Claude Harmon RIPS into PGA Tour star: "How he's Top 10 in world is laughable!"

"You acted like he was the second coming of Christ and that Brooks Koepka was a bum," says Harmon.

24 May 2023

Claude Harmon RIPS into PGA Tour star: "How he's Top 10 in world is laughable!" — Claude Harmon RIPS into PGA Tour star: "How he's Top 10 in world is…

Brooks Koepka's golf coach Claude Harmon III believes there is absolutely no way Will Zalatoris should be ranked in the Top 10 in the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR) following an extraordinary expletive-laden rant about all things LIV Golf and PGA Tour to Golfweek.

After already going in hard on Brandel Chamblee and his open criticism of LIV Golf, Harmon III took aim at the current OWGR format and how on earth Zalatoris finds himself in a current 10th spot with just one victory to his name and a lack of recent competition time.

Zalatoris, who has three runner-up finishes in the majors since 2021, was recently forced out of the PGA Tour season as a result of back surgery.

Harmon will soon get his wish, however, as Zalatoris is more than likely to be ranked outside the top 25 come the end of the year given he will no longer be accumulating any world ranking points.

That is the current issue for LIV Golf players such as Koepka and one of Harmon III's other players in Dustin Johnson, as the Saudi-backed league still does not receive any world ranking points within its tournaments.

Koepka was able to take full advantage of winning his third US PGA Championship on Sunday, where huge OWGR points were on the line, as he vaulted from 44th to 13th in the OWGR.

But back to Harmon III's incredible rant, and he believes the golfing media have acted like Zalatoris is the "second coming of Christ" and that "Brooks Koepka was a bum."

Harmon III told Golfweek:

"Listen, there are a lot of people that having gone through this whole LIV versus the PGA Tour, there are a lot of people that you guys on the Tour side of this, I mean, blow smoke up their asses like their (expletive) world beaters. And some of these guys haven’t won tournaments in quite a long time. The fact that Will Zalatoris is top 10 in the world is laughable, and it has nothing to do with him.

"But my point with that is you guys all acted like Brooks was a shitty player and Will Zalatoris was great, but the guy has won one (expletive) golf tournament, yeah, he’s finished second in a bunch of tournaments. So have a lot of players, but you guys are ready to crown him as if he’s the second coming of Christ and you guys are acting like Brooks Koepka was a bum.

"Seriously, pre-Masters, that is what was happening. And you guys know that … LIV also allows players to have time off, that you guys have beat everybody up for. They do get time off, they get two weeks stretches off, they got four months off. And so some of these guys used that time. I think Bryson used that time really well. I think Phil used that time really, really well.

"But, you know, I watched Taylor Gooch, he was on DJ’s team last year. That kid is a legit golfer. He is an old-school shaper, he can move it a bunch of different directions and then the golf that Peter Uhlein is playing right now on LIV.

"I mean if you’re going to make the argument that the only reason Peter is playing good golf is because he’s only got to play against 48 players then you can make the same argument that Max Homa and Sahith (Theegala) and all these guys that weren’t ever really superstars all of a sudden you could make that argument too. It’s just golf, there is some unbelievable golf being played on LIV. There really is because I see it week in and week out."

READ THE FULL GOLFWEEK INTERVIEW

Is Will Zalatoris really a top 10 golfer in the world? Is the OWGR a complete waste of time under its current format? Share your thoughts and comments over on the GolfMagic social media channels.

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