The Open: toads, protestors, course records and 🇺🇸

GM. This is Easy Pars. The golf newsletter that loves a Major win from someone NO ONE expected.

Here’s what we’ve got for you today:

• USA takes it home at The British Open!

• Spain takes home the course record!

• Golfers become bouncers

Brian Harman shows true grace under pressure at The Open

Brian Harman just won The Open in a truly dominant fashion.

But before we go into why it was such an awesome win, we have to ask ourselves, why haven’t we been talking about Brian Harman all season?

Before his first major W this weekend, Harman was ranked 26th. Nothing to scoff at if you ask us. But he’s had a 2023 season that’s been full of ups and downs.

He got a solid T-2nd at the Travelers Championship and a handful of top-ten finishes. BUT he’s also had a handful of tournaments where he hasn’t been able to make the cut.

It’s likely that all these ups and downs have made him go somewhat incognito this season.

That ended yesterday.

Briah Harman displayed some masterful golf and nerves of steel that took him to his first career major victory. It also was in the face of no one wanting an American to win the British Open.

He was so in his groove that even the rain and hecklers couldn’t throw him off.

Harman got into the top five by the end of the first round.

At the end of the second round, he had a big lead over everybody else.

And he simply didn’t lift his foot off the gas until the last hole of the third round which saw him six shots ahead of the closest group of golfers.

It was awesome to watch and great seeing someone who wasn’t in the betmaker’s shortlist take the win in such a dominating fashion.

Jon Rahm breaks a course record

When Jon Rahm is on fire he’s unstoppable.

The guy just set a new record at Royal Liverpool to save the round and catapult his way to a four-way tie for second place.

It’s simply awesome to see anyone shoot 63, especially at a major.

And the best news is that he didn’t have to commit “accidental manslaughter” (remember his statements from the last EasyPars newsletter) to get it.

However, since consistency pays off, it wasn’t enough to take the lead from Biran Harman.

When asked how he felt about his record he replied in typical Jon Rham fashion: "I'd rather win three times and never shoot 63," he said.

Protestor got lucky

Billy Horschel didn’t have a great Open this time around.

However, he kept it classy and even got his hands (somewhat) dirty while helping Royal Liverpool security escort a protester off the field.

After seeing this, we couldn’t help but think how lucky this protestor got by interrupting Horschel’s game instead of Jon Rahm’s.

We also couldn’t help but think that pro golf needs to get its security overhauled. A few weeks ago, we had a golfer getting tackled. And now, pros have to do their own dirt work.

Golfers getting amped up before the next purge, we mean PGA event:

We definitely didn’t see this coming

Everyone was expecting some sort of hijinks from protestors that would cause a delay at some point.

Thankfully, Billy Horschel was on duty and promptly took care of the situation when it arose.

However, we didn’t see toads coming.

Toads. The amphibians.

It turns out that a Natterjack Toad showed up on the 13th hole during the first round and caused the game to come to a complete halt.

Whereas in most other courses most animals standing in the fairway are simply nudged off.

This time it was different.

Natterjack Toads are a protected species and they need to be removed by a certified toad handler.

The good news is that Royal Liverpool had such an expert at hand and promptly removed the toad from the course.

No harm was done to either the speed of play or the protected toad.

Around the Links 🏌️

• Great highlights from the last round of the Open (Golf Channel’s YT): If you didn’t get to watch Harman take it home, here’s 20 minutes of the best shots.

• Rory finished 6th, which is apparently a let down? Here’s Golf Digest’s Rory-heavy take on the British Open. (Golf Digest)

• A hilarious recap showing how Americans (in this case, Brian Harman) celebrates a win. (Barstool Sports)

Meme of the Day

😂😂

What if Rahm and Daly are the same?