Brian Harman uses his spare time to stalk, kill and eat everything from deer to turkey to alligators. After a fantastic second round at The Open, the fighter will now take on the role of the hunted.
His flawless 65 took him to 10 under par for the tournament and means that this American veteran really is the man to take out this weekend. With a five shot lead, he may have to steal one of his arrows to do it.
On a windy day, when Tommy Fleetwood dropped to second on a frustrating 71 and Rory McIlroy was only able to make a slight progress to one under, Harman was immense.
Much bigger names than the 36-year-old have been ripped apart by these Hoylake links this week – Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson, Justin Thomas, Shane Lowry and Justin Rose missed the three-over-par cut – but the world No. 26 followed up his opening 66 with a four-birdie loop, a closing eagle and zero bogeys.
When he got into trouble with a missed green on 12, he chipped for a par from the rough. And when he had chances to score, he took them, with strokes won on four straight holes from second, and that 15-footer for three on the last following 11 straight pars.
Brian Harman credits the crowd after looking for an eagle to lead The Open
The American plays from a deep bunker on hole 17 to save himself on Friday morning
Taking 132 strokes over two rounds, he matched the 36-hole scores of Tiger Woods and McIlroy in their winning trips here in 2006 and 2014. It was a stunning performance in all departments from the Georgia native, who hasn’t won since his second PGA Tour title in 2017.
That, by the way, was the same year he led the US Open after 54 holes, before finishing second, which in itself has come to be representative of a strong player who admits to having “a very active mind” – a trait less desirable than it sounds on a golf course.
The question is whether he has the composure to run from the front.
“I have to try not to get too caught up in it,” he said. “I think when I was in charge at the US Open I probably thought too much about it.”
Aside from that sterling week, Harman has only one top-10 finish in a major, and that was this tournament last year, when he finished sixth. His also finishing 12th at the Scottish Open last week indicates a renewed taste for links golf after missing his first six Open cuts.
Of course, his success on the Wirral will attract only part of the attention – the rest will be drawn to his choice of hobby. Harman has long chronicled his penchant for hunting, with the caveat that he always eats what he kills, and in fact cleared his mind after missing the cut at The Masters by going out and slaughtering a pig.
He was led back to the topic here: “I’ve been a hunter all my life. I enjoy the strategy of it. In my house we eat a lot of game meat, so I like slaughtering and I hunt a lot.’
A look at his Instagram account, with its illustrations of what that all looks like, could risk drawing a different kind of protester to Hoylake after Just Stop Oil arrived on Friday to target the 17th green.
Rory McIlroy only managed to finish one-under-par on day two and is nine shots down
Just Stop Oil disrupted the course of events on Friday while playing at The Open with an orange flare
The disruption was minimal and the same could be said for leaderboard raids by some of the leading figures in the game.
Fleetwood is at the forefront of the resistance, though he ended the day as he started it – five under with three bogeys and three birdies, relieved by an 18-footer to get a strike at 14.
He finished after 8pm and had experienced the tougher conditions, but it felt like an irritating lap as he tried to become the first English winner of the Open in 31 years.
One stroke further back is Austria’s Ryder Cup hopeful Sepp Straka, who shot a 67, while Min Woo Lee, a fine player with enough skill to navigate the wind, carded a 68 to take prominence at three under, alongside Jason Day, who started the day with one over.
World No. 276 from India, Shubhankar Sharma is also in fourth place.
Jordan Spieth, the 2017 champion and a left expert, recorded a lopsided 71 after dropping three shots on the back nine. He’s two down.
Australia’s Min Woo Lee is among the leaders after his impressive three-under-par round
For McIlroy, the prospects of ending his nine-year wait for a major seem slim.
He’s back nine after a battle round of 70 in which he birded two of the first five holes, but played the next 12 in two overs before making the final birdie.
Some of his recovery work from dismal spots was fantastic – his ups and downs on nine and fourteen were excellent – but he was again chased by a pair of missed putts within five feet on third and fifteen.
He said: ‘At the moment I don’t have it completely out of my hands, but at the same time I think if I can get three, four, five under par tomorrow, I have a good chance.’
His playing partner, Jon Rahm, improved by one to two over, as did defending champion Cameron Smith, while world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler made the cut by one on a birdie from a greenside bunker at 18.