Harman still dominates at The Open 2023

Round 2 results recorded Harman -10 while the closest opponent - Tommy Fleetwood -5. With that gap, Harman reached the record of leading the first half of The Open, which has existed for the past 89 years.

The next game, Harman, after the early decline, recovered in time to bring the score to -12 and continued to monopolize the first place while Tommy Fleetwood remained -5 due to the even par score. At this time, in turn, Harman is his compatriot Cameron Young who has never won the PGA Tour with a score of -7 and the third golfer in the world Jon Rahm, at -6.

The penultimate leg started yesterday afternoon, 7/22 Hanoi time with hole 1 being the starting position, Harman and Fleetwood going last. When Harman started, Rahm finished with 63 strokes, scoring a total of eight birdies and no bogey. Thanks to that, Rahm went from +2 at the beginning of the game to -6 and jumped 38 places on the leaderboard. Young was three hours behind Rahm, hitting 66 strokes to -7, up five places from his previous position.

And Harman scored two bogeys through the first four holes, bringing the score down to -8. However, the whole later part, he took four birdies, the rest were par. Speaking to the press after the round, Harman said the two most important hits occurred on holes 5 and 7 because they helped him regain his momentum. At the par5 5th hole, he entered the green with a 3 wooden stick, then finished easily after two putts. At the par4 7 hole, he put the ball into the hole with a 1.5 meter putt. This shot helps Harman keep -9. In the next six holes, Harman gradually increased the gap, reaching a five-stroke lead after birdie on hole 13 and then closing the score -12 to the end of the round.

In 2014, Harman, thanks to winning the John Deere Classic on the PGA Tour, was invited to The Open, also at Royal Liverpool and finished T26 and the championship went to Rory McIlroy. Since then, he has participated in seven more battles, including four eliminations, ranked T19 in 2021 and finished T6 last year.

At The Open this year, Harman was full of hope to win the claret jug cup after the third round, when he led overwhelmingly. However, the prestigious award group is unpredictable. Because over the past four decades, the whole major quartet has recorded two cases of losing the championship despite leading "half a dozen" like Harman or more in the final round, including Jean Van de Velde at The Open 1999 and Greg Norman at the Masters 1996.

Harman himself also once had the opportunity to win the major US Open, at the 2017 tournament with a one-stroke advantage. However, with a 72-stroke finish, he finished T2 (-12) while the cup went to Brooks Koepka with 67 strokes and a -16 victory.

Harman is 36 years old, playing professional golf since 2009. He is a veteran on the PGA Tour, having passed 339 tournaments in more than 11 years with two cups and a combined prize money of approximately $29 million.