ROYAL LIVERPOOL — Where are the Just Stop Brian protestors when you need them? A little unkind perhaps, yet reflective of the prevailing sentiment during the greater part of the day at Royal Liverpool, where thousands of sodden troopers had braved the soul-sapping drizzle hoping to be part of something other than a fanfare for the common man.

Try as they might, the combined power of leaderboard heavyweights Jon Rahm, Tommy Fleetwood and Rory McIlroy could not get close enough to derail the hunter-gatherer from America’s deep south. Brian Harman, all 5ft 7ins of him, is nobody’s idea of a leading man. In truly abominable conditions that turned out to be a virtue. Harman was just too damn mundane to get excited.

Sure there were a few wobbles along the way, but not sufficient for those in pursuit to track his scent and crack a five-shot, overnight advantage. A game built on greats like Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Ben Hogan, Bobby Jones et al, has led us into a distorted world view where every denouement comes with bells and whistles. So this was a victory for the little guy, the honest trier. A round of 70 saw him ease home on 13 under par to win by the biggest margin since Louis Oosthuizen in 2010, a whopping six shots clear of the field.

The Welsh hills framing the vista from Hoylake were barely visible across the Dee. The tidal sands, ordinarily a matt canvas when the tide is out, were shot through with rivulets of rainwater. Even the seagulls turned their backs on the day. Yet in this soggy hellscape did Harman become the third left-hander to win the Claret Jug, his putter doing the work of his arrows back home in Georgia. A total of 59 putts holed from inside 10 feet blew them all away.

The Open 2023 leaderboard

• 1st: Brian Harman (-13)
• T2: Sepp Straka, Jason Day, Tom Kim, Jon Rahm (-7)
• T6: Emiliano Grillo, Rory McIlroy (-6)
• T8: Cameron Young, Shubhankar Sharma (-5)
• T10: Matthew Jordan, Tommy Fleetwood, Max Homa (-4)

See the full leaderboard on TheOpen.com

Golf insiders will tell you Harman’s form was tracking. Twelfth in Scotland last week, ninth at the Rocket Mortgage Classic – they are all Classics – the week prior and second at the Travelers Championship at the end of June. Some were paying attention. One smart cookie inside the media tent took each way odds of 200-1 and toasted his win with a four-figured smile.

Harman had clearly learned from his experience at the US Open six years ago when he led by one going into the last round at Mamaroneck, shot level par and watched Brooks Koepka win by four. Protected by a five-shot lead at Royal Liverpool, Harman knew par golf would be likely to pay dividends.

And so it proved. McIlroy birdied three on the spin on the outward nine, but starting nine back could never get close enough to apply pressure. Once again McIlroy was left to rue a sluggish start. Each day got progressively better but giving up four shots to Harman on day one left him in Sisyphus territory, pushing uphill towards an unreachable target.

This being McIlroy he received a mighty endorsement as he made his way up the last. The galleries had come to see him end a major drought extending over nine long years. Three mighty swipes set up one last birdie chance. Like so many, his putt rolled narrowly wide. It was nevertheless a gutsy display, his final round 68 sealing a top-six finish.

“Solid performance. Improved on my score every day,” McIlroy said. “It was just hard. I needed to go out and shoot something 63, 64-ish. I got off to a really good start. Just hard to keep that going in those conditions, as you can see from the leaderboard.”

Rahm hit seven under at the fifth, where Harman made his second bogey of the day to see the lead shrink to three. Just as he did on Saturday, when his lead briefly collapsed to two, Harman drilled back-to-back birdies to kill the vibe stone dead.

The galleries surrounding the 18th had adjusted to the outcome long before Harman walked onto the final tee and gave him the standard reception as he approached the green. From under his umbrella Harman removed his cap to acknowledge the applause, then set about completing the job. In keeping with what had come before he hit a bunker shot to seven feet and drilled the putt for his par.

The cap came off again during the presentation ceremony. Rarely can a golfer have been less concerned about the weather. Harman was grace itself in thanking the organisers for their work in preparing the course and the spectators who stayed behind in the rain, not quite singing, but chearing nonetheless.