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One club wiggled.
Then another.
and another.
and another. and another. and another. and another. and another. and another. and another. and another. and another. Twelve teams in total, over the course of about 20 seconds on Saturday at Match 12 at Royal Liverpool, swing then swing. Then some ideas. The sequence was broadcast on Sky Sports Captured by Twitter account @ukgolfguy Commented on – Share it and comment on it.
“Wow, that’s Sergio-esque,” said analyst Nick Dougherty, referring to Sergio Garcia, who is well known for rocking his club.
It wasn’t a one-off either. During the third round of the Open Championship, the action (or movements) popped out before the shots, and you could almost hear the observers’ keyboards:
What does Brian Harman do in the name of King Charles III?
Of course, it was said with a few more adjectives and adverbs.
But before we delve any deeper, know this, too: Harman is your 54-hole leader in the World Open, and by a whopping five strokes at the time. So the man must have some runway to do as he feels required to put the ball in the hole. For the most part. No one will argue that it’s hard on the eyes. Golf also has concerns with slow play, and bobbing muddying the proceedings.
So what does it give? Can’t you just, you know, wiggle it once? Prepare, Aim, Shoot pro Brooks Koepka will tell you so.
But that is.
On the NBC broadcast, analyst Brad Faxon said the same thing. Notably, Harman has been doing this for a while, including on the courts. On Saturday’s 17th Green, for example, his routine on a 3-foot putt included eight phantom hits behind the ball.
Then made.
“It reminds me a little [tennis star] “Novak Djokovic when he does all these jerks and looks,” Faxon said. “He just takes his time until he’s ready. That’s what a routine is supposed to do.”
Colt Nost said a lot, too.
He is a longtime professional and an American Amateur winner. Today, he’s an analyst at CBS and host of GOLF’s Subpar podcast, among many other assignments. And on Saturday afternoon, he weighed in on Twitter, too.
“The target’s look counts and the jiggling motions will be fun to watch tomorrow with Harman,” he wrote. “When he’s uncomfortable it gets worse!”
I wanted to know more, so I emailed him.
Hey Colt! Just saw your tweet on Harman and the club waggle, so I’m curious for your thoughts, if you have a second.
Why would the player do that?
“And what do you think when you see it on the course or on the broadcast?”
“It’s just a neurological sign,” Knost wrote. “Some guys go faster. Some go slower and do all the jerks and looks. Others back off a lot.
“Squeeze ab–!”
And there were ideas from Justin Parsons.
It’s a Harman trainer. He’s well versed in all things golf swing, and a Top 100 GOLF instructor. He’s also in Hoylake this week, and I texted him at 8:45 p.m. his time, two hours after Harman finished his third round 69.
“Hi Justin! Congratulations on the strong play this week. If you have a second, I have a question for Brian. I was wondering – what did he think of the pre-shoot routine? There is chatter that it’s a bit long, but it also seems helpful to me. But I’m curious about your thoughts! Good luck to the team tomorrow.”
“Very aware of the matter and the thing he’s working on, he doesn’t pull the trigger until he’s ready.”
We’ll end things this way:
I sent again another question.
“Do you think this can help in a scenario like tomorrow, to get him in a good place amidst leading pressure?”
“Yeah – he’s in a good place mentally.”