Brian Harman revealed that he had a fan thrown out during the final round of the Open due to persistent heckling.
Harman, who cruised to a comprehensive six-shot victory to claim his first Major in July, found himself up against, not only the elements, but the crowds, as he battled it out in the final round at Royal Liverpool.
The American surged up the leaderboard after an electric second-round display but had few people cheering him on with local favourite, Tommy Fleetwood, and World No.3 Rory McIlroy in contention.
While most of the jeers directed at Harman were measured, the 36-year-old has now revealed that he did have to take action against one spectator who continued to try and put him off his swing.
“The guy followed me from like No. 6 to No. 10 Sunday, and literally like, every time over the ball he was like, ‘You are going to choke!'” Harman said speaking on GOLF.com’s Subpar podcast.
“Like, right as I was about to pull it back. And I’m standing over a three-footer for par on 10, and he starts getting after me again. It was my turn to play a shot, you can’t be quiet, you are out of here.
“For me, you can say anything. You can’t hurt my feelings. I’ve heard it all. But you have to respect my turn. This is my opportunity to hit a golf shot, I’m going to have my turn.”
In the final pairing for the last two days, Harman showed signs of nerves early in both of his rounds with a couple of bogeys on the front nine. When recalling his experience of that weekend, he conceded that the change in tone surprised him at first.
“It turned on Saturday — it turned hard,” Harman said. “It caught me off guard a little bit, but it didn’t affect my play, which I was really proud of. It felt like a really hostile away game in college football.”
With Harman third in the US Ryder Cup rankings and all but certain to feature for Team USA in September, the Georgian may have to prepare himself for a similar atmosphere once again at Marco Simone.
