| Brian, to get started, "Why
golf?" Because I am not very
big. I was a really good baseball
player, a good football player, and a
good basketball player. But I'm not a
tall guy, I cannot hit home runs, and
football really didn't work either. So
I ended up picking up golf.
Are there golfers in your family?
Not at all. So how did
you pick up golf? We live
on a golf course so I would go over
and hit balls. It started out as a
hobby but then I started getting
really interested in it. I would get
golf magazines and read them. Then I
noticed some local 9-hole tournaments
and I didn't think those players were
very good so I entered and the first
event I shot 34 and won by 6
shots. Do you now play high
school golf? Yes it's a
spring season and most of the really
good players in Georgia play high
school tournaments. How
about your family? Any brothers or
sisters? Yes, I have a
younger brother, he's 14.
How about other sports that you play?
I play basketball with my
friends, throw the football around and
play some pick-up games, but nothing
organized. I go fishing and hunting
alot with my Dad. We hunt deer and
boar and we do some blue water fishing
too. What's the largest fish
you have ever caught? We
were king fishing last year and I
caught a 12 foot hammerhead shark. I
fought it for two and a half
hours. What's the toughest
part of golf for you? Not
getting angry. I am a perfectionist
and I have to do everything that way.
But as it says in Rotella's book, golf
is not a game of perfect.
Have you read that book? Oh
yes, dozens of times. The toughest
part for me is not to get frustrated
with myself and not expecting so much
that it gets in my way. In basketball
there is no wind on a foul shot. Out
here it's hard dealing with all these
factors, dealing with which way is the
wind blowing, the rain, how wet is it,
how heavy the air is and what the ball
is going to do. If you watch
different personalities on the course
and the angry tempered players and you
say they are a 10, and the calm even
tempered players are a one, where was
Brian on that scale two years ago? And
where are you today?
I was
about an eight and now I'm about a
six. I still get mad on the golf
course. If you don't get mad on the
golf course then you don't care
enough. Either it was Snead or Hogan
who said "Show me a player who's never
broken a club and I'll show you
someone who is not a competitor." I
still get mad and slam a club in the
ground, but I don't break them. The
differance for me is that it use to
carry over to the next shot or next
holes. I have taught myself to make it
stop. I get
mad and it stops. I am able to calm
myself down and play the next shot. My
anger wasn't that bad in the past but
it was bad enough that it cost me a
few tournaments. Did you
figure that out yourself?
Yes. I would look back at a tournament
and see where I had missed a three
foot putt or three-putted because I
let a bad shot carry over and then see
where I had lost the tournament by a
shot. Just a young temper.
Young temper ! ?
Yeah...young temper. Was
your loss in the 2002 US Junior Am a
tough loss and did you carry it with
you to last summer's Junior Am as
motivation? Yes. I don't
love to win as much as I hate to lose.
Whenever I lose or blow it in a
tournament it makes me want to go back
the next year and play that much
harder. I didn't make the cut in the
Polo in 2002, but this year I came
back much more determined and I won.
Every tournament where I had a tough
loss I came back and won. Greensboro,
Polo, US Junior AM. Even though I did
not get into the 2002 Thunderbird I
thought I should have, so when I went
last year, I was also determined to
show I belonged there. I wasn't that
angry but I did have a "I'll show
them" feeling about it. (Brian won the
2003 Thunderbird) It's kinda the
satisfaction to show people that you
can. If we asked your
friends about you what would they say?
I'm pretty intense on the
golf course but around my friends I'm
a pretty "laid back" guy. I don't get
mad
and I try to be friends with
everyone. Is your swing self-
taught or are there a good many
lessons in the swing. I take
lessons every once in a while from
Jack Lumpkin at Sea Island. He keeps
an eye on what I'm doing, but he never
really changes anything.
What does a regular practice week look
like and practice before a tournament
look like? I leave school in
the afternoon and go to the course and
hit balls and chip and putt almost
every day. I belong to a lighted par-3
and driving range that I might use a
couple of days before a tournament and
I have a net at home I hit into. I'm
not really stressed about my golf
game. I know when I need to practice
and when I need to take it
easy. You mentioned you have
read "Golf Is Not A Game of Perfect".
Rotella talks about composure,
concentration, and confidence. Tell as
about Brian Harman in all three of
those. Well as I said I keep
some composure but I am not one of the
front-runners for composure keeping.
I'm not as good an example as I should
be. But I'm working on it. As for
confidence, I do have a lot of
confidence. Growing up teaching myself
the game I know that coming down to
the last two or three holes and I'm
tied or one shot down, I know that I
know my swing better than anyone else.
So coming down the stretch, I know
where my ball is going and that
knowledge has given me a big
advantage. Concentration... I keep a
good focus during the round but I also
like to think about other things too
to help relax. Final
question, Brian. What do you like
about the game the most? It
may sound really selfish but I like
getting all the credit when I win.
When I played baseball, I could go 0
for 3, make three errors and the team
still won. But that didn't make me
feel great.
And when I pitched five innings of
three hit ball and lost the game 1-0,
then that was no good either. When I
play a golf tournament and I win, it's
self assuring that "I did it". And
when I play bad and lose, I did that
too. It's cut and dry. That's
it. Brian, thanks for your
time and sharing with us.
You're welcome, I enjoyed it.
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