2023-07-23 19:24:25
Harman, who went five shots into the final day, played a round of 70s to close out the $16.5 million tournament. That was enough to keep his opponents at a distance. The 36-year-old’s first major victory was sweetened with the legendary “Claret Jug” wine decanter and prize money of $3 million. In addition, he can now call himself “Champion Golfer of the Year”. “First I’ll have a couple of pints from this trophy,” said Harman, who last won the Tour six years ago.
In typical English conditions – rain and 17 degrees – Straka started the final round with a loss of stroke, which he made up for with birdies on the 3rd and 5th. As a result, Austria’s top golfer missed opportunities to win more shots, the short game on the greens didn’t go as planned. The 30-year-old managed another birdie on the 9th hole, but this was followed by a bogey on the 10th hole following a short, botched putt.
Further on on the back nine of the challenging links golf course (par 71), he managed birdies on the 11th and 16th with a bogey at the final hole. That not only cost Straka second place, but also around $600,000 in prize money. At almost 1.1 million dollars, the monetary reward was still lavish. “I’m very satisfied. I didn’t play very good links golf in the past, I didn’t have much experience there,” said Straka, who was affected by the wet weather: “It’s difficult to be aggressive there. Hats off to Brian for playing in these conditions.”
All in all, Straka’s performance in Hoylake was a convincing letter of recommendation to the European Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald, who nominated his team for the traditional continental comparison with the USA in Rome (September 25th – October 1st) at the beginning of September. “That’s a big goal. I’m really happy to have a chance,” said the Viennese, who met Donald this week. “He knows I want to be in the team and hopefully I can show that with my Golf and make the decision easy for him.”
The Austrian confirmed his dazzling form at the Royal Liverpool. Two weeks ago, the University of Georgia graduate clinched his second PGA title by winning the John Deere Classic. Before the tournament, Straka had changed his caddie, borrowing Duane Block from Kevin Kisner, who is currently on a break. As “The Open” now shows, this seems to be a promising pairing.
The athlete, who lives in the USA, had already shown in May at the PGA Championship that he has to be reckoned with in the big major tournaments, where he achieved the first top ten result by an ÖGV golfer in one of the four big traditional tournaments with seventh place. Now the first top 3 place is added in Hoylake. Previously, Markus Brier had held the record at the British Open in 2007 with twelfth place.
Straka celebrated his debut victory on the PGA Tour in February 2022 at the Honda Classic, thereby setting new standards for Austrian golf. As a result, he was the first red-white-red golfer to take part in the Tour finals of the top 30 in Atlanta and in the Tiger Woods invitational tournament in the Bahamas, an accolade in the sport of the little white ball.
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