Injured Tom Kim, FedExCup leader Jon Rahm among runners-up at The Open

The final round of the 151st Open Championship had a sense of inevitability.

No matter the chasers’ best efforts on a gnarly Sunday at Royal Liverpool Golf Club – including FedExCup leader Jon Rahm, past major winner Jason Day and wunderkind Tom Kim – it was Brian Harman’s tournament to lose. This much was clear.

Harman navigated the nastiest of Royal Liverpool’s conditions Sunday, carding a 1-under 70 for a six-stroke win at 13-under total. Four players stacked second place at 7 under: Rahm, Kim, Day and Sepp Straka.

Whether the runners-up ever found serious contention, though, is questionable.

“He won by six,” said Rahm, winner of this year’s Masters, “so there’s nothing any of us could have done.”

The drama appeared highest after Harman made bogey at the par-5 fifth, the day’s easiest hole, taking an unplayable lie off the tee and failing to convert a 12-foot par try. With his second bogey of the day (he also made bogey at No. 2), he fell back to 10 under. Meanwhile, Rahm – playing in the day’s penultimate pairing – had taken advantage of perhaps the break of the tournament, finding a strip of wispy rough between two gorse bushes at the fifth that led to a routine birdie. It moved Rahm to 7 under, three off the lead.

We could have a tournament … maybe? This was Rahm after all, a proven winner looking to secure the third leg of the career Grand Slam to complement the 2021 U.S. Open and 2023 Masters titles, set for a role as cornerstone of the European Team at this fall’s Ryder Cup in Italy.

But as he did throughout the week, the gritty former Georgia Bulldog bounced back. Harman drained mid-range birdies on Nos. 6 and 7 – two of Sunday’s seven toughest holes – to keep the chase pack at arm’s length. Harman didn’t fall below 11 under the rest of the way, and Straka was the only pursuer to reach 8 under at any point.

“He had to come back to us essentially,” said Day, who closed in 2-under 69 to cement his fifth runner-up finish in a major, complementing his 2015 PGA Championship title at Whistling Straits. “When someone has such a great lead, a big lead, big margin, and then you kind of cut into it, you just never know what they're going to do under the pump.”

The chasers didn’t quite cut enough, though, to require Harman to change his game plan dramatically. Safe shots to the center of the green on the closing nine proved plenty sensible for the 36-year-old Harman to earn his first major and all but secure a spot on his first U.S. Ryder Cup team. He also moves to sixth in the FedExCup and No. 10 in the world ranking.

If not for back-to-back opening bogeys, Kim could have given Harman something to think about. The 21-year-old Kim becomes the youngest to finish runner-up at The Open since Seve Ballesteros in 1976, coming on the strength of a closing 4-under 67 that included four bogeys and an eagle.

Making Kim’s week even more impressive: He opened with a 3-over 74, and he also overcame an ankle injury – a Grade 1 tear to his right ankle after slipping in the backyard of his rental home Thursday evening – to rebound with back-to-back 68s before saving his best for last.

Rahm’s credentials need little explanation, but he added a chapter to a lofty resume with a third-round, 8-under 63 – one shy of the major championship single-round scoring record – to move to the precipice of contention after making the cut with just one stroke to spare. He wasn’t displeased with his week at Royal Liverpool, well aware of Harman’s generational performance, but wasn’t exactly giddy afterward either. He was all business as he turns his attention to the FedExCup Playoffs, the Ryder Cup and beyond.

“Goal was to hopefully win an Open,” Rahm said afterward. “That's done. So now focus on the Playoffs. That's all I can say. Good golf takes care of things.”

For Day, it’s a continuation of a career renaissance of sorts, which has seen him capture the AT&T Byron Nelson in May – his first TOUR win since 2018 – and move inside the world’s top 30. The one-time world No. 1 began this season outside the top 100, those struggles now firmly in the rearview.

“You're seeing some guys out there that are battling injuries, and they lose confidence, and for me personally to be able to work through that and kind of get my game back to where I feel like it should be, I feel like I've done the right thing,” Day said. “At some point, I’m going to get off one (major title) and get my second one.”

Straka continues to bolster his candidacy for Ryder Cup selection. The Austrian earned his second TOUR title at the John Deere Classic earlier this month, flirting with a sub-60 round on Sunday before settling for a 62, and his performance at Royal Liverpool indicates the potential to maintain form under the Ryder Cup spotlight.

All four runners-up can draw positives as they depart the quaint town of Hoylake, and a potential silver lining exists: They were never too close to truly feel the sting of defeat.

Harman made sure of that.