Brian Harman couldn’t wipe the smile off his face when he was introduced as the champion of the 2023 Open Championship at his FedEx St. Jude Championship pre-tournament press conference on Tuesday in Memphis.
“I will say that life is better as a major champion than not,” said the Champion Golfer of the Year, who earned that distinction two weeks ago at Royal Liverpool in England. “It’s been a wild ride, man. I’ve kept the Claret Jug right on top of our kitchen counter. My wife has asked me to move it several times, and it’s like, no, that’s a hard no, it’s going to stay right here.
“I’ve caught myself walking by it looking at it, and be like, ‘Damn, man, I still can’t believe it happened.’ I’m very grateful, very thankful. It was a very wild experience.”
Harman couldn’t pinpoint exactly when it began to sink in that he had won for the first time in more than six years and captured his first major at age 36.
“There’s like different layers of it sinking in,” he explained. “So I go visit my family, we rented a lake house, and after a few days I started feeling kind of normal, and then I go home and I have this just overwhelming support and a greet-and-meet at the airport. Then it takes a few days for that to sink in. Then yesterday I come out here to hit balls, and I was seeing all my fellow players, and it’s the first time I had seen them, and everyone is congratulating me. It’ll be another few days to try to let all that sink in.”
But when asked to single out a special moment, he recounted how he had returned to his rental house in England after partying with the Claret Jug on Sunday night at a nearby restaurant and he and his agent, Jeremy Elliott, were scheduled to be picked up to go to the airport at 3 a.m., and fly home.
“It’s 1:30, and I’m like, ‘Do we go to bed?’ And he goes, ‘No, we’re not going to bed. Are you crazy?’ So, it was just him and I and the Jug sipping a cold beer at 1:30 in the morning, just like, man, how cool is this?” Harman said.
First, he celebrated with his family at a lake house they rented in upstate New York, but after returning to a hero’s welcome at the airport in his hometown of St. Simon’s Island, Georgia, he hopped on his new tractor and put it to work at his farm.
The Champion Golfer of the Year has returned ❤️@HarmanBrian was welcomed by friends and fans when he arrived home in Sea Island. pic.twitter.com/MmpMSY2q0d
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) July 28, 2023
“Got my place good and mowed,” he said, adding that he also, “probably partied a little too much.”
Harman arrived in Memphis on Monday and he was caught off guard by the autograph seekers who were waiting for him to sign commemorative flags and other memorabilia. He figures it will be a while before he can go find a good hole-in-the-wall restaurant as he tended to do while on the road and have dinner by himself. But Harman is ready to get back to work and see if he can continue his hot streak between the ropes. He enters the week No. 6 in the FedEx Cup standings and has his best chance to win the season-long title, which will be crowned in three weeks at the Tour Championship.
“Haven’t done a lot the last couple weeks so we’re going to be knocking some rust off for a couple days,” he said, “but I’m hoping to be ready to go by Thursday.”
