{"id":920,"date":"2023-09-25T15:03:39","date_gmt":"2023-09-25T19:03:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/sport\/brian-harman-a-36-year-old-ryder-cup-rookie-has-proven-he-belongs\/25\/09\/2023\/"},"modified":"2023-09-25T15:03:39","modified_gmt":"2023-09-25T19:03:39","slug":"brian-harman-a-36-year-old-ryder-cup-rookie-has-proven-he-belongs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/sport\/brian-harman-a-36-year-old-ryder-cup-rookie-has-proven-he-belongs\/25\/09\/2023\/","title":{"rendered":"Brian Harman, a 36-year-old Ryder Cup rookie, has proven he belongs"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Brian Harman talks like a man who has come to understand his past. That\u2019s why he can tell you about the guy who signed all those autographs.<\/p>\n

That was him at Whatever Tournament in Whatever Town in two-thousand-whatever. The specifics don\u2019t matter because it was always the same. He\u2019d finish the round, stop by the scoring tent and then head to the clubhouse. That\u2019s where, inevitably, fans leaning over a rope awaited, dangling hats or pin flags or who-knows-what. Their faces strained, pleading for him \u2014 or anyone, really, who was playing in that PGA Tour<\/a> event \u2014 to come over and sign. Of course, Harman would do the right thing. He\u2019d wander over, pull the cap off a Sharpie and oblige. Maybe he\u2019d nod. \u201cYou\u2019re welcome.\u201d<\/em> Maybe he\u2019d even push back the corners of his mouth into something resembling a smile.<\/p>\n

But inside? Oh, that heat. The bad kind. A lid rattling atop the pot. \u201cInternally, I\u2019d be like, why do you want my autograph? I\u2019m a middling tour player. I haven\u2019t done anything. I\u2019m not contending. I\u2019m not one of\u00a0the guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

All those years. All those autographs. Every time, he swirled a \u201cB\u201d into an \u201cR\u201d and scribbled whatever else he could muster. It was a reminder that the name on the paper didn\u2019t live up to what it was supposed to.<\/p>\n

He keeps talking \u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I\u2019m being honest, I was embarrassed. I was embarrassed by my career.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harman is at the point where he can say the hard part out loud because he\u2019s only nine weeks removed from a moment of self-actualization that few ever come to. He\u2019s still working to process it all. At age 36, after winning two PGA Tour events in 343 appearances over a 14-year professional career, he won the 2023 Open Championship at Royal Liverpool.<\/p>\n

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The numbers don’t lie\u2026 @HarmanBrian<\/a> is ready to make an impact in Rome! pic.twitter.com\/25VBgdV3Vs<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Ryder Cup USA (@RyderCupUSA) September 23, 2023<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It happened that fast. Harman missed the cut at this year\u2019s Masters. He missed the cut at the PGA Championship. He tied for 43rd place at the U.S. Open. Another year on a r\u00e9sum\u00e9 everyone long ago stopped reading. He was what he\u2019s always been \u2014 a very solid PGA Tour player with many millions of dollars in career earnings and zero notoriety. He went to Royal Liverpool ranked a respectful, albeit highly overlooked, No. 26 in the world rankings. He hadn\u2019t won a tournament since the 2017 Wells Fargo Championship.<\/p>\n

But then it all came together over four days. A brazen, rip-snorting performance.<\/a> A six-shot victory. A new world.<\/p>\n

Now Harman is readying to travel to Rome for his first Ryder Cup appearance. It\u2019s a bizarre, unexpected twist on a career that was otherwise approaching its vanishing point. Harman could have very well played out these later years of his career in relative anonymity and retired to his 1,000-acre farm in rural Georgia. Instead, he\u2019s both the oldest player on the 12-man United States team and one of four rookies. He\u2019s old enough that his first career PGA Tour win at the 2014 John Deere Classic came over runner-up Zach Johnson, who will be the United States captain this week.<\/p>\n

It isn\u2019t easy to understand a new reality. But he\u2019s trying.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve all got our own journeys and different reasons for being in different places at different times,\u201d Harman says, looking for the right words, glancing around a converted barn near his family\u2019s home in St. Simons Island, Ga., during a recent interview. \u201cIt\u2019s not always apparent. But right now, I feel like I\u2019m right where I\u2019m supposed to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

In what feels like a lifetime ago, Harman was a former No. 1-ranked amateur golfer in the world and All-American at Georgia, one of college golf\u2019s great powerhouses. He starred on the winning 2005 and 2009 Walker Cup teams and a 2007 Palmer Cup team, playing with guys like Anthony Kim, Dustin Johnson and Rickie Fowler. Still, Harman was, at various stages of his junior career, the can\u2019t-miss, no-doubt, next-big-thing. He walked across the driving range like a cold cross-wind. Everyone glanced over.<\/p>\n

That feeling is something Harman chased for much of his 20s. The feeling of knowing he not only belongs, but that others are trying to catch him. As a modestly successful PGA Tour career played out, the shadow cast by his teenage self spread long and never missed a step. He was supposed to win, not just play.<\/p>\n

\u201cI used to wax poetic about, \u2018oh, I was sooo good when I was a junior golfer,\u2019\u201d Harman says. \u201cBut eventually you come to the realization of, well, you\u2019re not 16 anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

The game, as it does, raced past. After turning pro in 2009, Harman saw players he grew up beating suddenly hoisting trophies at PGA Tour events. In time, new guys \u2014 younger, stronger, longer \u2014 showed up and started winning. There was no way to keep up, no way to stop what was coming. He was trying to slow the rising seas with sandbags. He had a reputation for being \u201cgritty\u201d and \u201ca bulldog.\u201d All kindly parlance for a smaller guy who fights like hell, but comes up short.<\/p>\n

Today, thinking back, Harman admits to things no one wants to admit. The ugly stuff.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way that I felt watching some of my friends win \u2014 I hate the way that it made me feel,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m not proud of it. I feel guilty about it to this day.\u201d<\/p>\n

The problem with jealousy is it compounds. For Harman, as years passed, sediment built and settled, and built and settled. Even when Harris English, one of his closest friends, found success, Harman struggled not to see it as a reflection of his own shortcomings.<\/p>\n

It festered in him. Worse, it distracted him.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat jealousy will eat you to pieces,\u201d he now says.<\/p>\n

Harman married his wife, Kelly, in 2014. Then came three kids. The view gradually changed. From his late 20s, to his early 30s, to his mid-30s \u2014 he came to the realization that the expectations heaped upon him as a teenager manifested in him as an adult.<\/p>\n

Then came another realization.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t believe I\u2019ve been such an asshole,\u201d Harman says. \u201cSo selfish. There\u2019s plenty of success out there for everyone who works for it. Winning and being successful is a product of someone\u2019s inner strife and hard work and dedication \u2014 all the things that I love about people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harman came to understand all of this in recent years. Seeing Kevin Kisner win the 2021 Wyndham Championship hit him as a moment of joy. He realized what he\u2019d been missing out on.<\/p>\n

It takes something to admit all this out loud. Harman is far from the only player on tour to stress eat the ultimate question: Why not me? Golf inherently juxtaposes one\u2019s self-worth versus that of his or her friends.<\/p>\n

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\n The Open Championship win gave Brian Harman enough points to automatically qualify for the Ryder Cup. (Warren Little \/ Getty Images)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

It wasn\u2019t until winning the Open two months ago that Harman really came to understand the weight he\u2019d been carrying for all those years. The win wasn\u2019t a relief. It was a release. He felt days and weeks and years of struggle and doubt and pain rise off his shoulders, swept down the English coastline. Jeremy Elliott, Harman\u2019s agent and longtime friend, says he saw Harman leave Hoylake with \u201cprofound self-awareness.\u201d<\/p>\n

When he returned to action weeks later at the St. Jude Championship, Harman rolled a few putts on the practice green when a fellow player walked by to pass along congratulations.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, I don\u2019t feel any different,\u201d Harman replied.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah,\u201d the passerby said. \u201cWell, you look different.\u201d<\/p>\n

He does, and it\u2019s gotten him here. Harman did Zach Johnson (one of his closest friends on tour) a favor by qualifying for the U.S. team as a top-six points qualifier. He\u2019s the oldest U.S. Ryder Cup rookie since 41-year-old Steve Stricker in 2008 and will be in a team room this week with a troop of young players he long ago watched breakthrough and had to swallow his envy. When someone like Justin Thomas walked onto the tour years back, winning tournaments and capturing an early major, Harman wasn\u2019t exactly eager to build a bond. \u201cFact is, I would have absolutely killed to have a career like JT\u2019s,\u201d he says. But the ongoing Ryder Cup experience has brought with it some perspective. Harman and Thomas have grown close recently and are suddenly exchanging text messages regularly. Recently, Harman sent one note apologizing to Thomas \u201cfor taking so long\u201d to come around to him. Harman has gotten to know Max Homa and Collin Morikawa, both of whom couldn\u2019t possibly be more different. Last week, Homa sat aghast listening to a story of Harman\u2019s catching an alligator by hand.<\/p>\n

\u201cI missed out on interacting with these guys,\u201d Harman says, \u201cand that\u2019s on me.\u201d<\/p>\n

For a guy later in his career, Harman sure is learning a lot. He says \u201cclarity has come by necessity.\u201d All it took was nine weeks, one massive, cosmic shift, and now he\u2019s one of the guys.<\/p>\n

This time he\u2019s asked, point-blank: Is this validation?<\/p>\n

Harman pushes his shoulder up into a half-shrug. \u201cI hate to say that now I belong.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spoken like a man who worked to get where he is.<\/p>\n

(Illustration: Eamonn Dalton. Photos: Tracy Wilcox \/ PGA Tour,\u00a0 Michael Reaves \/ Getty Images)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n