Five reasons why Brian Harman was crowned 2023 Open Championship winner

PGA Professionals know what it takes to be crowned winner of the Open Championship. Three of the last four players to lift the Claret Jug have been coached by a PGA Member.

The most recent example came at Royal Liverpool when Brian Harman lifted the famous trophy and one person who knows the secrets to the American’s success is PGA Member Justin Parsons.

The Northern Irishman has been coaching Harman for four years and he tells PGA Play the key reasons to Harman’s first Major success.

Improved iron player

Parsons says he knew Harman had an exceptional short game and was one of the best putters on tour and convinced him to stop worrying about distance to become a better iron player.

"We've worked really hard for a couple of years to get him more on top of the golf ball to make him a better iron player," Parsons says. "He's always been a really good driver of the ball. But his iron play wasn’t quite up to the standard to where he was going to be able to consistently do what he was wanting to do."

CLICK HERE to learn how you can hit your iron shots higher and further.

Keeping alignment in check

Another element of Harman’s game that Parsons has focused on is alignment, an element of his set up that had been troubling him over the years. The pair have worked hard to iron out the problems, dramatically improving his accuracy off the tee and with his approach shots – which certainly proved decisive during The Open, where anything hit off-line was severely punished.

In practical terms the way the pair work on this was by placing two alignment sticks on the ground. One next to the club, down the target line, and another perpendicular to it to give Harman the feel of the appropriate ball position. At the start of each session Harmon will hit a series of shots with this setup, and then move on to whatever else he was working on.

"We really dived into consistent, daily alignment rituals," Parsons says. "As a left-hander, Brian’s tendency is to align too far over to the right, which would cause a series of knock-on compensations which would lead to him hitting pushes or hooks. Getting him aligned correctly, and working it into his routine, helped him hit a straighter shot shape because it allowed him to rotate correctly instead of relying on factors with more timing involved."

Being brave with the driver

“I think Royal Liverpool definitely benefitted somebody who was prepared to hit the driver. It could misfire in a fairly horrible way if you got it wrong, as was proved, but Brian's great strength is his driving.

“He's able to hit it and he's very versatile with it, and can rely on it in situations where other people can't. I also think links golf plays into his strengths, as it allows him to be really creative.”

CLICK HERE to watch this quick tip on how to hit your driver better.