Brian Harman won The 2023 Open Championship in grand style. He held a lead throughout the tournament, so there wasn’t much drama at Royal Liverpool Golf Club on Sunday. Harman was simply destined to take home his first major championship. Nobody else could get to within an arm’s reach of him from bell to bell.
It was an impressive feat for Harman to pull off, but while it’s not something he should be concerned about, it might not have been so viewer-friendly. So, NBC had to have felt compelled to do something to jar some interest. Or at least have a little fun.
As Harman went to hit his shot, the network displayed something humorous at his expense: A waggle counter.
https://twitter.com/GolfonCBS/status/1683130740622368768
Harman, in his warmup, waggled quite a few times! The tracker picked up over a dozen waggles that came before his shot, 13 to be precise. And it didn’t seem like the waggling deterred him at all in claiming this British Open title.
The reaction to the waggle counter? On the whole, a lot of laughter emerged from Twitter.
I'm going to go ahead and claim credit for the NBC Waggle Counter graphic on Brian Harman. Sue me. https://t.co/IWfWRwWJiU
— Pat Forde (@ByPatForde) July 23, 2023
https://twitter.com/PGATUOR/status/1683131779748708353
The Open is so funny because on one hand it’s all about the history and tradition of the game and on the other hand they always have hilarious stats like “this is the first man named Cameron to ever win a major” and a waggle counter going
— claire rogers (@kclairerogers) July 23, 2023
Waggle counter is electric pic.twitter.com/8hGSGB3JBb
— Playmaker Betting (@playmakerbet) July 23, 2023
With the tournament now wrapped up, Harman’s dominance of the event will be talked about plenty. But on Sunday morning and afternoon, golf fans at least got a chuckle out of the proceedings. Few were able to contend with Brian Harman while he was on the chase for the trophy. So, at least laughter was had with the waggle counter.
