Brian Harman Flash Interview Friday Día 2 2023 The Open Championship © The Open

foreigner okay, let's get started. I am very happy to welcome you to our club. Venue leader to the

interview

room Brian Harman um Brian, that's a fabulous round of six in the park today gets you to 10 in the power for the

championship

um and obviously just the icing on the cake with the Eagle at the end, Just tell us how you feel about yours today and where that leaves you for the

championship

. Yeah, I caught a hot putter the last few days, so try riding it. over the weekend, there are 36 holes left, so try to rest and prepare and it's a great start to get out there, which is half of the 132 match total, the lowest in the

open

, which was set by two people in 2006 and 2014.

Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy and we know what they did. You must be delighted to be in that position halfway. Yes, delighted with how I'm playing. Really focused on getting some rest and pushing myself tomorrow. We will answer questions from the room and give you the microphone. Hey, hey, Brian. It is not the first time that you have been close to the contest in an important event. I'm just thinking about what you've learned from previous chances you could take. in the next few days um yeah I just don't try to get too caught up in that and you know it's just golf you know I probably think when I held the 54 hole lead at the US Open probably yeah.

I probably overthought it, I just didn't focus on sleeping and eating well and, um, that's going to be my focus this weekend and then can you talk about the eagle on the 18th because it seems like something I might as well If I have a good advantage, then it's like, oh, now I could have a really, really good one, yeah. I made two really good pars on 16 and 17. I think that's almost as important as when I felt a little liberated on 18 and made two. probably my two best swings of the day and um it got there, I don't know 12 15 feet for Eagle, so I just played a really good hole, okay, we'll go to the bulb on the left, there the driver, five irons, oh, far to the left.

Brian, what has been your history with Links Golf? Did you like it from the beginning? Did it take you a while to get used to it? You know, how did it evolve? Royal Liverpool is my first Open Championship 2014. One that John Deere got at the last minute. The departure time for 445 on Friday ended at 10 15. I made the cut. I love golf. I love golf. I was very excited and I think I missed four or five cuts in a row coming here and I couldn't understand why. I wasn't playing well and then the last couple of years I had some good results and I felt like I was okay now at least I feel like I love golf and I'm playing decently here so I was excited to be able to I've come to the Scottish Open in the last few years to try to get over it, adapt and prepare, so I think that has helped.

Have you ever experienced any of the other Links golf courses here? No, Michael, thanks Brian, just continue with what Bob just did. asking, do you remember your conversation with Trevino on the practice field last year and if that had any kind of lingering effect on you? It was a technical, uh, technical, golf swing question. Lee has always been incredibly kind to me. You know he would. I don't expect him to know me because he couldn't pick me out of a lineup of two, I can't imagine, but he's always made an effort to say hello, so I've always appreciated that and I always make a comment every time I do.

I'm around him to talk to him, okay, we'll go on the far right here, uh, Brian, can you talk about saving 12? It was tough to hold on to that win, especially on that hole, so it wasn't a good line, the bunker had to be played back and I was like I was so happy to walk out of that hole with a five. It was too difficult a chip, but I was trying to, you know, hit that six iron in the middle of the green. It was so unfortunate that I didn't make the shot, but you know, I hit a really good chip and you know it came out.

Alright, I'm front left, hey Brian, um, your major league record this year despite having a pretty good year otherwise hasn't been good, especially lately. I've been playing well, what's been happening in the majors and was it you particularly? I was upset about missing the Masters cut, yeah, I just started the year with very high aspirations. I played very well all last year and until the fall I missed the President's Cup. I felt like that was it. Kind of like a springboard, I had two runner-up finishes in the fall, I felt really good and then I hit this weird kind of lull at the beginning of the year and I couldn't, I couldn't get out of it and I just doubled down and started playing really good. golf here lately, but I wasn't playing well at all at Augusta, so I didn't have very high expectations there, okay, and the bike there is number three, yeah, hello, Brian, your double. digits ahead of some of the biggest names in golf, what specifically is it about your game that you think has given you an advantage here at Hoy Lake?

Well, I've been hitting a lot of fairways, and then I've been hitting most of the greens and I'm making a good putt, I mean, yeah, I can't, I don't know what anyone else has been doing other than the two guys I'm with. game, they played very well today, okay, number four in the middle. Hi Brian, you got those birdies right from the start. Was there an element afterwards that you could be protecting your advantage? No, no, I was trying to make the best shots I could. good look online, got out of position on 10. Yeah there are some really tough holes and even the birdies I made were, you know, a couple of long bounces, so I'm happy to play on the fat side for the most part of the time and try to make a 20 or 30 foot being number one on the front high point um, you alluded to your pace there um I think this week you gained eight strokes in the putt um and your putter I think came out about six or seven years um So, could you explain to us your kind of affection for your employer while you are still with him?

And yes, yes, yes, there was a time, in the middle of this year, when we were seriously thinking about going to the bullpen. and put out something different, it's been a good putter, but it's been behaving a lot this year, so in the last few weeks I found something on the greens that I felt gave me a bit of a better role and I've been putting. I had a really good day. of putting in the U.S. Open and then the next few weeks I putt really well, so I just try to keep those good fundamentals and give it a good roll in the middle, number four here, yeah, Brian.

You are the leader in the statistic with the most top ten since the 2017-18 season, although you have not won since 2017. What has prevented you from winning? I'm not sure. I think about it a lot, obviously, I'm in the lead. a lot, it's just been hard to stay patient, you know, I felt like I felt like after winning the tournament and having the really good opportunity at the US Open in 2017, I would probably win a few more and I just didn't. It didn't happen, I was there, it just hasn't happened, so I don't know, I don't know why it hasn't happened, but you know I'm not going to stop doing it.

Stick with it and move on and hopefully it shows up another day, if you don't mind, do you see this week as your stage to make your case for the Ryder Cup team? I have spent, no. You know how many years you know chasing a, you know, it always seems like it's there at the end. I finished between 13th and 18th on the list and I'm hoping for a pick, so, uh, it would mean I'd love to play on the Ryder Cup team. I think you'd know that. I think it would do very well, but no.

I'm not thinking about that at all. Alright. Martin Bike left Brian Utah in 12th place at the last Scottish Open. weekend I mean what did you take away from that performance and particularly the last round when it was windy obviously yeah I had a bad Sunday I was in contention all week and I just couldn't make any putts on Sunday but um ? I'm happy to use the Scots to really get used to the conditions and wow, I mean kudos to Scotland, they have the worst climate on the planet. Okay, congratulations, you won, you won something different.

You talked after the Masters about how disappointed you were. You went home and killed a pig and a turkey. I guess the sheep and cows are safe around here at the moment. Yes, sheep don't taste as good as turkeys. I guess so. I mean, it's something like that. to get the frustration out of your system. I've had 100 in my entire life. I enjoy the strategy and um uh yeah we eat a lot of bushmeat at my house so I enjoy killing and I hunt a lot in the right there yeah Brian what do you like most about Links Golf?

Could you share everything that Treviño told you? Treviño and I, I mean, we're going to talk about how, as players got older, they tended to drop their back foot to get back into shape. of help to strengthen your golf swing, so it was nothing crazy and what was the saying, what was the second one? Sorry, you know the Lynx Golf. Yes, I like Links Golf. I like the fields. Don't force yourself to take, there are several. different options for playing golf holes you can tell if you are upwind you can hit a lot more club and send it into the air to try to stop it or you can try to hit something lower so I enjoy the variety of shots you have to hit Joy Brian.

I just wanted to know if you're still working with Justin Parsons and secondly, since he comes from this part of the world, what a big role he's played in making you appreciate it. and improve on the links courses on links, yes Justin, I have done a very good job on my golf swing. I've always been a very good putter and a good player on the greens over the last few years. My ball strike. it's really rounded and I've been waiting for everything to come together at the same time Doug, it sounds like Ryan just heard you, you're playing well and you know it and and I just want to make sure you don't get ahead of yourself, it's so hard for you to do it, yeah, one mind very active, it's hard for me, I've always struggled with trying to predict the future and trying to try.

I know how to predict what's going to happen and I've just tried to get really comfortable with just not knowing, okay, let's finish the questions that we have, so we'll go here first, number four, a friend of mine just texted me. And I do not know. I know if you have a nickname and he called you Harmony. Terrible hmm, now you can't choose your own nicknames, but that one won't stick. I don't think it's right, we'll try it. Brian. I think you had a good Friday or a second round last year at St Andrews, if I remember correctly, you did that kind of Kickstart, that race that you ended up doing for the rest of the year, yeah, that's really what it was.

I came in early for the Scottish last year and I think I beat two people at the Sky Shop and I played horrible and then I played badly the first day at St Andrews it was like OMG I love coming here but they're kicking me in the teeth and I had a few very good back nine, made the cut by a couple and then played very well on the weekend, so like I said, it was good to finally turn the corner last year, so you know, I was surprised, I don't know my seventh or eighth

open

championship and, before last year, hadn't even been close to contention or even halfway decent.

Okay, and last question, congratulations on your round. When you have a round like this, can you tell from the beginning? to be a good day for you or golf just isn't predictable enough you talk to basketball players who have a great game they say from the beginning they were just working have you ever had that in golf or golf just can't have that kind? of feeling like no, I very rarely do, it's usually that you finish and say, wow, that was a pretty good day. You know, you focus so much on the moment and try to execute shots because there were several holes where it could have gone either way, right.

I could have made a few bogeys on the back nine, so yeah, I was very lucky to finish where I did and a real cop with a well-played Brian and best of luck for the weekend. Thank you, thank you, I appreciate you all.