TRUST IN THE #1: THE OPEN

Bob Weeks catches up with Brian Harman to relive his 2023 Open Championship win. It was a gritty battle against the elements to claim what he calls “the coolest trophy in sports.” Harman shares the mindset, the moment, and the trust he placed in his Pro V1.

The golf course got angry and the conditions got tough. This is a hang on for dear life afternoon out here. It was horrendous on the range. It was just a waste of time. It’s probably some of the toughest conditions I’ve played in. It’ll be a worthy winner will come out of here. Somebody who was able to handle everything that was thrown at him. How much did you know about Lynx golf when you were playing, let’s say, you know, in in your junior years? I always loved watching the Open on TV. Uh, my first experience with Lynx Golf was not a positive one. I played the Palmer Cup at Preswick and had no idea what I was doing at all. Didn’t enjoy it. The weather was bad. I kept trying to chip it too high, you know, was running it through all the greens. Um, so I didn’t have a great experience. Didn’t really find love for Lynx golf until I played my first open. I won the John Deere in 14 was the last guy in the field. Played the golf at Hoy Lake. And for me, I was like, “Wow, you have to make every club in your bag dirty. You have to be able to hit every type of shot.” You know, the wind is blowing. I found it to be like more creative golf. And I I really fell in love with it. And And even though you didn’t have after that first appearance, you didn’t have such a great terrible stretch run there, but was it was there anything based on that? Did you learn a lot through that? I think uh my bad stretch at the open mostly came from just not getting there in time. I didn’t get there early enough. It’s an adjustment. You know, you’re flying across an ocean. It takes a while to get used to where you’re staying, what you’re eating, the time change, the golf course, the firmness of the turf. It it takes time to adjust to that. And I don’t believe I ever gave myself enough time to get into the groove of things. Do you do you remember uh watching it as a kid growing up? Do you remember the first impression you had of the Open Championship? Just the the color, you know, growing up in Georgia, Augusta National is the pinnacle, right? You see this green grass, not a thing out of shape. And then depending on the weather, the open can be green as Augusta or brown as a runway. And I love that about that sort of golf. It’s dictated by the weather. It’s not controlled by us as much. When you wake up in the morning, you look at the weather forecast obviously and it can change like three times during your round or it can be in the morning. It can be completely different than the afternoon tea time, right? I mean, what do you sort of just have to accept the mother and play through it? Mother nature. Of course, you know, Lynx Golf is right next to the ocean and there’s big tides over there, huge tides. And growing up in Savannah and St. Simons where I live now, you know, our weather changes with the tides as well. So, I think that’s a little bit of an advantage just knowing like, oh, it’s, you know, it’s low tide, the wind’s probably going to die a little bit. Oh, the tide’s coming in, the wind’s going to pick up. Let’s go back to 2023 and talk about that because the first round the weather was pretty nice actually, wasn’t it? Yeah. What do you remember? First round, I don’t remember much. I mean, it was all kind of a blur. I just remember playing really solid golf the first day and just having the feeling like, okay, I’m I’m still in the golf tournament, right? Like I didn’t shoot myself out of it the first day and was feeling really good. And then the second day it got really windy. I I played a round of golf good enough to to win the golf tournament essentially. I shot six under in uh in really really tough conditions. Regal. Yes. What a round. You had a five shot lead which was equals the biggest margin since 1934. So how do you approach how do you approach Saturday now that you’ve got this lead? Yeah, it was it was really really tough. I think we didn’t te off until 3:00 or so Saturday. Um I do have a superpower where I can go to bed late and sleep late. So I think that actually helped you wake up, you know, I’m waking up at 10:30 or 11:00 as opposed to if I was on a set schedule and I’m waking up at 6:00 and I’ve got a whole day to think about my round before I play. So, slept in. Um, just hung out around the house. But Saturday and Sunday, they were the two slowest days that I’ve ever lived. And when you when you get out there in that and you have to play in that kind of weather, how do you make adjustments or what do you do? It’s hard cuz I haven’t really done great in horrible weather. I’ve always felt like I’ve done okay, but not great. I’m not comfortable in it. But the only comfort that I could find was like, well, I know that no one’s going to shoot a very low score today. The conditions just were not able. I said, “So, if I can just go out and make a few birdies, like I feel like I’m going to be fine.” So, it’s almost like you have to retrain your brain to say, “Okay, good. Today is a different scale.” Score is a very relative thing on days like that. Yeah. And then Sunday, you get up again with the lead and and now they got a chance and you had a little bump on the start. Well, the weather on Saturday was predicted to be as bad as it was on Sunday. And so, you get out Saturday and we catch a break. You know, it’s raining, but it’s it’s very playable. I think John Rom shot a very low score on Saturday to get back in contention. So the scores are out there. Same forecast for Sunday and I’m thinking like, wow, they’ll probably miss it again, but I get out there and it’s Armageddon bad, right? So that’s where I was kind of kind of going with it. Knowing no one was going to shoot a low score on Sunday was nice. So it didn’t matter that you started off a little slow like a bogey here or a bogey there. You’re still comfortable. Well, I I talked to my agent Jeremy Elliot. He’s been kind of my pseudo mental coach over the years. He’s been with me since I was since I got my tour card. So, you know, we were talking on Sunday and he’s like, “It’s going to get hard at some point today. Something bad’s going to happen.” And if you’re able to overcome that, then that’s probably going to be the difference. And so, I kept that in my head and and uh just stuck with that all day knowing that there were going to be times where bad things were going to happen. When you come down the stretch, I mean, you’ve got a, you know, a comfortable lead and you come down standing over the final putt to win. I guess you kind of know you’re going to win or you feel it, but do you have to hold back the celebration until that ball’s in the cup? I didn’t allow myself to really think about winning until I hit it into a greenside bunker. Got a really nice lot. And after I hit that bunker shot going to the green, I went and, you know, punched my caddy right in the chest. You know, that was when I started sort of celebrating. That’s when I allowed myself to I didn’t read the putt. I just got up there and hit it. And Harmon makes his history at Hoy Lake. So, what’s the first thing that goes through your mind? Just disbelief, shock. At first, you can’t believe what you’ve done and then it starts settling into like like just real pride. Like really really really proud of just staying with it the whole time. The ceremony afterwards is always one of the great ceremonies in in golf. And and you declined the umbrella. I declined. I’ve been under an umbrella all day. I’m like I’m I’m soaking wet. I don’t need an umbrella. I’m good. The winner of the gold medal and the champion golfer of the year is Brian Harmon. And then they have those famous words, champion golfer of the year. And they give you the cleric jug. What’s it like to hold that trophy knowing where it’s been, who’s won it, how long it’s been around. In my opinion, it’s the coolest trophy in sports. That and the Stanley Cup are just they’re iconic. people respond to them and just being able to to have it is just it’s it’s unbelievable. Did you have a celebration out of it? Any sipping out of it? Lots of I was told that it was returned in the worst condition that it had ever been returned. So, that’s a point of pride for me and my buddies. Did the Prov1 play big or small part in any particular part of your championship? Oh, I I don’t think that I would have ever been in a position to win that golf tournament without the Prov1. I’m able to trust it. Um, I know that it’s not going to, it sounds funny, but I know that it’s not going to go too far into the wind. Like, in distance control, especially there when you’ve got these bunkers that you can’t play from around the greens, like being able to control your distance and know exactly what that ball’s going to do when it hits the green is, I mean, it’s invaluable. The fact that you can trust it, but you don’t really have to think about trusting it during the round. Is that a huge part of it, too? It’s the only thing you can ask for out of a golf ball. I mean, it’s the only thing that you hit every single time when you play golf. And you have to be able to trust it. I have to know that when I stand on a seven iron, it’s going to go a certain height and it’s going to go a certain distance. And being able to control that and see that over and over and over again. It’s like, you know, I think about shots, especially on Sunday, like number 17. 17 is the last real place where you can make a huge number. And all I’m doing is hitting a pitching wedge, but if that pitching wedge goes 5 yards further or 5 yards shorter, like I’m stuck in a bunker and there’s no telling what I make. So knowing that that ball goes that far and I hit it back there, hits, spins back to 15 feet and that’s the golf tournament. When you look uh you look ahead to this year’s open championship, I mean it’s got to be a little easier than last year where you go back as the defending champion. It’s probably a lot on your plate. You got a great course in Royal Port Rush. You’ve obviously played there before. Is it going to be a little easier this year than last year? I I I would think so. Yeah, there’s certainly some expectations and pressure that you put on yourself trying to defend. U but I love Port Rush. Didn’t do well there last time, but I love the golf course, so I’m excited to get back. It’s a beautiful part of the world. What is it about the course you that that suits you? It’s pure links golf. There’s there’s good long holes, there’s good short holes, there’s good long par 3, short par 3es. It’s just a perfect mix of a test of golf. [Music]