Brian Harman explains how vicious heckler fueled him to win Open Championship

Former Georgia star Brian Harman had plenty of people this weekend that doubted him on his journey to winning the 2023 British Open crown. He’d only had two top 10s in majors (2017 and 2022) before this weekend, and plenty of golf fans simply felt wasn’t going to be able to close the deal on Sunday and bring home his first major. Following his career-altering win, Harman said in the press conference following the tournament, that one heckler in particular helped to fuel him to victory.

“I think it was the second bogey yesterday, a guy when I was passing him. He said, ‘Harman, you don’t have the stones for this.’ That helped,” Harman said on Sunday afternoon.

Did that heckler serve as motivation for him to bring home the first major of his career? “Yeah, it helped a lot….That helped. I mean, it just helped snap me back in like, that I’m good enough to do this. I’m going to go through my process. The next shot’s gonna be good.”

Sure enough, he was able to get it done and accomplish what many thought he could not on Sunday.

For more on his impressive win in the British Open, check out the article below from On3’s Nick Geddes.

Brian Harman dominates Open Championship to win 1st-career major

Harman is very good at golf, as evident from his performance this weekend in Merseyside. He posted a 1-under 70 in the Final Round to win the first major of his career.

Harman kept it steady through the rain as the field of competitors, including past major champions Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm, as well as fellow University of Georgia alum Sepp Straka and Jason Day among others, failed to make up much ground. He finished 13-under par for the tournament, six shots ahead of Rahm, Straka, Day and Tom Kim. Harman became the first player since Henry Cotton in 1934 to lead by at least five shots after each of the final three rounds at The Open Championship, per ESPN Stats & Info. His six-stroke margin of victory is the second largest in Open Championship history (Tiger Woods, 8 at St. Andrews in Scotland in 2000).

In addition to being his first-ever win in a major, it’s Harman’s first overall win since the Wells Fargo Championship in May 2017. Harman is just the fifth left-handed golfer to win a major. He joins Sir Bob Charles, Mike Weir, Phil Mickelson and Bubba Watson.

“Just overwhelming joy,” Harman told Mike Tirico of NBC Sports. “… Cool as it gets. This is the best tournament in the world. Absolutely thrilled.”

On3’s Nick Geddes also contributed to this article.