British Open champion Brian Harman was back at his old stomping grounds in Athens Monday ahead of playing in the Tour Championship starting Thursday in Atlanta.
“I got to take a picture with the jug,” Georgia football coach Kirby Smart said on 960 The Ref. “I got to see that. Pretty cool. I didn’t drink anything out of it.”
That would be the Claret Jug that Harman won at the Royal Liverpool in Hoylake, England, joining two-time Masters champion Bubba Watson as former Georgia golfers to win a major championship.
Harman had a chance to sit in a football team meeting, but Smart didn’t make a big deal about it.
“I wanted to introduce him to the team, but I was afraid nobody would know who he was,” Smart said.
After Harman won the trophy at Hoylake, the 36-year-old Savannah native said he was inspired by words Georgia football coach Kirby Smart said prior to last season.
“I was a wreck,” Harman said, according to the Golf Channel. “I mean, I’ve been a wreck the whole week. But … I kept thinking about something Kirby Smart said, ‘I’m not gonna be hunted; I’m gonna hunt.’”
Harman, 36, never let up after holding the lead after the second and third rounds. He entered Sunday with a five-stroke cushion at Royal Liverpool in Hoylake, England and lifted the Claret Jug after winning by six.
“Dawgs on top! Congrats @harmanbrian,” Smart tweeted after the victory “Let’s celebrate this fall!”
Harman told reporters after his win that he’s impressed with how Smart has handled success.
“I’ve always kind of — I just always pay attention when really successful people talk,” he said. “There’s always clues there as to how they feel. I’ve always admired the fact that even with all the success that he’s had, it’s all about the next play, the next game, the next week of practice. He knows that the results come because of what you do in the trenches.”
After showing off the trophy to Smart and others on the Georgia campus on Monday, Harman added another big moment on Tuesday night when he threw out the first pitch at the Atlanta Braves game against the New York Mets.
Former Georgia bulldogs and current British Open champion Brian Harman, throwing out the first pitch here at the Braves game tonight
Thursday he tee’s it up at East Lake in Tour Championship pic.twitter.com/PMvqu4W5JH
— Zach Klein (@ZachKleinWSB) August 22, 2023
Harman tees off at 1:27 p.m. on Thursday with Patrick Cantlay at the East Lake Golf Club.