HOYLAKE, England — Brian Harman said Friday you don’t get to pick your nickname, but he approved of a British tabloid tabbing him “The Butcher of Hoylake.”
“I like that one better than the Harmanator,” said Harman, who enjoys hunting for animals in his spare time. “That made me chuckle. Someone texted me that yesterday. That’s funny.”
On Saturday, Harman, 36, continued to carve up Royal Liverpool, signing for 2-under 69 to maintain a five-stroke lead over Cameron Young heading into the final round of the 151st British Open.
Harman overcame a shaky start, making bogeys at the first and fourth hole. Just like that, his five-stroke overnight lead was trimmed to two strokes over Jon Rahm, who shot a bogey-free 63. But Harman bounced back with birdies at the fifth and ninth to return to double-figures under par and shoot even-par 35 on the opening nine.
Brian Harman's 5-shot lead is the largest through 54 holes at The Open by an American since Tiger Woods in 2000 (6 shots).
— Justin Ray (@JustinRayGolf) July 22, 2023
“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,” he said. “Really proud of the way that I hung in there.”
He continued hunting for birdies, sticking his approach at the par-4 12th to 5 feet and rolled in the birdie putt. Harman complained that his TaylorMade Daddy Longlegs putter was misbehaving not long ago and he considered benching it, but it has been more friend than foe — he’s 44-for-44 from inside 10 feet this week. He drained a 20-foot birdie putt at the par-3 13th and finished with five straight pars to card a 2-under 69 and a 54-hole total of 12-under 201.
Harman enjoyed a celebrated junior and amateur career, including playing on a winning U.S. Walker Cup team, and has won twice on the PGA Tour, but when asked to name his biggest achievement in the game, he noted that he has qualified for the FedEx Cup playoffs the last 12 straight years, an accomplishment achieved by only eight other players. (Harman is one of five on track to make it again.) It speaks to his consistency, but also to the fact that he has never really won any of the biggest events in the game. He slept on a 54-hole lead at a major once before at the 2017 U.S. Open at Erin Hills, but he didn’t have a five-stroke lead that time. This is unchartered territory.
Open Championship 2023: Leaderboard, tee times, hole-by-hole
“You’d be foolish not to envision, and I’ve thought about winning majors for my whole entire life. It’s the whole reason I work as hard as I do and why I practice as much as I do and why I sacrifice as much as I do,” he said. “Tomorrow if that’s going to come to fruition for me, it has to be all about the golf. It has to be execution and just staying in the moment.”
Will the butcher’s blade run dull by the end of the championship?
“I feel like he’s not someone to back down,” Young, his closest pursuer, said. “With the lead he has right now, it’s not necessarily going to be up to me tomorrow. It’s just really time for me to focus on myself and see where that gets me.”
Harman is the 12th player in the last 40 years to hold a 54-hole lead of five strokes or more in a major championship; the leader has converted to victory nine times in the previous 11 attempts. NBC’s Curt Byrum noted Harman showed Saturday he has the mental toughness to stand up to whatever adversity he may face in the final round.
“Today may have been as big a hurdle as tomorrow might be. As hard as it is going to be for him with the expectations and the big lead to go on and win,” he said, “I think he’s going to be really tough to catch.”
Here are four more things to know about the third round of the British Open.
Young not feeling restless as he seeks first win
Young, last year’s runner-up at the 150th British Open at St. Andrews, is in second again after three rounds – and played his way into the final pairing on Sunday with a birdie at 18 at Royal Liverpool.
Here’s a stat that sums up how well Young has played in his two trips across the pond for the Open: He has made birdie on 31.7 percent of his holes in seven rounds at the British Open.
Young made a brilliant up-and-down birdie from the sand at the last, having to stand very upright and avoided a potential shank while exploding to 2 feet to post 5-under 66.
Cam moves into second at @TheOpen 🏆
Posts 66 (-5) 👀
— Wake Forest Men's Golf (@WakeMGolf) July 22, 2023
Young, 26, poured in a 31-foot birdie putt at the first hole and four birdies against one bogey on the front nine. He made birdie on all three par 5s, including at 15 and 18 on the inward nine to improve to 7-under 206. Young, No. 18 in the world and the top-ranked player without a win, is going to need another low round to have a chance at catching Harman.
“Brian looks like he’s going to come in five or six ahead of me [his lead is five], and in that case, I think you just kind of have to see how the first couple holes play out tomorrow and then you maybe start aiming at things that you might not otherwise,” he said. “Tomorrow we’re going to plan on the same plan of attack as the last few days and kind of see where we are after a few holes.”
Cameron Young finished runner-up in his Open debut last year.
The last player to finish 2nd or better in his first 2 career Open Championship starts was Arnold Palmer (first 3, 1960-62).
— Justin Ray (@JustinRayGolf) July 22, 2023
Can Rahm do it again?
Jon Rahm zoomed up the leaderboard from 89th after the first round to making the cut with only a stroke to spare and now alone in third, six strokes back after shooting a course-record 8-under 63 on Saturday. Click here to read all about it.
Rahm’s rally is reminiscent of two PGA Tour events from January: the Sentry Tournament of Champions, where he erased a six-stroke deficit at the start of the final round with a 10-under 63 to edge 54-hole leader Collin Morikawa and the Farmers Insurance Open in February where he rocketed from T-116 after an opening-round 73 and the wrong side of the cutline with five holes to go to the final group with a similarly spectacular effort on moving day. On that occasion, he couldn’t mount a charge in the final round and finished T-4. Rahm expressed confidence that he would continue to play aggressively and try to apply some pressure on Harman. Expect the leader to be keeping a close eye on how the world No. 3 and reigning Masters champion is doing in front of him.
“I hope to continue playing like this tomorrow because I felt very comfortable and I was able to take advantage of the wind in the second nine, which was behind us, and to make the birdies I made. Then I had to hole those putts on 15, 16 and 18 to close the round,” Rahm said. “We have to see how the rest of the day goes, but I did what I had to do to give myself options on Sunday.”
Hovland hopeful for 'A game' to show up
Viktor Hovland stayed in the trophy hunt with a 5-under 66 at Royal Liverpool on Saturday.
He made a lone bogey at the second hole and six birdies on the day.
“I knew the conditions were out there and we could score,” Hovland said. “My putter heated up, so it was nice to take advantage of some of the nice iron shots that I hit in there.”
Viktor Hovland in majors
First 11 starts: 20.5% rounds in the 60s
Last 6 starts: 52.6% rounds in the 60s— Justin Ray (@JustinRayGolf) July 22, 2023
Hovland works on his swing with instructor Joe Mayo, and they’ve made great progress this season to make him a more complete player. Hovland has been a factor in nearly all of the majors this season: playing in the final group and finishing T-7 at the Masters; finishing T-2 at the PGA Championship; 19th at the U.S. Open and T-5 going into Sunday’s final round of the British Open.
Add in the fact that Hovland was T-3 at the Players Championship in March and played in the final group at St. Andrews at last year’s Open before finishing T-4. Heading into the final day, Hovland said he hasn’t had his ‘A game’ yet.
“I wouldn’t say so. I played some good golf. I just scored really well. But in terms of striping it and hitting it perfectly, which I probably never will, I didn’t feel like it was that great,” Hovland said. “As I’ve mentioned to Joe, when I can miss the center of a face and put, quote-unquote, bad swings on it and the ball is still going straight, that means we’re doing something right.”
He added: “To be able to put myself in position to win tournaments with not my “A” game, I think that’s been really cool.”
World Nos. 1 and 2 disappoint
Scottie Scheffler’s streak of top 12 or better finishes in his last 19 starts is in danger of coming to an end after the world No. 1 shot 1-over 72 and sits T-64 heading into the final round.
He’ll enter the final round 16 strokes behind the leader, but that didn’t stop a reporter from asking him whether he thought he could still “do it tomorrow.”
“Win? Unless a hurricane happens this afternoon,” he said breaking into laughter. “A hurricane and then some I think is what it’s going to take for me. I’m just going to go out tomorrow and do my best and move my way up the leaderboard and try and have a good day.”
Scheffler’s putting continues to plague him. He’s ranked last in Strokes Gained: Putting this week.
Scheffler also experienced a strange moment at the 510-yard par-5 fifth hole. He drove into the fairway and had 237 yards to the green. As he prepared to hit his shot, he could hear TV analysts breaking down his shot on a nearby oversized monitor.
“I was standing over my shot and they had the TV going full volume over there, and it was commentating my shot,” Scheffler said. “So I heard my name in the distance and I was like, all right, I’ve got to back off. I’ve never heard a distraction like that before. Usually something that loud it’s music or something…I’ve never been so distracted by something like that before. It was pretty funny, just hearing your own name on the coverage. It was a weird moment for sure.”
Also weird is how little world No. 2 Rory McIlroy was able to get out of his round. The Northern Irishmen posted 2-under 69 to move to 3-under 210 and T-11, but he gained no ground on the leader and will start the final day nine strokes back. McIlroy didn’t speak to reporters after the round, but if he had he likely would’ve lamented what could’ve been if he had made a few more putts after coming out of the gate hot with three birdies in his first five holes on Saturday.
“Thirty-two putts – that tells the story,” said NBC’s Paul Azinger. “Just could not get any mid-range (putts) to go in, none of those 8-to-15 footers dropped today.”
