Morning y’all.

The final golf major of the year has come and gone with Brian Harman taking home the Claret Jug in dominant fashion.

Let’s dive in and see how he did it.

Brian Harman’s Keys to Victory

This year’s final major was honestly kind of boring with how good Harman was. His putting was stuff of legend, he played an elite second round, and he stayed out of those infamous pot bunkers enroute to an undramatic six-shot victory.

Putting Masterclass

Harman put on an all-time putting performance. He only missed one putt from inside ten feet (which occurred once the win was essentially wrapped up already) and had zero three putts throughout the entire week.

Harman’s putting performance was 100% the best I’ve ever seen since I began watching golf. Hard not to win golf tournaments when you’re that dialed in with the flatstick.

I can’t even go 9 holes without three putting and missing a couple three-footers along the way.

Friday 65

While Harman’s 6-under par 65 on Friday wasn’t the lowest round of the tournament (that belonged to Jon Rahm with his 63 on Saturday), his Friday round was the best of the tournament compared to the rest of the field.

Harman gained nearly 8.5 strokes on the field with his Friday round, giving him a five shot lead going into the weekend that he did not relinquish.

Note: Jon Rahm’s 8-under 63 gained almost 7.5 strokes compared to the field, meaning the course was playing much easier on Saturday than on Friday.

Bunker Avoidance

One of the things that make The Open so fun to watch is extremely deep pot bunkers that players try to avoid at all costs. Ending up in one of those bunkers can change the complexion of the entire tournament, and leads to some very interesting shots and decisions, such as this one from Tony Finau:

Bringing it back to Harman, he only found himself in three bunkers the entire week, ultimately avoiding the big numbers that kill your momentum and giving the players chasing him no hope that they could catch him.

An anticlimactic major for sure, but it was a historically dominant performance from Harman as he became only the 6th player in the past quarter century to win a Major Championship by 6+ strokes, and likely locked up his spot on the USA Ryder Cup team in the process.

Matthew Jordan

While there weren’t many other major storylines from the tournament, there was one performance aside from Harman’s that was storybook worthy.

Matthew Jordan was born in Liverpool and is a member at Royal Liverpool, the site of this year’s tournament. With members of the club following him around all tournament long, Jordan put on the performance of a lifetime as he finished T10 at his home course and punched his ticket to the 2024 Open Championship.

Pretty cool moment for The hometown kid. “The best week ever” according to Jordan himself.

That’s a wrap on today’s newsletter and the 2023 major championship golf season 😭 

Only 262 days until round 1 of the 2024 Masters… but who’s counting.

Thanks for reading and I’ll see you on Friday!