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good afternoon ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the 152nd open at Royal trune it’s a delight to see you all back here again and it is even more delightful to be joined uh by Brian Harmon of course our uh champion of the golf champion golfer of the Year from last year Brian you have just had to return the Claret jug was it a sad moment to have to hand that one back it’s uh it’s been a great year uh yeah little sad to give it back it’s but I’ll remember everywhere it’s been forever and and um yeah I’m happy to give it back happy to be here ready to get going ladies and gentlemen just a bit of housewarming if you would like to ask a question please raise your hand and we’ll get a microphone to you Brian can you just reflect on the past 12 months and and what it’s meant to you to be the champion golfer of the year yeah anytime that you become a major Champion it certainly elevates your status in the game elevates the way that you’re perceived in the game and I’ve tried to take all that in stride but at the same time understand that um you know the golf is the most important thing and I’ve tried to improve my golf game and and uh get it in a place to where I can maybe contend in some more Majors down the road just while we wait for the M microphones just to get here to Brian please Brian good to see you once again when we charted a few weeks ago you said you hadn’t been here yet and you were asking for some tips what do you make of the bunkers here and secondly if you don’t mind me asking your fellow left had a decent day yesterday Bob what was your take on his victory yes so I still haven’t seen the bunkers I’m going to go play this afternoon it be my first look at it uh really excited to get out got some nice weather today uh yeah uh Bob and I have have become friends um he’s a he’s a excellent excellent player and um it was a really cool finish yesterday I was really happy for him number two over here please uh Brian um I hear I hear a lot of players talking about wind this week um and I’m just wondering like how you make sense of them why it’s so important during a week like this and and why they’re so important for you guys I guess Windows in what regard like the way that they’re flighting their golf ball yeah like hitting certain windows they’re looking at yeah I mean I think that’s probably one of the most important things when you’re playing lyx golf is being able to hit be able to hit a piercing golf shot that stays underneath the wind and and being able to work the ball Against the Wind whichever way it’s blowing a lot of times if you let a ball kind of go with the wind it has trouble stopping going that way so yeah that’s I mean that’s that’s the rub of the Open Championship and Links Golf in general you’ve got to control the trajectory on your golf ball and that’s what makes this my favorite major to play in because that’s still a a skill that I think is very important and sometimes gets lost um at some other places John in the middle here please Brian did you go through the procedure with uh Martin Slumbers of uh being being filmed as you arrived and handing the trophy back to him and all that uh I practiced getting out of the car one time that was I know you good at it I I I don’t know I have to go back and watch the tape see how see how I did yeah it’s um yeah just you know I wish wish Martin all the best in his retirement I think he’s done a fantastic job and hope he spends his time getting to do all the stuff he he really likes to do and what do you think of that sort of um thing I mean do you do that does that strike you as a quintessentially British thing to do to to be filmed handing the trophy over or well in my opinion it’s the coolest trophy in all of sports so I think it’s deserving of all of the pageantry that is involved with it number two just behind joh on there hi Brian you talked about there about the mentality change of of being an open Champion a major Champion how does that bring more pressure coming into a week like this or does it make you kind of PFF your chest out a bit no it it doesn’t I mean I think it would probably add a little bit of pressure but I don’t think you ever really know what you’re capable of until something like that happens and so at least now I know that you know things go my way and I’m well prepared that you know I’m a I’m a tough guy to beat and and if I just prepare the proper way then take care of what I can do then I’ll give myself the best opportunity to have another chance Martin please Brian you talked about becoming friends with Bob did that come about firstly because you were left-handers and Bob talked a couple of months back about the the difficulty of not adjusting to PGA to life can you understand someone from the UK or outside America coming there and taking time to to sort of adjust to life and and everything that’s different over there yeah I chatted with him um forget exactly where he’s living I think he’s down in Orlando and uh I think they’re they were having a little bit of trouble kind of adjusting and it’s it’s got to be I can’t imagine how hard that is to to uproot and go go somewhere else and then and then base out of there so he certainly had a tough uh a tough go of it as far as you know adjusting but but he’s played fantastic and and I think he’s I mean obviously his game speaks for itself he’s doing great I mean I know you know at the end of the struggle is usually something really cool so I I think he’s doing fantastic Brian um Podrick Harrington is the last player to successfully defend an open in 20072 2008 um obviously it’s difficult to defend any open but how do you oh sorry any major how do you feel your game is in shape to hopefully try and emulate what what Podrick achieved yeah my my stats this year have been really good my ball striking has been as good as it’s ever been um the only thing I haven’t done great this year I haven’t I haven’t putted especially well so I’m just kind of waiting for it all to to to line up correctly ly you can you can work and work and work you just never know when that work’s going to pay off you never know when the Peaks coming you never know when you’re going to you know catch a catch a little bit of momentum so you just have to hope that it’s a a big week you just you never really know when it’s coming and you know like I said i’ I’ve worked really hard and my game’s in really good shape so I’m I’m I’m happy with where I’m going into this week Mike two please uh Brian just a little bit further down the road obviously you love your eyes on the on the rider Cup team uh what did you make of Keegan Bradley being made the year team captain USA yeah I think I shared everyone’s surprise um that that he was named but as far as tenacity and you know I don’t know if anyone loves the Ridder cup as much as Keegan does and I think he’ll be a fantastic Captain um you know the the players are going to mirror the the the I don’t want to say morale but the the enthusiasm of their captain and he won’t be lacking for for any in that regard I think I think he’ll do great and just just being a bit of a younger guy as a captain do you think that makes it easier for him to maybe resonate with you guys resonate with the team sort of Drive things in that team room you know I I don’t know I’ve only played one I thought Zach I thought Zach as far as relating with players did a really good job and you always have this this um respect for a guy that’s done it a bunch of times and Keegan’s played plenty of Ridder cups so I think he’s a little bit of both he’s you know he’s younger and he’ll relate a little bit better and then he’s also got the experience to go along with it just in the middle please Ryan what’s something you didn’t expect over the course of this past last year as open Champion H that’s a good question not that I not that I expect I mean all of it’s been unexpected you never know you never know how it’s it’s it’s going to go but um I think just the reception from everyone back home and like the reception back home was was overwhelming like how positive not not no they weren’t just how excited everyone was like I was obviously very excited exced but to to be able to share that excitement with people that I care about was was probably the best did you drink anything unusual out of it or um damage it in any way out of any I drink some unusually expensive wine and some unusually exceptional bourbon out of it Alex please yeah Brian uh they just released the uh purse for this year and it’s gone up about a half million dollars and in the release uh Martin Slumber talked about the fact that this is probably not sustainable to keep going this route the question to you is is would you play this tournament if you got paid less or maybe nothing at all yeah I would personally I’m not sure everyone would but I would and why do you think others may not CU some people care more about money than I do I suppose I um I I I play golf to for I play golf for me like I play golf to to see how good I can get at golf and I play golf because I enjoy torturing myself with things that are really hard to do and that’s just that’s just me and most most times when I get done with a tournament I couldn’t tell you within commas of how much that I made that week number two here please Brian um when we spoke to you um on the on the final day ho Lake last year you were talking about um going back home and driving your tractor to to reflect I was just wondering in that time afterwards what was the moment when it really dawned that you you were the open champion and and everything of the wildwind had passed when did it sort of start settling in um I had I had one I had one day I was I was at at my farm and it’s winter time and I’m riding my four-wheeler and I just I just kind of like had a moment it’s just me it’s it’s cold and it was just like like I like I was so happy that I was there and I was like and just it’s like this is just really nice it’s nice to be the open champion and still be doing the same thing that I would have been doing yeah otherwise because that was kind of what you um implied to us that night that you just wanted to go back and be away from everything and just let everything sink in so was this like a few months later like yeah it’s it it’s nice being in a place where no one no one’s there no one knows who you are no one can get in touch with you it’s just as as golfers we spend so much time playing in front of people I think a lot of us kind of crave going to a place where there’s no one watching there’s nothing there’s you just you’re just there yeah I don’t know if that makes sense or not yeah it’s it’s it’s it’s somewhere to disappear somewhere to disappear and and to like really enjoy time as it you know yeah and but it’s also having that thing in the back of your mind that you you know what you’ve achieved that moment in history and nobody will take it away from you it’s nice being able to reflect on on all of that and always have pleasant pleasant memories to to think about John Brian you had a really a fairly rough time um at at the hands of some Spectators last year in that last round you were very open about it then and you’ve repeated it uh in a Golf N just piece have you had what you might call a warmer welcome this time and do you anticipate uh that things will be uh more kind towards you or however have you want to describe it this year I’m well doesn’t it bother you it doesn’t bother me I’m I’m ready to take whatever in in stride you know I’m I’m here to I’m here to play the best golf that I possibly can and that’s that’s my main focus um I’ve I’ve always loved the fans over here I’ve always I’ve spoken a bunch of times about how I find them the most knowledgeable fans of any that we play in front of um so I I kind of chalk last year up as sort more of an anomaly than than anything else in the front please hey Brian I just wonder um with your experiences of winning prior what does it feel like coming here as a past Champion versus other places and is there a level of pressure maybe you have on yourself because this is such a huge Championship to do it again or yeah the the pressure I feel is always from internally just trying to to have my game in as good a shape as I possibly can as far as being a defending champ yeah I mean being a a defending I can’t speak for the other Majors but there’s there’s lots of stuff you have to do you you know got to get here got do all this I mean it’s it’s um it’s certainly a different experience but you you got to take it and stride and it’s it’s part of being the open champion and I’m happy to oblige number two please uh Brian sorry one more random question um you’re such a good driver of the ball when you’re looking at uh a hole from the t- box like where are you deciding where to actually tea off from to like work angles in into Fairways you know based on the Wind based on any other factors like how are you actually picking the location of where you start the hole from on the t- almost always favor the left side of the t- box and the best explanation I can have is it’s the closest to where the bag gets set down so I I don’t really have any sort of you know strategic reason why I do the left other than that’s kind of what I’ve always what I’ve always done just favor I favor the left side of the tea box Brian yeah Brian here um you spoke there about having that quiet moment when you were out in your in little truck um Rory spoke last week about he’s not he can’t remember the last time he had a proper holiday was years ago um is it difficult being a a global sporting Superstar and just you know going out with your family for a coffee and trying to have a little bit of what we would feel is being normality yeah it’s all it’s all perspective right you you can only experience it through your own experience I can’t imagine being Rory um and you know Rory Rory would have trouble going out to eat somewhere um yeah that that’s that’s a part of this gig that that’s been that’s probably been the hardest adjustment uh is not having enough of your own time I guess you could say to where it’s it’s hard to escape it sometimes and that’s why I think like my farm and you know being out on the boat and stuff like that are the the places that we crave because it’s the place where you get to escape all of it and you just get to be by yourself for a little while do we have any new oh Doug yep just here was there any part of you that that felt like you needed to act differently as the open Champion either on the golf course or off off the golf course just because of what you did and what you almost represent with your name on that little jug I’m just not sure that I would be capable of acting any differently if I wanted to I I just yeah I I’m I’m I’m as I just try and be really honest I try to be myself and that way I don’t ever have to pretend to be something I’m not that’s just kind of the way I’ve always done it well Brian it’s been a pleasure having you as our champion and we wish you the best of luck this week thanks thanks everyone’s down
1 Comment
Good dude. Keep it up !!