Open champion Brian Harman 'kicks Ryder Cup can down road a little bit'

Newly-crowned Open champion Brian Harman is not ready yet to start thinking about the possibility of making a Ryder Cup debut in Rome in September.

Brian Harman and Zach Johnson chat during the 2018 Sony Open In Hawaii at Waialae Country Club in Honolulu, Hawaii. Picture: Gregory Shamus/Getty Images.

“I'm going to kick that can down the road a little bit,” he replied to being asked about the biennial contest in the wake of his impressive six-shot success at Royal Liverpool on Sunday. “I'm going to enjoy this. The next thing for me will be our (PGA Tour) Play-Offs and that’s what I'll be looking forward to.”

Harman won the US Junior Amateur Championship in 2003 and also played on winning Walker Cup teams in 2005 – one of his two wins in that match in Chicago came in the foursomes against Richie Ramsay and Lloyd Saltman – and 2009.

“I enjoy match play,” he added. “I've done well in all the match play tournaments I've played in. Had a really good junior record and amateur record in match play. I enjoy the head-to-head competition.

“I had a lot of success as a junior golfer. I won the US Junior and then as an amateur I was the No 1-ranked amateur in the world for a good while, was the youngest American to get picked for the Walker Cup.

“I had success. Like I had the pedigree. Then I got to college and it just kind of sputtered a little bit. I just didn’t keep up the progression. My pro career has been really good at times and not good at times. Last year felt like I kind of found something a little bit, and yeah, man, it’s been great.”

Harman had also spoken about the Ryder Cup following the second-round 65 on the Wirral that provided the springboard for his first major title.

“It always seems it’s right there at the end and I end up in between 13th and 18th on the list and I’m hoping for a pick. It would mean the world to me to play on the Ryder Cup team. I think I would do very well,” he said.

The left-hander lives in St Simons Island in Georgia along with Zach Johnson, who will captain the Americans at Marco Simone Golf Club on the outskirts of the Italian capital.

“He's a really good friend of mine,” said Johnson, who also won The Open at St Andrews in 2015. I've known him for years. Great family, great wife, great kids. The Harmans are dear friends of mine.

“What transpired this week does not surprise me in the least. He is a very formidable competitor, number one. Number two, 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.”

Harman is up to third on the US points list, joining Scottie Scheffler, Wyndham Clark, Brooks Koepka, Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay as the players currently in the six automatic spots.

“Over the years I've had discussions with him,” said Johnson of Harman having failed to get into either Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup teams in the past. “He's still young enough and competitive enough that I think there's still room for improvement in his game, which is pretty scary, because I think he's really, really good.”