Former British Open champion Brian Harman ends his season with a heavy heart as a close family friend remains in a coma from a near drowning while trying to save the golfer’s 6-year-old son.
Harman had gone to the Macao Open last month when his wife took their children and family friend Cathy Dowdy to Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, for a vacation. He said his son was on a boogie board when he was ripped out to sea by a rip current.
He said Dowdy went into the ocean after the child and couldn’t reach him when she began to struggle in the abnormally strong current. Harman said another man, Crane Cantrell, saw what was happening and went in to help.
“He makes it out fine, Cathy (is) injured really badly in the water,” Harman said Tuesday at the RSM Classic. “She’s been in a coma for going on six weeks now and so obviously our world down here was kind of turned on its head.”
The St. Johns Citizen reported a lifeguard pulled Dowdy from the water and performed life-saving measures until medical help arrived.
Harman was asked about his offseason, the new eligibility on the PGA Tour, even the five steps of making sausage. He brought up Dowdy at the end of his news conference, mainly to bring awareness and to ask for prayers.
“I don’t really know what I wanted to kind of say other than I wanted to use whatever platform I have to bring awareness to what Cathy did, what Crane did,” Harman said. “They disregarded themselves, went into the water, saved my son and how do you thank people like that? I don’t know other than to just say what you think.
“I think that bravery and doing something like that for people who aren’t your blood is just the most beautiful thing you can do in this life.”
Sergio and the Ryder Cup
Sergio Garcia has taken the first step toward taking part in another Ryder Cup.
Garcia, among the original players to bolt for Saudi-funded LIV Golf, resigned from the European tour when a British tribunal ruled the tour had the right to issue fines and suspensions. Garcia did not pay his fines and was not eligible for tour events.
Wanting one more crack, especially with close friend Luke Donald at the helm again as European captain, Garcia beat the Sunday deadline to apply for membership for 2025.
“He has paid his fines but will have to serve his suspensions before he can play on the DP World Tour,” a tour spokesman said.
Garcia still has top status from winning the Masters in 2017.
The Spaniard would match Lee Westwood and Bernhard Langer for most Ryder Cups if he gets on his 11th team. Rejoining the tour was a start. Now Garcia, who turns 45 in January, has to deliver on the course.
He tied for 12th in the U.S. Open this year. His only top 10 outside of LIV Golf was a tie for fifth in Oman in early 2023.
Money matters
Nelly Korda won another major, tied an LPGA record by winning five straight starts and already has clinched her first award as LPGA player of the year.
What’s left at the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship? A chance to break Lorena Ochoa’s record for most earnings in a season set in 2007.
Korda, coming off her seventh win, has earned $4,164,430, leaving her $200,565 away from breaking Ochoa’s record. That would require finishing fifth or better at Tiburon Golf Club.
Then again, everyone in the 60-player field can break Ochoa’s mark. CME has provided an $11 million purse, with $4 million going to the winner.
Lydia Ko nearly broke the mark two years ago, coming up short by $591.
Ochoa won the season finale in 2007 for her eighth win of the year, including a major. First place at the Tour Championship was a mere $1 million. Total prize money for the year was just over $54 million, about half of what it is now.
Golf’s Divide
The divided landscape in golf will be evident again next month.
The Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas on Dec. 5-8 has a 20-man field that features Scottie Scheffler, Patrick Cantlay, Tony Finau, Ludvig Aberg and Wyndham Clark.
The same week is the Saudi International with a field that includes Dustin Johnson, Sergio Garcia, Tyrrell Hatton, Cameron Smith, Joaquin Niemann and Patrick Reed. They are among 19 players from LIV Golf expected to play.
Of course, the year ends with a made-for-TV match in Las Vegas — Scheffler and Rory McIlroy against Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau, a battle between the PGA Tour and LIV.
British Open tune-up for LIV
LIV Golf has only announced nine tournaments on its 2025 schedule, but any hope by Jon Rahm and Cameron Smith of a better tune-up for the British Open will have to wait.
For the second straight year, LIV will be at Valderrama in Spain a week before going to Royal Portrush.
Smith missed the cut this year at Royal Troon as the defending champion.
“It was really two polar opposites of golf,” Smith told News.com in Australia. “It was really hot (in Spain), the ball was going a long way up in altitude, and then getting on to links where it’s quite cold and windy, it’s probably not the best prep.”
Smith wasn’t sure that could change for 2025 but “in the future it’s something that we want to do.”
Rahm tied for seventh at Troon, eight shots out of the lead.
“I didn’t think about it until after (the Open), but it’s undeniable how much it helps to play a links golf course the week before the Open,” Rahm told Golf Digest.
He said he realized just moving an event could be complicated, but he at least wanted to rally the other LIV golfers.
Thitikul’s prize
Jeeno Thitikul of Thailand withdrew from The Annika last week. That made her ineligible to win the Vare Trophy for the lowest scoring average because she would not have enough rounds. Thitikul did not start her LPGA season until April because of a thumb injury.
The upside: She locked up the Aon Risk Reward Challenge, which comes with a $1 million bonus.
The program identifies one hole per tournament that involves risk, typically a reachable par 5. Scores are kept throughout the year, and Thitikul beat out Ruoning Yin. The Thai was 27-under par on the Aon risk-reward holes she played.
She is the fifth winner of the award.
Divots
Edoardo Molinari, an assistant Ryder Cup captain who played in the 2010 matches, led 21 players who made it through Q-school to earn a European tour card. Also earning a card was British Amateur champion Jacob Skov Olesen of Denmark. … Kevin Kisner tied for 29th at the Bermuda Championship, his best result since a tie for 29th two years ago in the RSM Classic at Sea Island. … Jason Day is playing the Australian PGA Championship this week, his first competition since the Presidents Cup at the end of September.
Stat of the week
In the last two weeks, Cameron Smith tied for third in the Queensland PGA Championship and tied for second in the New South Wales Open on the PGA Tour of Australasia. After each finish, he dropped one spot in the world ranking.
Final word
“Best week of my life.” — Rafael Campos, who at 36 won his first PGA Tour title just six days after his wife gave birth to their first child.
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