Why a Big Winner Got Mad at a Writer. And why he was crying

Brian Harman was brought to tears over the subject of Lucas Glover.

And he got mad at a writer.

Glover had such an effect. After an epic half month, he was story of the week. They’re playing the BMW Championship, but that’s Glover’s world.

Why not? Here is the short summary. Two weeks ago, Glover won the Wyndham Championship. Last week Glover won at the FedEx St. Jude Championship. All of this happened after about ten years of Glover being lost. The 2009 US Open winner struggled with putt yips to a point where the right-hander considered playing left-handed on the green. But he had found a broom-style putter. And it worked. And here we are.

Of course, these last two weeks and the last decade are much more complex than a paragraph. With all this, many professionals felt a lot.

“Yeah, it was amazing,” Rory McIlroy said Thursday. “I saw something from Data Golf a few days ago that I think is the ninth best ball club in the ShotLink era, circa 2004. We know he has the tools of the trade from tee to green. All he cared about was figuring out how to put the ball in the hole, and with this long putter he’s certainly started to figure it out.

“It’s great to see. He’s a great guy. You won’t find anyone on the tour who has anything bad to say about Lucas. I think everyone was happy to see him play so well.”

“I know very well what a great person he is and how talented he is as a player over a long period of time,” said Chris Kirk. “But I think when people see someone really struggling like they’ve been putting for years, and all of a sudden you can see how they’re kind of freer, making putts, having fun and getting low scores every day , yes I think it brings a smile to my face just talking about it because I know how hard he worked. I know – someone who played on the tour and won as many times as he did didn’t have to keep fighting or constantly working on it, but he did.

“To see how he is so successful is great.”

“Lucas has always been Lucas,” said Rickie Fowler. “He’s a great guy. It’s fun to be with him. He’s always been a great ball striker. He struggled with the flat and shorter putts for a couple of years and it was always difficult. That’s not what you want to see.

“You feel sorry for the guys when they go through that and that’s why it was great. I don’t think you’ll find anyone who has held his own against him considering he somehow reignited his game and probably his confidence off the green as well. Yes, I enjoyed watching it.”

Then came Harman.

He, too, made his breakthrough when he won the Open Championship last month for his first major win. He knows Glover well. He was asked to “contextualize” his run.

What followed was anger at a writer for a choice of words.

And a reference to the film Shawshank Redemption and the character of actor Tim Robbins.

And some thinking.

Here’s the full exchange. Yes, the Glover story touched some people.

“How would you contextualize what Lucas Glover has been doing for the past few weeks?”

“It’s hard for me to put into words how proud and impressed I am of Lucas Glover just for what he’s been through.

“Lucas – I read an article the other day that made me very angry. It called Lucas Glover a journeyman. There was journeyman Lucas Glover standing there, and I thought what a ridiculous statement that is. This guy has won I don’t know how many Tour Championships and won the US Open. He’s won six or seven times now. Lucas Glover is a world champion.

“To go through what he went through with his putter and come out the other side makes me think of Andy Dufresne crawling through the river and coming out the other side clean. I’m so proud of him; I’m so happy for him. My goodness my wife and I saw him win Wyndham and we both burst into tears when we saw it and to revisit it next week is awesome.”

“Is that the beauty of golf? How’s that, you never know when someone might do something?”

“Yeah, you never know,” Harman said. “If you had told me I was going to win the Open mid-year and after Memorial when I missed the cut by 100, it would be a beautiful game and it would humble you very quickly. You just have to put your head down and keep going.”

“Did you learn the name of the man who wrote the story?”

“No, I didn’t,” Harman said. “He doesn’t matter because that opinion is simple – that just confused me.”

“What brought you to tears?”

“I just know what it means for Lucas,” Harman said. “I know what it means for his children. You saw his daughter is there just crying her eyes out. It was just a beautiful scene.

I think we all – we all have problems from time to time and Lucas had problems with the putter. It’s like he talked about putting with his left hand.

“I remember when I first moved to St Simons we would go out and play golf and it was a long time before I had a Tour card and I was like, ‘I don’t know how I will.’ defeat this guy. he was so good He has such good hands. He put it so beautifully. So he’s going through it, and like I said, coming out the other side is just unreal.”

“Did you cry over your own victory?”

“I was very emotional about it,” Harman said. “I’ve been thinking a lot about my coach [Jack Lamkin] That died last year who I’ve been with for over 20 years and I wish he’d been there to see. That kind of got me a bit.

“Mostly joy.”

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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 ways to hit the golf ball further and straighter, the Milwaukee native is probably playing the game, hitting the ball left, right and short and sipping 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.