Brian Harman stays steady to maintain five-shot lead at The Open

HOYLAKE, England – Brian Harman was slipping, Jon Rahm was surging, Jason Day was on the move, Tommy Fleetwood was still in it, and then there was Rory McIlroy.

On a rain-soaked Royal Liverpool Golf Club, anything, it seemed, was possible.

Just when it appeared that The 151st Open Championship might turn into something other than a runaway, Harman stabilized while others watched once-promising rounds fade away. Harman will take a five-shot lead, the same lead he had at the start of Saturday, into the final round of The Open.

“Yeah, start was tough,” Harman said after bogeying two of the first four holes but signing for a 2-under 69. “Hit a couple loose shots. It was nice to turn around and have a nice back nine.”

Cameron Young (66), who is still looking for his maiden PGA TOUR victory, is solo second and will be playing in the final group with Harman.

Rahm, who broke the competitive course record with an 8-under 63, is six back at 6 under.

This marks the 12th time in the last 40 years that a player has had a 54-hole lead of five or more shots at a major. The leader in nine of those instances won, with only Jean Van de Velde (five shots) at The 1999 Open Championship and Greg Norman (six) at the ’96 Masters failing to win.

Not too many people are familiar with Harman in the U.K., and, truth be told, he doesn’t get recognized much in the U.S., either. Because he’s spent time this week talking about his fondness for hunting, the tabloids have dubbed him The Butcher of Hoylake. He spoke about it again after his round Saturday. The big revelation: He knew how to skin a deer when he was 8.

Harman has also answered a lot of questions about his putting this week. He’s first in Strokes Gained: Putting (+9.27), has no three-putts, and is a staggering 44-for-44 from inside 10 feet.

Asked to identify his most important shots of the third round, Harman cited his 3-wood that reached the green at the par-5 fifth, setting up an easy birdie, and a par-saving putt from just inside six feet at the par-4 seventh hole. He tacked on birdies at the ninth, 12th and 13th holes to restore his five-shot lead. He will be teeing it up for his third PGA TOUR win Sunday.

Is it over? Perhaps not. Young hasn’t won yet, but all he did when he was in contention at The Open last year was shoot a final-round 65 to finish solo second.

“I think it's the kind of place where if you lose sight of where you need to miss or what the correct shot is at any point, it can bite you very quickly,” Young said. “That's almost a blessing, I think, that it's difficult and requires a lot of your attention.

“But tomorrow will be just – obviously, Brian looks like he's going to come in five or six ahead of me,” he added, “and in that case I think you just kind of have to see how the first couple holes play out tomorrow and then you maybe start aiming at things that you might not otherwise.”

Is it over? Perhaps not, given that Rahm authored the biggest final-round comeback on TOUR this year, seven strokes, in winning the Sentry Tournament of Champions.

“Well, there’s a lot of golf to go,” Rahm said. “Honestly, I'm just going to enjoy the afternoon with my family, and that's about it. There's nothing to be done. Feel like I've done a lot of good work the past few weeks, and I've done a lot of good work this week, as well, and I've done what I've needed, which is give myself an opportunity.”

Harman hasn’t had much experience leading majors. The one time he led one, at the 2017 U.S. Open, he stumbled with a final-round 72 to tie for second place. He was quite the opposite of a favorite prior to the week, but he is nothing but that tomorrow. It feels like if he can remain consistent with what has done this week, five shots should be more than enough. He is a model of consistency who has made the FedExCup Playoffs for a dozen straight years. “I’m proud of that,” he said.

But he also has the most top-10 finishes (29) without a win on the PGA TOUR since the start of the 2017-18 season. Why hasn’t he hoisted a trophy? Harman admits he doesn’t know.

Asked if he’s the type to visualize himself holding the Claret Jug, he didn’t bite.

“No,” he said. “Like I said, you'd be foolish not to envision, and I've thought about winning majors for my whole entire life. It's the whole reason I work as hard as I do and why I practice as much as I do and why I sacrifice as much as I do.

“Tomorrow if that's going to come to fruition for me,” he continued, “it has to be all about the golf. It has to be execution and just staying in the moment.”