Brian Harman’s British Open mission is clear with Day 2 performance

PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland — Brian Harman doesn’t care if you don’t think he’s a top player in the world.

He doesn’t care whether you consider him a worthy British Open champion, which he was two years ago at Royal Liverpool.

Harman wants more and, though 36 holes of the 153rd Open at Royal Portrush, he’s put himself in position to hoist the Claret Jug for a second time thanks to a second-round 65 on Thursday.

That put him in the lead at 8-under par as some of the players with later tee times, such as Scottie Scheffler and Jon Rahm, were teeing off.

When Harman finished, he was leading Haotong Li by one shot with Li still on his front nine, Rasmus Hojgaard, Robert McIntyre and Tyrrell Hatton (al finished at 5-under) by three and Tony Finau (4-under) by four.

Rory McIlroy and Keegan Bradley are five back at 3-under par having finished their second rounds.

“I feel really comfortable over here,’’ Harman said. “I’m comfortable driving it. They’re very different golf courses (Hoylake and Portrush), but the golf is similar. You’ve got to be able to flight your golf ball. You’ve got to know how far everything’s going. Then you can’t get frustrated. You’re going to get bad breaks, you’re going to end up in funny spots where it doesn’t seem fair, and you just have to kind of outlast that stuff.

“Although the golf courses are different, the style of golf is very similar.’’

Ironically, Harman didn’t immediately fall in love with links at first.

“I won the (John) Deere in ’14 and was the last guy in the field at Liverpool that year,’’ he recalled. “I wasn’t super excited about coming over. I just didn’t really fancy my chances. After I played that week, I was like, ‘Wow, I can’t believe how much I enjoyed that.’ I love being able to hit these stingers off of the tee that go a million yards. I don’t know, I just really kind of took to it.

“Then I played terrible the next six Opens and then started playing better over here.’’

Harman posted a clean card, without a single bogey, while making six birdies, including one on the 18th.

He said he’ll “approach the weekend the same way’’ as he did two years ago, when he was in the top 10 entering the third round.

“I’m not trying to be heroic or do anything crazy,’’ he said. “I know that I’ve got the game to do it, and it’s just a matter of executing and staying in my own head. I would love to have a similar weekend (to 2023) and just play great the whole way through. 

“There’s going to be challenges. This is a hard golf course. The pins have been in really, really tough spots, and you’ve really got to think your way around it. Inevitably you’re going to mis-hit some shots and end up in spots you don’t want to be in, and the way you handle that will determine the outcome of the tournament for sure.