Ryder Cup 2023: Zach Johnson hints at Brian Harman being on US team

Brian Harman was dominant in winning The Open Championship and US Ryder Cup Team captain Zach Johnson hinted at Harman’s spot on the team in Rome.

There’s no better time to become a first-time major champion than in a Ryder Cup year. And newly minted winner of The Open Championship Brian Harman can likely attest to that.

Harman dominated Royal Liverpool at The Open after taking the 36-hole lead and holding serve over the weekend. Eventually, it was a six-stroke advantage to make the Savannah, GA native a major winner for the first time in his career — and also his first victory in a stroke play event since 2017.

Even with that, Harman has been trending in the summer as one of the better golfers on the planet. And now with a Claret Jug to boost his bonafides, you have to wonder what American Ryder Cup Team captain Zach Johnson is thinking about the potential addition.

Well, we don’t actually have to wonder as the captain addressed Harman and his possible candidacy for the US team after the third round.

In addition to calling Harman and his family, who live on St. Simons Island with Johnson and his family, “dear friends”, Johnson sounded highly favorable to the Champion Golfer of the Year joining the 12-man US Ryder Cup Team at Marco Simone in Rome, even before he’d closed out the win.

"“What’s transpiring this week, I would even say last week and the last couple tournaments he’s played in does not surprise me in the least,” Johnson said. “He is a very formidable competitor, number one.“Number two, hey, what does Brian Harman do really well? Well, he does everything quite well. He’s a very good driver of the golf ball and a very, very, very good putter.“Then if everything else is good, then it can be pretty lethal. Our games are very similar except for the fact that he stands on the wrong side of the golf ball.“He hits it a little further. He’s gritty. He’s got a great ensemble of coaches and a team.”"

Zach Johnson gives Brian Harman a big-time endorsement for US Ryder Cup Team

Coming into the week, Harman was 20th in the US Ryder Cup Team rankings, where the Top 6 automatically qualify on points earned from the start of the 2022-23 golf season until the conclusion. He’ll obviously vault much higher after his Open Championship win.

With Johnson’s comments from Royal Liverpool, though, it seems that, even if Harman were unable to crack the Top 6 — which isn’t a farfetched consideration at this point — he could very well be a captain’s pick. After all, it was the captain himself glowing about the Georgian’s game.

At a course like Whistling Straits for the 2021 Ryder Cup, you would think that Harman’s game would not have been the best fit, to be sure, a course where length off of the tee is a huge advantage, one that helped propel the American’s to a historic victory.

Though Marco Simone isn’t expected to be the same accuracy contest that Le Golf National in Paris was for the 2018 Ryder Cup, though, the European contingent does tend to set up the courses in that regard due to the way it benefits their team. And should that be the case, Harman’s style of play could be perfect to combat that.

It also doesn’t hurt that his competitiveness could get under the Europeans’ skin too.

There are still a few weeks before Johnson will have to make his captain picks and before fans find out officially which Americans will represent the country at the Ryder Cup. But Harman undoubtedly made his case at The Open and, quite clearly, left an impression on Captain Johnson as well.

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