(Hoylake, England) Over a 12-year career on the PGA Tour, Brian Harman has two wins in 335 tournaments. Here he is one game away from one of the most coveted titles in professional golf.
Harman overcame tough times early in the day at the British Open on Saturday, then delivered a consistent performance en route to a two-under-par 69 card.
With his aggregate score of 201, 12 under par on the fairways of Royal Liverpool where the left-handed golfer seems to be doing everything right, Harman holds a five stroke lead over Cameron Young, his closest rival.
As the final act on Saturday, Harman wedged an eight-foot putt for par before gently clenching his fist in satisfaction. So if Young, Jon Rahm or any other golfer hopes to catch him on Sunday, the task has become more difficult.
Ontarian Corey Conners, the only Canadian to have crossed the qualifying threshold, signed a card of 68, but his decline on the leader is 11 strokes.
A runner-up at St. Andrews a year ago, Young had a great shot from a bunker on the 18th hole. He concluded the hole, and his day, with a routine birdie and a score of 66 which will allow him to evolve within the last group on Sunday.
No one was more spectacular than Rahm, who birdied seven in his last 10 holes en route to a game-record 63 at Royal Liverpool in the British Open.
By keeping his ball on the grass instead of sending it into the bunkers, and rarely out of position, Harman made the gap seem even bigger.
“I had a rough start, but I raised the bar,” analyzed the 36-year-old American. “I hit a lot of good shots down the stretch. […] I was there trying to get the best shot I could on every attempt and, at that level, I did well. »
On Saturday, Harman played with Tommy Fleetwood, the local star who grew up in Southport, 45 minutes from the Lancashire coast, and enjoyed the support of a raucous crowd.
Suddenly his lead had gone from five strokes to two strokes. Then the picture changed again.
Harman first birdied the par-5 fifth hole. He completed the front nine with a tee shot that landed four feet from the goal, for another birdie. Then he opened the machine and added back-to-back birdies on the 12th and 13th holes, the second on a 20-foot putt.
History favors Harman. Jean Van de Velde is the last player to show up with a five-shot lead in the final game of a major tournament without emerging victorious. It was Carnoustie in 1999, the scene of one of the most incomprehensible triple bogeys on the 72nd hole of a Grand Slam tournament.
“I feel like he’s not one to back down,” Young said of Harman. “With the lead he has right now, it won’t necessarily depend on me tomorrow. It’s time for me to focus on myself and see where it will take me. »
The day was very disappointing for several other golfers, starting with Rory McIlroy.
The Northern Irishman started his game with three birdies over the first five holes – he couldn’t convert 10-foot and 12-foot putts that would have earned him birdies on the other two holes – and seemed destined to post the kind of score Rahm had achieved earlier in the day.
However, McIlroy added no more birdies and the end of his game was particularly painful, missing putts for 8-foot, 12-foot and 10-foot birdies. For the second time this week, he chose not to meet the reporters, instead heading to the practice green.
Rahm started his day 12 shots behind and at the very least he has a chance.
He delivered a dynamic performance, not bogey in the morning rain which then gave way to wet and windy conditions.
“It’s the best game I’ve played on a links-type course,” Rahm described.
Fleetwood had to settle for a score of 71, which leaves him in the group of players with a score of 208 – seven shots behind the leader – which also includes Jason Day (69), Viktor Hovland (66), Sepp Straka (70) and Antoine Rozner (67).
Harman is in full control as he looks for his first triumph since the Wells Fargo Championship in 2017. He has been consistent on and off the course and avoided going too far.
“I have 18 holes left,” he recalled.
