With players like Rory McIlroy, eventual winner Tommy Fleetwood and Shane Lowry on the tee at the 2025 DP World India Championship, there is still a PGA Tour star in the field flew under the radar: Brian Harman.
But the 2023 Open champion will receive plenty of attention after the tournament. That’s because Harman uncharacteristically lost his cool and violently smashed a club in disgust during the final round… only to see his ball land just short of the hole.
Harman will be competing in the India Championship before swooning on Sunday
Despite receiving second billing this week, it looked like Harman could win in a big way. Halfway through, Harman had strung together a 68 and 65 to reach 11 under. That left him tied for second with Lowry, one shot behind Fleetwood with 36 holes to go.
But Harman, who won the 2025 Valero Texas Open in April for his first victory since the 2023 Open Championship at Royal Liverpool, took a step back in Saturday’s third round.
Two bogeys and only four birdies gave him a 70, leaving him four shots behind 54-hole leader Keita Nakajima.
The biggest change on Harman’s scorecard from the first two rounds occurred on the par-5 1st hole. Harman birdied the narrow, tree-lined hole Thursday and Friday. But on Saturday, Harman had to hit three tee shots on the 1st. He hit his first tee shot into the trees. When his provisional tee shot also found the trees, a mad search followed.
Finally, Harman found both balls. So he picked up an unplayable ball on the first pitch and then rushed back to the tee on a golf cart to hit a third tee shot. Somehow he got away with a bogey-6.
Things would get even worse on Sunday.
Brian Harman hits the tee shot and hits the club in disgust
Four shots back to start the final round, Harman still had a chance to earn a come-from-behind victory. But only if he went low early and often.
Unfortunately, those chances exploded on the first hole, where Harman hit his tee shot into a fairway bunker and then hit his second shot into the bushes, drawing another penalty. A double-bogey 7 was the result.
Harman is known for his calm demeanor, rarely allowing himself to be overcome by positive or negative emotions on the course. But the frustration of the 1st hole eventually boiled over at the par-3 5th.
The 5th of 161 yards requires another careful tee shot through a gauntlet of trees behind the tee. What made matters even more nervous on Sunday was a difficult pin cut near the front of a tilting green. A bad tee ball can easily lead to a big number.
Once in the day, far from the lead, Harman picked his iron, stepped up and took a swipe at his ball.
In a video of the shot, Harman briefly holds his finish, but then turns and tomahawks violently throws his iron into the ground, causing the club to bounce over the tee box.
You hear a TV analyst say, “I’ve never seen him do that before.”
Harman was apparently convinced he had hit another squirrely tee shot. But he was wrong. Very wrong. Just after Harman smashed his iron, the camera cut to his ball and caught the end of its flight as it crashed onto the green and came to rest six feet from the pin.
Check it out below.
In fact, it was Harman’s best shot at the hole all week. He hit it to 36 feet in the 5th in round 1, 18 feet in round 2 and 23 feet in round 3.
But Harman couldn’t sink his brief birdie opportunity and settled for a par. He traded three birdies for four bogeys the rest of the way, eventually signing for a two-over 74. His struggles on Sunday took him to a T26 finish, 11 shots behind Fleetwood.
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