Pro misses multiple shots, gets hit by a rule violation and loses 64 points

Brian Harman kicked some dirt on the tee box. On the par-4 3rd on the Copperhead Course at the Innisbrook Resort, his drive had found the right side of the fairway, but he seemed to have wanted a little more.

On shots two, three, four, five, six, and seven, Harman probably felt the same way.

In a hairy sequence during the second round of the Valspar Championship on Friday, Harman hit four shots in a row, earning a penalty stroke in between and dropping 64 places in the leaderboard. His quadruple bogey eight took him from an overall winner and a tie for 27th place to a three-pointer, a tie for 91st place and an eventual missed cut.

It contained a bit of everything. After his tee shot:

– Harman tried to pull an iron into the green from 210 yards, but his ball caught the wind and fell short and into the right green bunker. He shouted, “Awwww, man.” He banged his club.

– Harman then thinned a wedge out of the sand and his ball shot across the green and near some people seated in colored Adirondack chairs. His ball had been a few yards from the lip on the left side of the bunker and under his feet. Upon making contact, Harman immediately looked down and walked out of the sand.

“Not good when spectators swerve behind the green,” said an announcer on PGA Tour Live.

— On the fourth stroke, from about 20 yards, Harman’s ball fell a few feet short of the putting green. He hadn’t had much room to work.

“I think he’s just trying to figure out how I’m going to do a five because that’s a lot harder than the bunker shot he just had,” a spokesman for PGA Tour Live broadcast said before the shot. “He kind of falls down the slope. He only has four steps of green to work with. So he stares double in the face.”

“Or worse if he’s trying to get really cute with it, because I think the only way he’s going to get it anywhere close to the hole is for him to land it in that thicker rough just short of the green,” said a other announcer. “And it will end up in the grain again. I mean, you can see the grain going towards him. It can be any number. And at one-under, the cut will be one-over, so most likely he’ll be back on the cutline after that hole.”

— Five was the penalty.

Harman went for the ball. He discarded a hand. He placed his wedge behind the ball. The ball moved. He stopped. He had an inkling of what had happened. One penalty stroke, under 9.4b. Harman then, with the help of the official Orlando Pope, replaced the ball under Rule 9.4a.

A spokesman for the PGA Tour Live broadcast said of the sequence’s replay, “So he clears a hand and now he puts the racquet down like a little gosling just to see what the lie is like. And there, you see the ball drop down and to the left ever so slightly, and that’s because he put his racquet there.

— On the sixth, Harman hit 20 feet from the hole just off the green.

A PGA Tour live broadcast spokesman said before the recording, “Yeah, it’s gotten really bad out here for Brian Harman. At that moment it’s really difficult as a player to really get your composure and focus on what you’re doing and get a good shot.”

From there double putted Harman. He then parried the remaining six holes – starting on the back nine – and missed the cut by two strokes.

“I’m definitely on the wrong side of emotions right now,” said an announcer on the PGA Tour Live broadcast.

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Nick Piastowski

Golf.com Editor

Nick Piastowski is Senior Editor at Golf.com and Golf Magazine. In his role, he is responsible for editing, writing and developing stories across the golf community. And when he’s not writing about how to hit the golf ball further and straighter, the Milwaukee native is probably playing the game, hitting the ball left, right and short and drinking a cold beer to wash away his score. You can contact him on any of these topics – his stories, his game or his beers – at nick.piastowski@golf.com.