Brian Harman’s Tractor and the Triumph of the Intermediate Golf Class

Golf is played on the course but also in the offices. Sunday ended a period in which the Big Four competed one after another for four consecutive months (Masters in April, PGA in May, US Open in June, British in July) and the focus was once again shared. Sportingly, the US Circuit Finals in August and the Ryder Cup Finals in Rome loom large, from Sept. 29 to Oct. 1. out th greenThe cool party is to know What will happen to the peace agreement between the major circles, American and European, and the Saudi League?.

For over a year, the two sides have pitted each other for the best trading cards on the market. If the PGA Tour holds true to figures like Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm, the trio of world podium finishers, the petrodollars have cornered Heavyweights like Cameron Smith (then world No. 2 and St Andrews Open champion), Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson and Sergio García. It was, until now, a war without an armistice in which the two powers used the same weapon, money. If the Public Investment Fund, the Saudi sovereign fund, has fattened its own championships with hundreds of millions of dollars, then the American circle ends after criticizing it how to operate , ocular response. Technical drawing in checkbook fighting and confrontation in the major tournaments, the only scenarios in which the stars of the two parties meet. New heroes emerged.

John Rahm was crowned at the Augusta Masters, And the American circuit celebrated him with joy, with the victory of one of its slogans. but Brooks Koepka is signed to the PGA, And the Saudi League inflated his chest because it was the first major victory that one of his sons defeated. However, the last greats promoted minor players, two golfers that no one expected at these tops: Windham Clark inscribed his name in the history of the US Open And Brian Harman will never forget his counterpart Bingo at the British Open at Royal Liverpool. Englishmen and Americans, not registered with LIV, represent that middle class that claims golf beyond numbers as the factor that distinguishes it from other sports. The range of applicants to achieve best is more open than it is for most majors. And while the major circuits and the Saudi League have focused their efforts on appeasing the illustrious, the recent successes of Clarke and Harman symbolize that golf also feeds, a lot, from those stories starring the supporting cast.

Harman’s case is the epitome of an antihero. The man had to endure a fan yelling at him on Saturday, after a bogey on the 4th hole: “You don’t have what it takes to win the Open Championship!” “That was my motivation,” said the left-handed man with the claret jug on the table on Sunday. “He helped me recover. If you really want me not to play nice, be nice to me.” He also resisted being dubbed “the Butcher of the Royal Liverpool” by part of the English press, due to his penchant for bow hunting. Harman was to claim to have played the final series of the PGA Tour for 12 consecutive years, which is a huge record for regularity.

At 36, the World Open is a sporting pinnacle for a golfer born in Savannah (Georgia) who has only two victories, in 2014 and 2017, on the American circuit. He’ll celebrate with an orange tractor he just bought, with which he wants to mow the 40 acres of land he owns. There he hunted, fished, caught plant food, cared for animals, and made a fire. His family eats it. It’s the life of a middle-class golfer.

Final rankings for the British Open.

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