as if he ‘held off’ the others, because they were too far back to come for him. Once he responded to his second Sunday bogey with a pair of birdies, the curtains were drawn.

The reason the field was nowhere near Harman was largely during Friday’s performance. A Friday 65, finished with an eagle on the 18^th hole, made others stop and take notice.

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The eagle turned a three-shot lead into five, a rifling five iron to twenty feet and the enormous putter slamming the putt to the back of the hole, wiping the others out of contention. Even a Saturday 63 from Jon Rahm couldn’t faze our winner.

In his post-round interview; he chose not to disclose what he had found recently that had been working. He used fan insults to fuel his desire to win. He took penalty drops rather than battling the links long grass, and avoided bunkers expertly; all showing maturity in his on-course and off-course decision making.

We can think wishfully about what could’ve been in the 151^st Open, but ‘Without Harman’ is what the rest of the field wish they had endured. Instead, they witnessed a clinic, a statistically perfect performance that created huge daylight between the leader and the rest, akin to Tiger’s here in ’06, Rory at Congressional and Martin Kaymer at Pinehurst.

Brian Harman is known for making hot starts in majors and fading away, whereas this time he pressed on and widened the gap. He laid up to good numbers. He didn’t miss a thing inside ten feet until Saturday afternoon. He had 106 strokes on the greens in 72 holes.

I suspect the oversized putters will fly off the shelves this week.

Cover Photo via Twitter