There are people in every pro golfer’s inner circle who privately mourn the losses and setbacks and celebrate the triumphs. Some do it more privately than others. In the case of golf instructor Claude Harmon III, he grabbed the microphone presented him with both hands and belted out his thoughts on numerous fronts after his pupil, Brooks Koepka, won the 105th PGA Championship on Sunday.

Speaking to Golfweek during the final round and after it, Harmon let loose on his perceptions about the greatness of Koepka, Brooks’ treatment by the media and the ongoing battle between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf — the latter of which Koepka became a member in 2022 after he initially and publicly pledged his allegiance to tour on which he’d previously spent his entire career.

For Claude Harmon, the son of renowned instructor Butch, Koepka’s PGA triumph was his eighth as a coach — five with Koepka, two with Dustin Johnson and one with Ernie Els. Harmon has never been shy about sharing his opinion, and he’s done it for a living as a Sky Sports commentator and host of his own podcast.

In gushing out his opinions to Golfweek, it was as if Harmon was waiting for the perfect opportunity to go off. It doesn’t get much better than your guy winning his fifth major to become the 20th all-time to reach that mark.

CH3 (Claude Harmon lll) is awesome. His dad is too and should be in the Hall of Fame already. Great read. He holds nothing back, just like his father. https://t.co/aKtY3ixan8

— Phil Mickelson (@PhilMickelson) May 24, 2023

“There couldn’t be anyone that got more grief for doing the LIV thing than Brooks,” said Harmon, though Phil Mickelson might disagree. “He got a big dose of the anti-LIV hate. And he got a big dose of: ‘He’s a bum, he’s washed up.’ Listen, he’s a generational talent. He’s not like everyone else. Brooks is Aaron Rodgers. He’s a franchise quarterback in the NFL. In other sports terms, he’s a starting pitcher who just threw another no hitter, won another World Series, won another Cy Young. That’s who he is. He’s a player. He’s Kevin Durant. He’s one of those athletes that everybody in sports is saying get him on my team I don’t care how much I have to pay to get him. That’s the type of athlete he is … ”

Harmon contends Koepka’s victory “goes a long way to debunking the LIV myth, which is ‘everybody got paid, you’re not going to care, and if you get paid, you’re going to phone it in’. Nobody thinks that way with Lamar Jackson, with Dak Prescott, with the NBA. Why is golf different? Why do we want golf to be not like everything else? That’s what I fundamentally don’t get.

“In 2023, we still want golf to be this [expletive] ‘Truman Show’. We want this Deane Beman-Tim Finchem: ‘We’re not the NBA or NFL for our sponsors.’ There’s no transparency, nobody has any issues, nobody has any problems and if they do, we’re not going to talk about it, we’re going to pretend it doesn’t exist. It’s the ‘Truman Show’. It’s ‘Leave it to Beaver’. And that’s not the reality.”

Harmon took rips at the media as a whole and NBC and Golf Channel commentator Brandel Chamblee and Golfweek columnist Earmon Lynch — both of whom have been strongly opposed to LIV.

“Brandel is a paid actor by NBC and Golf Channel,” Harmon told Golfweek. “All he’s trying to do is get his lines and shows for the Golf Channel. He’s just trying to get lines for Brandel … And I mean, I love him, I think Eamon is a fantastic writer, but for Eamon Lynch and Brandel Chamblee, who worked for NBC Golf Channel, to utter the words ‘sports washing’ when the company they work for televised the last two Winter Olympics in Russia and China with the same leaders that they’ve had. It’s not like they were good leaders back then. It’s not like Putin was a good guy, right?”

Harmon insisted that he wants to see LIV succeed because he thinks golfers should get guaranteed money that is commensurate with their talent, and cited one of LIV’s biggest detractors.

“I don’t think Rory McIlroy should go anywhere in the world without somebody paying him, including Memphis and Memorial,” Harmon said. “That’s how good he is. Jon Rahm, Scottie Scheffler, if you’re in that category, you shouldn’t be going anywhere without being paid because it’s how good you are.”

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By Matt Smith
I have been out here at many LIV Golf events and the first thing that strikes you is it feels like a family.

A lot of people regard it as a travelling circus with its shotgun starts and it is easy to dismiss. I find it interesting that many people who are ‘anti-LIV’ have never bothered to come down to an event, to any of the tournaments, and experience it for themselves. They think that when the players and the guys involved say how much they love it out here it is just lip-service. 

It is not. 

As I said, it feels like a family. Unlike a normal event on the PGA Tour, LIV guys on a team — everyone is together: they leave the hotel together, travel together, get to the course together, eat together, practise on the range together before each round. Thanks to the shotgun start and the unity, everything is a constant right down to signing your cards at the same time, even if you are different groups. The feeling is a lot of camaraderie. 

It is something I have never felt before and many player will have never felt before. 

It is alien to the lone-wolf mentality of many players — guys like Dustin Johnson, Ian Poulter, Sergio Garcia, Phil Mickelson: they got great by being lone wolves. But now as team captains, you see this whole different side to them as they watch the leaderboard to see how their guys are getting on and, if they get a chance, sit out on the course and watch their teammates finish off, like we saw in the late-finishing play-offs in Bangkok and Jeddah.

The structure and the way everyone is treated — I am just a coach, not even a player — it makes you feel you are part of something. The coach, the manager, the caddie, when the team goes out to eat once a week, it is for everyone. They are all part of a team, a family.

I don’t think people realise how serious the team captains take the team element of the competition. Many think it is all just about the money. 

It is fun to be a part of. I have been lucky enough to be involved with players on the Ryder Cup and it is always fun to be involved in weeks like that where players come together as a group. That is week in, week out on LIV Golf. 

I have spent 20 years on the PGA and on the European Tour, and it is hard to get players to agree on some things. Here on the LIV tour it is so inclusive, it makes the players feel like they are part of something. 

In all my time I have never bought any PGA or European Tour merchandise. Here, I have. Before I had bought nothing with a logo on it as a coach as I never felt part of it, but now I do. 

I fundamentally do not understand the PGA Tour feud. If this is where you want to play, that is your choice to make. I am good with that. If you want to play on the PGA Tour, I don’t have a problem with that either. I just don’t get the animosity and why it has become so political. No other sport is like this. 

If you are a viewer and prefer the PGA, go for it. That’s OK. But every player should have the right to play where they want and earn as much money for their family as they can.

If Rory [McIlroy] gets an invitation from another organisation to play, he has earned that right. He has earned the right to make as much money as possible. I don’t get how the 48 players on LIV are the only ones who don’t get that right. 

The quality on LIV is unreal, too. I have worked with DJ [Dustin Johnson] for a decade and he says he is playing the best golf of his career right now. 

Players like Cam Smith? If there was a major tomorrow, Cam, DJ, Brooks Koepka, they would all be in with a chance to win it.

And the field will be stronger in 2023 as they will get Bubba Watson back playing following his recovery from knee injury. I expect to see him out on the course next year and also at the Saudi International.

There may be a narrative that the quality of golf on LIV is poor, but there is no dip.

If a player signs for Manchester United and gets paid a lot more money, they don’t go down in form. They are not phoning it in. They are delivering like the guys out here.

These guys, the ones who are winning, they would be winning on the PGA Tour. It will be exciting to see what happens. The PGA will continue, of course, but now there is an alternative and that is exciting. 

Claude Harmon III was speaking at the LIV Golf Jeddah event at Royal Greens Golf Club in Saudi Arabia, and is one of the world’s top golf coaches, looking after players such as Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson and Bubba Watson

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It’s a problem I see with club golfers everywhere. In an effort to get the ball into the air, they hang back away from the golf ball, leave their weight on their trail leg which inevitably leads to major contact issues. If you regularly hit fat or thin shots, it could be the problem.

A great drill to help you get into a better impact position and through the ball is to try the step through drill. This can be done in three very simple steps:
1. Start with your feet together and get into a set up position
2. As you bring the club back to impact, take a step towards the target and finish the swing
3. Make sure to finish on your lead side facing the target

This drill will help you create separation between your upper and lower body while also allowing you to transfer your weight correctly from the trail foot to your lead foot in the follow through.

Onto the Course
This drill is great for the driving range or out on the course during a practice round. For those looking to take this out onto the fairways, incorporate it into your pre-shot routine by making a practice swing without a ball. Try to get the feeling of the correct weight transfer before you execute the shot.

[divider] [/divider]

Claude Harmon III is in the vanguard of the new generation of golf teachers. Steeped in tradition both his grandfather, Claude Harmon and father Claude “Butch” Harmon Jr., have been the dominant teachers of their generation.

The post Claude Harmon III’s simple impact drill appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Matthew Rudy
Brooks Koepka has some work to do to defend a bucketload of 2019 points falling off his World Golf Ranking. He’ll undertake the job without the swing coach who was with him from his earliest days on the European Challenge Tour, in 2013, through four major championships.

Harmon confirmed on Monday an earlier report by Golfweek that he and Koepka had split.

“Brooks let me know the Wednesday after the Masters [in November] he was going in a different direction,” says Claude Harmon III, the Golf Digest 50 Best Teacher who started with Koepka when he was fresh out of Florida State. “When we first met, I asked him what his goals were. He said he wanted to be No.1 in the world, win multiple majors and play for the U.S.A in Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup teams. I’m proud I was part of the team that helped him achieve those goals.”

Koepka won three times on the Challenge Tour in 2013, then again as a European Tour rookie in 2014. He won his first PGA Tour event in Phoenix in 2015, then went back-to-back in the U.S. Open (2017-18) and PGA Championship (2018-19).

But 2020 was an injury-riddled struggle, with hip and knee problems limiting him to 13 starts and two top-10s. Koepka is ranked 12th in the world, but his 2019 PGA and Fed-Ex St. Jude Invitational win points (and those he got for seconds at the Masters and U.S. Open) fall off this year and will need to be replaced. Jordan Spieth fell from second to 91st in just over two seasons when he failed to follow up his three wins in 2017, and Rickie Fowler has fallen from 11th to 61st in the same span.

“Brooks is an unbelievable player and great champion, and extremely talented,” says Harmon, who helped Dustin Johnson to the 2020 Masters title and watched student Si Woo Kim win The American Express on Sunday. “As devastating as it is to have it happen, I’m so grateful for what he did for me and my family. Me, [caddie] Ricky Elliott, [physical therapist] Marc Wahl, the whole crew, it was like we were a band of brothers. That’s hard to not be a part of. He has to do what’s best for his career, and I know he’ll be fine.”

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By Matthew Rudy
Rory McIlroy wasn’t able to join the elite group of players who have won golf’s career Grand Slam, but another rare slam was completed on Sunday at the Masters. Claude Harmon III joined his father, Butch, David Leadbetter, Hank Haney, Pete Cowen and Jack Grout as the only coaches to have worked with players as they won each of the four major championships.

Dustin Johnson’s victory joined Brooks Koepka’s two U.S. Opens and PGAs and Ernie Els’ 2012 Open Championship on Harmon’s supervisory shelf—and the circumstances surrounding it might have made it the most meaningful. Harmon endured two separate 14-day quarantines—after student Brooks Koepka’s caddie, Ricky Elliott, tested positive for COVID-19 in June, then again after Johnson tested positive last month. That compressed preparation for Augusta into two weeks—two weeks to get back to the form that had seen Johnson win the Northern Trust and Tour Championship (and the FedEx Cup with it) and to recapture the World No. 1 ranking.

RELATED: Dustin Johnson’s play in 2020 redefines his golf legacy

“From a pandemic to Brooks’ injury early in the season to being on lockdown from Players to Colonial to travelling non-stop every week, it’s just been a crazy year,” said Harmon. “We all have had to adapt, and you have to make the most of the situation you’re dealt.”

Johnson shook off rust the previous week in Houston, tying for second, and came into the Masters a bit under the radar, as so much of the focus was on U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau. “You never say COVID is a good thing, but DJ came into Houston fresh mentally and physically from the time off,” Harmon said. “He was rusty on Thursday, but had good practice Friday and Saturday, and good practice early in the week in Augusta. He plays on confidence. Form is a huge thing for him. He felt—and all of us around him, A.J. [his caddie and brother], Joey D [Diovisalvi, his trainer] felt—that it wouldn’t be a surprise if he had an opportunity on Sunday.”

Masters week was peak Dustin Johnson. He set a tournament scoring record (20 under), another record for fewest bogeys (four), and tied a third for most greens hit (60). Cameron Smith got as close as two shots early on Sunday, but the outcome was never really in doubt. “Adam Scott told me something at Boston that sums up DJ pretty well—nobody makes the game look as easy as he does,” Harmon said. “What I saw last week was the result of five years of hard work. He’s a complete player now. He drives the s— out of it. His iron game is underrated. He’s done so much with his wedge game and short game. And he and A.J. are one of the best—if not the best—on tour in how they work together, make decisions and read greens.

RELATED: 15 Things You Need To Know About Dustin Johnson

Harmon thinks that the Masters win could set off a Mickelsonian run of mid-30s major championships for Johnson and said he’s looking forward to helping extend that run however he can.

“To be a part of the team behind DJ last week, and to know his name is going to be on the same trophy as my grandfather—that’s so gratifying,” said Harmon, who was taking Monday off before picking up his regular schedule of member lessons at The Floridian in Palm City, Fla.

“To see A.J. crying on the 18th green and DJ hugging him, I know the hard work that went into that. Lead[better], my dad, Hank—they’re icons of coaching. To be able to do something they did? And to be out here on tour with coaches like Cameron McCormick, Mark Blackburn, Mike Bender and Sean Foley, and younger guys like Drew Steckel? I’m proud to have success in this little sliver of the golf world, and I’m proud to be a part of the modern game.”

RELATED: Dustin Johnson’s emotional (seriously) interview wound up being the best part of Masters Sunday

The post Dustin Johnson made history at the Masters. So did his coach appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Christopher Powers
The 2019 Masters was one of the great “what-if” editions of the tournament in recent memory (though aren’t they all?). What if Francesco Molinari, Brooks Koepka and Tony Finau all didn’t rinse their tee shots on No. 12? What if Patrick Cantlay didn’t make back-to-back bogeys at 16 and 17? What if Xander Schauffele made birdie at the 15th? What if Dustin Johnson’s putt dropped at the 18th? We could do this all day.

Apparently, the best “what-if” of all is one we didn’t even know about, and it almost occurred on the par-5 15th on Sunday. There, Koepka had great look at eagle, one that would have gotten him 13 under with three to play had it dropped. If it did, we would have witnessed a content moment for the ages, according to Koepka. Speaking to his coach, Claude Harmon III, on Instagram Live on Wednesday afternoon, Koepka explained his plan, while simultaneously daggering his caddie Ricky Elliott.

“On 15 I convinced Ricky I was going to make the putt,” Koepka said. “You kind of know when it’s going in. He’s such a bad reader of greens anyway, the guy can’t read a putt. I never ask, because he can’t. He’s a great putter, too, that’s the funny part, but we just can’t match speed and line.

“But I remember saying to him ‘I’m going to point at Tiger if I make this thing.’ And still to this day I cannot believe that putt missed. I have no idea how.”

The entire golf world was pretty pleased with the eventual outcome of the 2019 Masters, but everyone would be lying if they said they wouldn’t have enjoyed this moment. The GIFs. My god, the GIFs. We almost wish Koepka hadn’t told this story, thus implanting one of the greatest coulda-shoulda-woulda content moments in all of our brains. By the way, if you go back and look at that eagle putt, we’re not sure how it missed either.

Koepka was in peak Koepka form his entire Q&A with Harmon, which you should absolutely watch while it’s still up on Harmon’s Instagram page if you have the time. If you don’t, we jotted down some of the highlights for your reading pleasure.

On his no drinking challenge
“I did 30 days of no drinking. It did not last 31. I’m not going to lie, I’m pretty hungover today. But I haven’t felt this good in a long time. Knee feels good, body feels good.”

On Brandel Chamblee and whether he’d go out to dinner with him if asked
“Hell no. Yeah, that’s a definite no. Last year at the Open, we had to hop in a golf cart with him, and I was like ‘you want to get out and I’ll sit there?’ He didn’t say anything.”

On rewatching the 2019 Masters on Easter
“I was over at my dad’s, and he’s a massive sports guy, massive golf guy. So obviously, we had to watch Augusta, right? I’m watching my tee shot on 12 go in the water and I think what people don’t realize was, I was two back of Frankie (Francesco Molinari), so I still have to make a move. You’re never aiming for that pin, you’re always aiming for the right side of that bunker. I backed off the shot right before, because when I stepped in I felt the wind puff into or off the left or something, and then it was completely different than it was two seconds before that. And as we back off I remember thinking, ‘Well, all right, maybe it needs to be flighted a little more,’ and I thought I did it. Look, I hit a great shot, I wouldn’t take it back. In the air I was loving it and thinking I was going to make a birdie, this is your chance. And then it didn’t pitch on the green.

“I didn’t complain, I don’t know if there’s video, but I handed the club right back to Rick and I waited a couple of seconds because I didn’t want to let [Ian] Poulter and Webb [Simpson] know how the hole was playing. It’s not mind games, but it kind of is. It takes away a lot of the senses if a guy comes out and says ‘I hit it bad.’ If you don’t say anything at all, now he’s thinking ‘How did the contact sound? How did everything go?’ and now there’s a bit of uncertainty, which is the one thing you don’t want on No. 12 at Augusta. I think I whispered to Rick after Poulter hit that I hit it exactly how I wanted, and then I think there was a few curse words as we walked down toward the water.”

On his first pick of whom to play with if Ryder Cup captain Steve Stricker gave him the choice
“Matthew Wolff. Love that kid.”

On Adam Scott
“I have the biggest man crush on Scotty ever. I love Scotty, he was my idol. Genuinely one of the nicest humans I’ve ever been around.”

On Patrick Reed
“His short game is a joke. I don’t think people realise how good of a wedge player he is around the greens. I’ll never forget, we’re playing Charlotte a few years ago. It’s me, Tiger and him, and he had this shot where I thought there was no chance he could get it within 15 feet And he hits it to kick-in, literally. And I’m like ‘oh my god.’ And Tiger even said to me ‘I don’t understand?’ He’s that good.

On his comments about Reed cheating
“That’s been super misconstrued. Just because I said I thought he cheated. But at the same time, that’s the guy I’d love to play Ryder Cup matches with. People are obviously going to give him sh-t, but I could care less. If people got in his face, I’d be right there; he wouldn’t need Kessler [Karain, Reed’s caddie].”

The post Brooks Koepka wanted to point at Tiger after making a putt at the Masters last year (but he missed) appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Matthew Rudy
If Brandel Chamblee was looking for an outlet to relieve some of his virus-induced social isolation this week, he found it.

The Golf Channel commentator used a two-part Golfweek interview to light golf coaches on fire, claiming (among other things) that “teachers are being exposed for their idiocy,” and that the flawed teaching philosophies permeating PGA Tour practice areas are ending more careers than they help. He proceeded to say that the teachers spreading those philosophies are being “bitch-slapped by reality” and the wisdom of crowds on social media and YouTube. “There it is. You’re wrong and they’re right.”

The airing of grievances continued with a dismissive wave at Golf Digest’s 50 Best Teachers list, as Chamblee continued: “I go look up all their players and then see are they better or worse? I go online, I look at their ideas and some of them crack me up.” He had a specific takedown of Jordan Spieth and his coach, Cameron McCormick, and Rickie Fowler for his decision to start working with a new coach in John Tillery.

Claude Harmon III falls into the former category, having handled the week-to-week tour work with Fowler for three years in tandem with his father, Butch Harmon. The younger Harmon said he admires Chamblee’s television skills but dismissed the wave of anti-instructor comments as a wrestling-style storyline designed to produce heat and attention.

“I worked at Sky TV for four years doing what Brandel does, and it’s brutal how hard that job is,” says Harmon, who coaches Brooks Koepka. “Brandel is a television character. He’s an actor. He has a role he performs, and he does a great job at it. Brandel is a thinker, and he does a lot of research. He’s 100 percent entitled to his opinions. But when it comes to talking about the swing and about golf instruction, it’s hard to take him seriously. He doesn’t give lessons, or have a body of work to evaluate.”

Chamblee was pointed and specific in his critique of Spieth’s swing, comparing video of swings from 2015 and today, and essentially calling teaching malpractice on McCormick for what Chamblee characterised as balance issues in Spieth’s swing.

“Why would his teacher tell him to change that? Why? He’s either being told to do that or whoever’s watching him doesn’t see that he’s doing that,” said Chamblee. “That would take two seconds to fix.”

McCormick declined to comment on the critical remarks, but Claude Harmon said Chamblee’s volley reminded him of last April, when Chamblee torched Koepka ahead of the Masters for changing his body to prepare for an ESPN photoshoot.

“It takes two minutes to call somebody’s agent to reach out, or, better yet, to walk over to Brooks or to me or to anybody else on a practice range and say what you want to say or ask questions to get some more information. Or, you can sit at 35,000 feet and criticize,” says Harmon. “The Spieth stuff? The problem is that I never see Brandel in the world I live in. Gary Koch comes and stands on the range for hours, just watching. And if he thinks he’s going to talk about a player, he asks questions so he can get details and context. The only time I’ve even seen Brandel at a tour event is in a cart, getting driven back and forth from the media compound.”

Harmon wasn’t the only teacher to bristle at Chamblee’s characterizations. Michael Breed started his SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio show on Thursday with a fastball high and tight, calling Chamblee’s comments sour grapes for his own shortcomings as a player. “What you’re really hearing is a guy who was frustrated he didn’t perform at the level he thought he should have performed at,” said Breed. “And it has to be somebody’s fault. It can’t be mine, so it has to be a coach or a teacher. Maybe you just weren’t that good.”

Chamblee has been outspoken about how “modern” golf instruction has robbed players of the natural athleticism they could be using to play better—and has said he was one of those victims—dropping off the PGA Tour in the early 2000s after almost a decade of consistently good play and one victory. It led to him writing his 2016 book, The Anatomy of Greatness, in which he said amateurs would be better off modelling what historical champions did instead of blindly following modern swing theories.

Tour coach Terry Rowles says Chamblee obscured the truth in some of what he said—that players can be hurt by ineffective coaching—with uncharacteristically clumsy language. “I know Brandel enjoys classic literature, and I know he knows that words have power. It sounded like a generalized, ranting cheap shot,” says Rowles, who works with Aaron Baddeley.

“Do some players take too much? Yes. Do some coaches give too much? Yes. It’s hard to balance the give and take precisely all of the time. Humans are messy. The same information that saves one player would ruin the next. How does that fit in with what you would see on YouTube? Only somebody who has never coached would say it was all easy and obvious.”

That was where Harmon left it, too. “My job would be so much easier if I could just give opinions in a vacuum, but my opinions have consequences. His don’t,” Harmon said. “Brandel is in the opinion business. I’m in the results business.”

The post Brandel Chamblee’s latest inflammatory comments lead to pointed responses from top teachers appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

RELATED: How PGA Tour stars are quarantining

First, a look at the lefty cuts of JT and Rickie, who said he rallied on the back nine to shoot 94 and beat his buddy:

Rickie and JT’s lefty swings are ?.

(?: Instagram/@RickieFowler, @JustinThomas34) pic.twitter.com/wAyv45jCDB

— Golf Digest (@GolfDigest) March 20, 2020

The average weekend hack sees those swings—and even that score—and salivates. But Brooks just thought it was cute.

On Friday, Koepka’s swing coach, Claude Harmon, shared a couple videos of Koepka showing off his lefty swing, and, well, wow. Check it out:

Shots fired! @BKoepka @RickieFowler @JustinThomas34 pic.twitter.com/cmRLSbo6Hk

— Claude Harmon III (@claudeharmonIII) March 20, 2020

Look at those numbers! Koepka can carry an 8-iron 194 yards from the left side?! Does he even do that righty? You’re probably wondering, what about the driver? Glad you asked!

Bombs! @BKoepka @RickieFowler @JustinThomas34 pic.twitter.com/wEcj828knB

— Claude Harmon III (@claudeharmonIII) March 20, 2020

How about that 293-yard carry with the driver?! And as you can see by the shot dispersion chart, he’s not exactly spraying it off the tee. What a beast.

Koepka has often indicated he feels he gets a bit overlooked despite being a four-time major champ, so maybe his plan is to win major No. 5 from the opposite side to really stick it to everyone. For the time being, he seemed pretty content just sticking it to JT and Rick.

RELATED: Brooks Koepka doesn’t give a damn about your cancelled tournament

The post Brooks Koepka could probably win majors left-handed if these numbers are for real appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Matthew Rudy
The annual Pro-Member at The Floridian always has something to see—namely, the tour players and A-list celebrities who stuff the lineup at the exclusive club north of Palm Beach. Rickie Fowler is a staple at the event, but his partner was the one drawing more of the attention this past December.

Butch Harmon came in fit, happy and ready to share news that he had been contemplating for at least the last few years. The legendary instructor told his players—Fowler, Dustin Johnson, Jimmy Walker, Gary Woodland and Nick Watney—that 2018 was his last year teaching out on tour. He’d be enjoying his new-found “retirement” in Las Vegas working on his own game, headlining golf schools for high-rolling amateurs and helping the occasional tour player who comes to visit.

“I’m 75 years old. It’s time for me to work on my own game and just enjoy life,” said Harmon, who holed a chip on The Floridian’s 16th hole in front a squadron of spectator-filled carts to send one match to the next hole. “I’ve been traveling on tour for 35 years, and doing the majors for Sky TV for 23. That’s enough. I’m done. It was just the right time.”

The three most prominent of Harmon’s students have moved on, but they haven’t gone far. Three months into the 2019 season and on the eve of the year’s first major, Harmon’s son, Claude Harmon III, has taken over the main coaching role for Johnson, Fowler and Walker. Speaking to GolfDigest.com, Claude explained that he’s expanding on the work he has been doing with all three over the last few years, working alongside his father at The Floridian and as a regular presence on the road.

“A couple of years ago, my dad said this was coming, so I started spending more time week-to-week with DJ, Rickie and Jimmy,” said the younger Harmon, a Golf Digest 50 Best Teacher who comes with his own credentials, having taught Brooks Koepka since his days on the European Challenge Tour. “This year has been very similar to what I’ve been doing. We’re trying to do the same things my dad did, but maybe do them in a little different way. We’ve teamed up to keep things simple. I use some more technology than he did, and that’s different, but it can also help them look at things a little differently.”

Claude says he wants to build off the foundation his father, Butch, created when working with the likes of Johnson and Fowler. (David Cannon)

For Fowler, it has meant using 3D technology to measure progress in a change to his arm position in the backswing. With Johnson, it’s operating as a set of confirming eyes—“He’s more on auto-pilot from week-to-week”—while Walker is in the middle of rebuilding the confidence that made him a major winner in 2016.

The early results speak for themselves. Johnson won both the WGC-Mexico Championship and the Saudi International in February to go with five other top-10 finishes, and he took back the No. 1 ranking in the world from Justin Rose. Fowler won the Waste Management Phoenix Open and tied for second two weeks later at the Honda Classic. Walker continues to make strides from a debilitating bout with Lyme Disease and is back to playing a full schedule.

The transition appears to be going smoothly for the players, but it’s also come with an appreciation for what they had in the first place. “Butch is not going to be around you and put the time in if he doesn’t believe in what you’re capable of,” Fowler said. “Also, seeing the guys he’s been around and taught—some pretty good credentials. If you get accepted, it’s a confidence boost. He’s not going to take on a charity case. He’s going to take on players who have a chance to be great. Plus, you can’t help but have a good time around him. We have fun.”

Managing the games and schedules of a full roster of prominent players is first-world problem Claude III is excited to tackle. “I’m lucky that Jimmy and Rickie are good friends and play a lot of practice rounds together,” he said, “and that DJ and Brooks are good friends and play a lot together.”

Claude III knows his father set a high bar, just like Butch experienced with his own father—the original Claude Harmon won the 1948 Masters and had a 40-year career as a legendary club professional at Winged Foot and Seminole.

“My dad has taught two of the greatest players of all time [Tiger Woods and Greg Norman], along with so many other players, and nobody I’ve ever been around works harder,” said Claude III. “He’s never been afraid to get on guys when they need it, but he always knows what to say and what not to say. By force of will, he can make you believe—and that’s the secret sauce that’s hard to recreate. We’re talking about a guy who is on the Mount Rushmore of golf instructors. My job is to continue to be me and build on the foundation he established. I’m proud players would trust me to take over the day-to-day. That means a lot. I hope can make my dad proud and continue to help them with their games.”

It isn’t as though that “secret sauce” is disappearing completely. “Being home gives me time to spend with some of the young players who want to come out for a look,” said Butch, who will make one last appearance for Sky Sports at the Masters next month. “Danielle Kang is out here a lot, and Ollie Schniederjans has been out two or three times. When they come, they just pay my hourly rate—$1,500.”

Plus, the famously old-school teacher has embraced a bit of modern technology. “They all have phones with cameras, so when they need a look they text me videos,” Butch said. “The bottom line is, the guys can always have my help. That will never change.”

As in touch as Butch Harmon might be staying, some of those tour text messages might take a little longer to answer than before. Claude Harmon says he’s never seen his father hit the ball better, as evidenced by the heroics on display at The Floridian Cup. After all, he has the game’s most decorated teacher working on his swing full-time.

Las Vegas pigeons, beware.

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