Brian Harman joins Phil Mickelson and Bob Charles in a very unique Open Championship record
Brian Harman recently won his first ever major, lifting the Claret Jug at the 2023 Open Championship. His performance was a dominant one, to say the least, as he led all the way from the second round to the finish. No other golfer could get close to Harman, and despite the challenging weather conditions, he put up a sensational performance to win by a margin of six strokes.
While winning the Open Championship is a great accomplishment in itself, Brian Harman also achieved a few landmarks along the way. He became only the third left-handed golfer after Phil Mickelson and Bob Charles to win the Open Championship.
Etched into history forever.
Brian Harman collects the most iconic trophy in golf. pic.twitter.com/faxkJ1U25G
Harman also won the Open Championship by the second largest margin in the tournament's history: six strokes. Tiger Woods' eight-stroke win at the 2000 Open at St. Andrews is the tournament record.
Lastly, Harman also equaled the record for the lowest round of 36 holes played at the Open, matching Rory McIlroy (2014) and Woods' (2006) feat of -10.
Brian Harman cruises to Open Championship victory
Brian Harman faced a lot of pressure going into the last round of the Open Championship. World No. 3 Jon Rahm was in hot pursuit, looking to pick up his third major victory.
But Harman held his ground and finished out the day one under to cruise to a comfortable win. Speaking about his performance, he said after the third round (via Yahoo Sports):
"It would have been really easy to let the wheels start spinning and really kind of let it get out of control, but I just kind of doubled down on my routine and knew I was hitting it well, even though I hadn't hit any good shots yet."
With this victory, Harman has moved to No. 3 in the Ryder Cup points. The top six players at the end of the BMW Championship will make the Ryder Cup team. US team captain Zach Johnson had nothing but praises for Harman. Speaking via ESPN, he said:
"For lack of a better cliché, he's a bulldog. I think he's made for this, you know? I've played a lot of golf with him and been around him in and out of the ropes for quite a while now. What I've witnessed the last three days, absolutely none of it surprises me at all. No shock. No surprise."