Raindrops were still falling when Harman climbed onto the tee. With his back to the nearby claret-jug—his only skill in his left hand is golf—stabilizing himself, he cast one glance after another at the walking fairway and swayed. He leveled the hole, avoiding a repeat of the Saturday bogey. But he barely missed a second, as even a police officer moved away from the crowd to watch, denting his lead. Young failed to convert a 14-put birdie putt that he could have narrowed with another putt.
Seven sets down, though, McIlroy was surging. He had started today at three under. After five holes on Sunday, he was six and suddenly tied for second. Ram was making the knight, and Young, with Harman, had already cheated on the former. By the time Harman’s ball was rolling across the third green, five players—McIlroy, Rahm, Young, Tommy Fleetwood, and Sepp Straka—were tied for second. But Harman’s margin remained the same as it was at the beginning.
Other potential challengers were nowhere near, not after a tournament whose leaderboard cut-off sapped much of her potential star power. Most of those who remained did not pose serious threats. Scotty Scheffler, the highest-ranked player in the world, finished the Open Championship on a par. Windham Clarke, last month’s US Open winner, left Hoellick at one point, as did Cameron Smith, last year’s British Open winner. Brooks Koepka, who won the PGA Championship and was runner-up in the Masters Tournament, was just over eight years old.
On the fifth hole, a par-5 that was the easiest test of the week, Harman’s tee putt flew 249 yards and crashed into the bush, making it more than half the distance to the pin.
This pin was where Ram, the Masters champion, began to make progress, by tapping his ball for his first birdie on Sunday. Once Harman reached the green, a final 12-foot par putt attempt failed, and when the 5th hole closed for the championship, Harman’s lead was down to three strokes.
