How to Rory McIlroyeventual winner Tommy Fleetwood AND Shane Lowry making it to India’s DP World Championship 2025, another PGA Tour star on the field flew under the radar: Brian Harman.
But to 2023 Open Champion is getting a lot of attention after the tournament. That’s because Harman uncharacteristically lost his cool and viciously smashed a club during the final round… only to see his ball end up right by the hole.
Harman will fight in the Indian Championship before he falls on Sunday
Despite getting second billing this week, Harman looked like he might win for most of it. At the halfway point, Harman had put together a 68 and 65 to get to 11 under. That put him in a tie for second with Lowry, one shot behind Fleetwood with 36 holes to go.
But Harman, who won the 2025 Valero Texas Open in April for his first win since the 2023 Royal Liverpool Open, took a step back in Saturday’s third round.
Two bogeys and just four birdies left him with a 70, leaving him four shots behind 54-hole leader Keita Nakajima.
The biggest change on Harman’s scoreboard from the first two rounds came on the par-5 first hole. Harman birdied the tight treed hole on Thursday and Friday. But on Saturday, Harman was forced to hit three tee shots at 1. He hit his first into the tree. When his tentative tee shot also found the trees, a frantic search ensued.
Eventually, Harman found both balls. So he took a loose ball on the first tee, then zipped it back to the fairway on a golf cart to hit a third shot. Somehow, he came up with a bogey-6.
It would get worse on Sunday.
Brian Harman hits the shot, hits the club with disgust
Four shots back to start the final round, Harman still had a chance to pull off a come-from-behind victory. But only if he sits down early and often.
Unfortunately, those chances exploded on the first hole, where Harman hit his ball into a fairway bunker, then his second shot into the bushes to incur another penalty. The result was a double 7.
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Harman is known for his calm demeanor, rarely letting positive or negative emotions overcome him on the course. But the frustration from the first hole eventually boiled over on the par-3 5th.
The 161-yard par 5 requires another careful shot through a patch of trees beyond the tee. To make things more nerve-wracking on Sunday was a difficult pin cut near the front of a sloping green. A bad ball can easily lead to a big number.
Once into the day and well away from the lead, Harman picked his iron, stood up and hit his ball.
In a video of the shot, Harman momentarily holds his finish, but then turns and slams his iron into the ground, sending the club bouncing across the fairing.
A television analyst can be heard saying, “I’ve never seen him do that before.”
Harman was apparently convinced that he would have hit another squirrel tipped shot. But he was wrong. Very wrong. Just after Harman broke his iron, the camera cut to his ball, capturing the bottom of its flight as it tumbled onto the green, stopping 6’10” from the pin.
See below.
In fact, it was Harman’s best shot in the hole all week. He hit it to 36 feet on the fifth in Round 1, 18 feet in Round 2 and 23 feet in Round 3.
But Harman couldn’t sink his short chance, settling for par. He would trade three birdies for four bogeys the rest of the way, eventually signing for a two-over 74. His Sunday efforts dropped him to a T26 finish, 11 shots behind Fleetwood.
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