Brian Harman pushed the throttle down on Friday at the Open Championship. He shot a bogey-free 65 to sit at 10-under through two rounds. Harman currently holds a five-shot lead as of this writing.
Brian Harman joins Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy in Open Championship history, sign of things to come
Harman notched five birdies and took a five shot lead following his flawless second round of the Open Championship.
Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images
In doing so, he posted the lowest two-round score of his professional career at any major with 132 strokes. That number has only been achieved twice at The Open since 2006. Those two players were Tiger Woods in 2006 and Rory McIlroy in 2014.
Both Woods and McIlroy would go on to win those tournaments.
It’s truly impressive what Harman accomplished thus far knowing his lack of links golf experience.
Royal Liverpool was his first Open Championship in 2014. Incredibly, Hoylake is the only links experience he has.
“I like links golf — I like when courses don’t force you to carry,” Harman said. “There’s several different options to play golf holes. If you’re into the wind you can hit way more club and send it up in the air to try to stop it, or you can try to finesse something lower, so I enjoy the variety of shots you have to hit.”
The lack of experience on these golf courses hasn’t slowed him down as he shot 67-65 the first two days.
To start his second round, Harman opened with a par on the first hole.
Then he went nuclear. The Savannah, Georgia native made four birdies in a row on holes 2-5. Despite a mishap on the par-5 5th, his chip shot to the green nearly dropped for eagle. Things were going right for Harman even when he made mistakes.
He went out in 31 and had to grind on the back nine to keep that scorecard clean. Harman saved par over and over. Then on the par-4 12th, he ran into some trouble. He made an incredible par by holing out from 14 yards.
Harman got to the 18th hole and had 242 yards left off the tee. The former Georgia Bulldog hit a beautiful approach shot to 14 feet, 11 inches. It was a tricky eagle putt, but his trusty flat stick came through one more time to push him to double-digits.
His flat stick may need to be cooled down in ice after this round.
“I’ve had a hot putter the last couple of days so try to ride it through the weekend,” Harman said. “36 holes to go, so try to rest up and get ready.”
Savannah Leigh Richardson is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. You can follow her on Twitter @SportsGirlSL and on Instagram @savannah_leigh_sports for more golf coverage. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough too.
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