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.
“I can’t verify if it’s the only time it’s been there and so I feel bad saying that,” Harman tells Golfweek. “If they want to say that, that’s great.”
But he was more confident of another potential first with the Jug.
“It’s been inside my tractor,” Harman tells Golfweek. “I don’t know if it’s ever been inside a tractor. We took it down there and rode around for a minute just so we could say we did it.”
Harman may need to check with Louis Oosthuizen, the 2010 Open champ and avid farmer, about being first.
But the highlight of hanging with the Jug so far for Harman, he said, was being honored on the field during Georgia’s home game against Ole Miss in early November, a night game at Sanford Field.
“That was cool because my wife and kid were with me,” he said to Golfweek.
“That was probably the highlight of the partying with it so far,” he said Thursday after his opening round at The Sentry. “It’s quite the party trick. It’s been a lot of fun to possess for a year.”
And enjoy it, he has.
“It’s an antique, it’s a relic,” Harman said Thursday. “It’s like a golfing past.”
