As the Champion Golfer of the Year and with possession of the Claret Jug for one year, Brian Harman has been checking off some potential firsts with the famed silver trophy awarded annually to the winner of the British Open.
Harman took the Claret Jug to Augusta National Golf Club in late October during the weekend of the annual Florida/Georgia football game. Fellow Bulldog Kevin Kisner and a couple other friends joined him on the trip.
“Just bro-ing out up there,” Harman said.
Kisner told Golfweek that the Augusta National staff told them it is believed to be the first time that a winner has ever brought the Claret Jug to the home of the Masters.
The Jug has been plonked on Brian Harman’s mantelpiece in Georgia for the last year. The American lefty has enjoyed having it.
“It holds a bottle of wine to perfection,” he said on a conference call as he mulled over the various libations that have been slurped from it. “Lots of wine, lots of Guinness, maybe even a little bit of Kentucky’s finest bourbon in there.”
Harman, a calm, composed, clinical winner at Hoylake last July, has certainly savored the giddy highs that come with Open success. His first taste of links golf at nearby Prestwick, though, was a sobering experience.
“I hated links golf, it ate me to pieces,” he winced as he reflected on his appearance in the 2007 Palmer Cup at the birthplace of The Open. “I kept trying to hit lob wedge around the greens. I got killed and lost all my matches.”
Here in 2024, Harman will return to this parish as an Open champion. It’s a funny old game.