BMW CHAMPIONSHIP

August 17, 2023

Brian Harman

Olympia Fields Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Where is your game at? Is it pretty much just picking up where you left off and winning the Open?

BRIAN HARMAN: Yeah, I didn't do much work in between the Open and Memphis. I was pretty rusty last week. Knew I was probably going to struggle.

Just tried to manage my expectations, but I hit some good shots last week. Still felt like the nuts and bolts of it were still there.

Had a nice day today. We'll see what tomorrow is like.

Q. What was going well for you? Were you just putting really well again?

BRIAN HARMAN: No, I hit some nice iron shots, kept it around the greens, had two chip-ins. They weren't in bad -- it wasn't like it was crazy chip-ins, but kept it in play all day. It's a hard golf course. It's really hard to drive it. I drove it pretty well today.

Q. Did you see Rory chip in right before you on 17?

BRIAN HARMAN: I heard it. I knew he made a long putt or something like that.

Q. You had the 42-foot birdie today. Have you been able to read the greens really well, and do you think that's going to be an advantage for you the rest of the weekend?

BRIAN HARMAN: I think these greens are really tough to read. There's a lot of subtlety to them, but there's a lot of slope. I left a couple of makeable birdie putts really short. You've just got to trust your read and give it a rap.

Last time we were here, the greens were really, really fast, and it was really firm. It's been a little bit of an adjustment trying to get a feel for them.

Q. What's the most important thing for you this week? What matters this week?

BRIAN HARMAN: Staying present, hitting every shot the best I can, and not getting too wrapped up in where I am or what's going on.

Q. I don't mean to bring this back to Hoylake, but if you don't do anything good the rest of the year, is it still a good year?

BRIAN HARMAN: Yeah, it's a good year.

Q. Does that affect you at all?

BRIAN HARMAN: It certainly improves my mood.

Q. I can tell.

BRIAN HARMAN: Thanks.

Q. Is there any risk of becoming too lackadaisical?

BRIAN HARMAN: Yeah, for sure. I struggled with that after my previous two wins, just kind of took a little mental break. Yeah, I think I worked so hard to get to those wins that it was almost like a letdown afterwards.

But I'm in a really good place where I feel like if I just go out and execute -- like I'm trying to judge myself on how well I'm executing, not necessarily what I shoot or where I'm at in the golf tournament.

Q. With the cutoff numbers changing this year in terms of who got into the Playoffs and fewer guys and then you guys basically punching your ticket into all eight Signature Events by making it here, did the end of the season this year feel more competitive or intense or pressure packed or did it feel no different?

BRIAN HARMAN: Well, I know certainly I got off to a good start, and it was certainly on my mind kind of midyear when I was struggling like man, I'd really like to get in that top 50 and I kind of set my schedule for the next year. We're just going to have to monitor that, see how well it was. The TOUR has been great. They've been really flexible, and we'll just see how it is going forward.

Q. Do you have any feeling of trying to keep it going after playing so well at The Open? Obviously confidence has to be very high. Game is in such a good spot. Obviously last week you mentioned you were a little rusty, but the game is there. Is there any sense of I want to try to stay on this roll as long as I can?

BRIAN HARMAN: Yeah, of course. You want to squeeze every bit out of good form that you can. But the really important thing for me is just executing golf shots. On the range I'm trying to -- I've got a shot in mind I'm trying to execute and I'm judging myself on how well I'm doing that and how well it transfers out to the golf course.

I've just tried to have a better idea of where my game is at so that I can manage expectations and not go out -- I don't want there to be a lot of surprise about where my game is when I'm in the tournament, if that makes sense.

Q. How would you contextualize what Lucas Glover has done the last couple weeks?

BRIAN HARMAN: It's hard for me to put into words how proud and impressed I am with Lucas Glover just because of what he's been through.

Lucas -- I read an article the other day that made me very angry. It called Lucas Glover a journeyman. It said journeyman Lucas Glover, and I thought, what a ridiculous thing to say. This guy has made I don't know how many TOUR Championships, won the U.S. Open. He's won six or seven times now. Lucas Glover is a world beater.

To go through what he went through with his putter and to come out the other side, I think about like Andy Dufresne, calling through the river and coming out clean the other side. I'm so proud of him, I'm so happy for him. Gosh, my wife and I were watching him win Wyndham and both of us are in tears watching it, and to follow it back up the next week, it's awesome.

Q. Is that kind of the beauty of golf, how stuff like that, you never know when it can be someone's time to do something --

BRIAN HARMAN: Yeah, you never know. If you would have told me I was going to win the Open mid-year and after Memorial when I missed the cut by 100, it's a beautiful game and it'll humble you real fast. Just got to keep your head down and keep going.

Q. Did you get a name of the guy that wrote the story?

BRIAN HARMAN: No, I didn't. He doesn't matter because that opinion is just -- that just baffled me.

Q. What brought you to tears?

BRIAN HARMAN: Just I know what it means to Lucas. I know what it means to his kids. You saw his daughter is there and she's just crying her eyes out. It was just a beautiful scene.

I think all of us -- we all struggle from time to time, and Lucas with the putter, he struggled. It's like -- he was talking about putting left-handed.

I remember when I first moved down to St. Simons, we'd go out and we'd play golf, and it was long before I had a TOUR card and I was like, I don't know how I'm ever going to beat this guy. He was so good. He's got such good hands. He was putting it so great. So he goes through that, and like I said, to come out the other side is just unreal.

Q. Did you cry over your own win?

BRIAN HARMAN: I was very emotional about it. I thought a lot about my coach that died last year that I'd been with for 20-some-odd years and just wishing he'd have been around to see it. That kind of got me a little bit. Mostly joy.