![Idiots who disrespect Brian Harman disgust me - his Open win was Tiger-esque](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/golf/2023/07/24/TELEMMGLPICT000343689213_16902058451150_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqC9PogZUtSpqAqO-tnweStYO2VWxuYg_aguPtQ9FwIv8.jpeg?imwidth=680)
![Idiots who disrespect Brian Harman disgust me - his Open win was Tiger-esque](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/golf/2023/07/24/TELEMMGLPICT000343689213_16902058451150_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqC9PogZUtSpqAqO-tnweStYO2VWxuYg_aguPtQ9FwIv8.jpeg?imwidth=680)
I read an article on Monday morning which thoroughly disgusted me. It was on a specialist golf website and the headline declared that “golf was due a dud”. The level of disrespect towards Brian Harman and his remarkable victory at the Open on Sunday was astounding.
Imagine if Tiger Woods or Rory McIlroy had won by six shots at Hoylake. Everyone would be shouting from the clubhouse rooftops and with good reason, too. But because it was Harman and not a household name, the reaction on social media seemed to be “meh”.
You expect that nonsense in the dark recesses on Twitter, but not in one of the best-known magazines in America. I will not name the publication because it has some great journalists who I don’t want to implicate. But, at the very least, the headline should be changed. In short, it is a disgrace and shows a complete lack of understanding of the nature of the sport in that publication’s very own title.
I am now dreading one of those damned lists to appear that rank “the worst major champions of all time” or something of that pathetic ilk. It is grotesque and cruel and a plague on the sport. Judge the champs on how they play, how they win, not on how famous they happen to be at the time.
Golf is not predictable. That is one of the game’s strengths. There are so many variables that even the greats lost a lot more than they won. Links golf is especially volatile, with the effects of the weather, the draw and, simply, the luck of the bounce. But Harman was not handed any sort of advantage in a week when Mother Nature basically threw the same conditions at everyone, regardless if they were in the early-late brigade or late-early.
It was one of the great putting performances. Brian converted 54 of his first 54 putts within 10 feet and when he finally missed one – on the 13th during the final round – he bounced straight back with a 40-footer on the next green. I always hesitate to compare anyone with Tiger, but this was undoubtedly “Tiger-esque”. I remember him racking up a similarly gob-smacking run of putts at a World Golf Championship event at Akron one year and the media were falling over each other to dish out the praise.
Again, spot on. But Harman deserves the same and not to be cast as a bolt-from-the-blue champion, as some sort of fluke.
He was world No 26, for goodness sake. That was lower than Shane Lowry when he won at Portrush in 2019. And nobody called that Open “a dud”. There is no such thing as a “dud” Open, unless you are obsessed with celebrity.
Harman is a proven winner on the PGA Tour, had a US Open runner-up finish on his CV and finished sixth last year at the Open. He is quiet chap, but inside the locker room we all knew he was always a contender. Sure, he wasn’t the first name that came to mind when making our selections this time around, but we are not talking Rocky Balboa or Foinavon here.
I saw some idiot on social media claiming it to be good thing for Europe that Harman is on the US Ryder Cup team for September’s Ryder Cup in Rome. Is it hell! He is the type of matchplay opponent that would drive you absolutely mad – never missing a putt, always staying in the hole with his grit and determination.
No, he does not hit it miles and is no bomber, but as we saw on the Wirral he is accurate and the way that we set up our Ryder Cup courses on this side of the pond – narrow fairways, thick rough – means that he will be suited to the test at Marco Simone. Believe it, Brian will be a huge asset to Zach Johnson in the foursomes.
The strength of depth at the US captain’s disposal is as incredible as it is ominous as the Americans plot to win on European soil for the first time in 30 years. Wyndham Clark won last month’s US Open and he was another who was not one of the top picks. Their confidence will be overflowing after this.
Luke Donald, my old partner, will still fancy Europe’s chances and in McIlroy the Europe captain will have a world No 2 so fired up. Rory will now go into a 10th season without having won a major, but to my mind he has not peaked yet and fared ridiculously well to win four majors before he was 25.
I did not play my best golf until I was in my late 30s – I got to world No 1 and yes, I was given pelters from the US for somehow not being worthy of the moniker – and I believe Rory will be the same. He is so consistent and should carry on what he is doing. I honestly have a feeling that he will win the Masters in April and I’m not sure I’ve felt that way before. Rory just seems on that path and one day, it will all click and he will walk away with another major – Harman style.
There are six weeks left in the race to make the Europe team, but only three events on the DP World Tour. In my opinion it is a crying shame there are no tournaments on the circuit for the next three weeks. It is the middle of the summer! Fans will be itching to watch golf after the Open and I can assure you, players will be twiddling their thumbs, desperate to tee it up in competition.
When the negotiations between the Public Investment Fund and the Tours finally conclude I pray that such anomalies are corrected. I was happy to hear that Yasir Al Rumayyan, the PIF governor and LIV Golf chairman, met with R&A chief exec Martin Slumbers at Hoylake and that the tensions are cooling and that the powers-that-be are talking.
That is more good news to emerge from an Open that I felt was first class – and the 2023 Open certainly had a first-class champion.
Idiots who disrespect Brian Harman disgust me – his Open win was Tiger-esque
Telegraph columnist, and former world number one, knows all about players being underestimated