Brian Harman of Savannah, Georgia is the 2023 British Open champion. On Sunday, Harman only went one under par, however that was more than enough as his four round score of -13 was six strokes better than Jon Rahm of Spain, Sepp Straka of Austria, Jason Day of Australia, and Joo-Hyung Kim of South Korea.
In the final round on Sunday at the Royal Liverpool Golf Course, Harman had four birdies and three bogeys. He birdied the sixth, seventh, 14th and 15th holes, and bogeyed the second, fifth and 13th holes.
Harman took control of the 2023 British Open with an excellent second round. There he posted an 18-hole score of 65 and went from -4 to -10. At the end of Harman’s second round on Friday, he posted an eagle on the 18th hole.
This was Harman’s third PGA Tour title of his career. He previously won the 2014 John Deere Classic by a stroke over multiple major champion Zach Johnson of Iowa City, Iowa, and then the 2017 Wells Fargo Championship by one stroke over multiple major champion Dustin Johnson of Columbia, South Carolina and Pat Perez of Phoenix, Arizona.
Just how dominant was Harman’s weekend at Liverpool?According to ESPN on Sunday, Harman was the first golfer since 1934 to have a five stroke lead after round two, round three and round four of the British Open. The last player to accomplish that feat was Henry Cotton of Holmes Chapel, England.
Also according to ESPN, it was the first day ever that two left-handed golfers won on the same day. Harman was joined by Akshay Bhatia of Los Angeles, California, who won the Barracuda Championship in Truckee, California. This PGA event uses the Modified Stableford scoring system, where players receive eight points for a double eagle, five points for an eagle, two points for a birdie, -1 point for a bogey, and -3 points for a double bogey. Bhatia finished the event with 40 points, and beat Patrick Rodgers of Avon, Indiana in a playoff.
