Pro golfer, Brian Harman, just won the first major of his golfing career this past weekend. The 36-year-old from Savannah, Georgia won the 151st Open Championship at Royal Liverpool. It was a win that earned him the $3 million in first place prize money and instant respect among the golfing community.
However, for many of us, the more impressive story on Harman is the fact that he loves to hunt. He’s an avid bowhunter, chasing elk and deer in the fall, and wild turkeys in the spring. And like a lot of professional athletes these days, Harman has been questioned and criticized by the media for his passion for hunting.
It’s hard to bad-mouth the champion, so it seems the British media went after Harman’s love for hunting instead, questioning why he kills critters like hogs and turkeys. However, Harman handled the questions in a smooth fashion, stating that his family enjoys wild meat at the table.
“I’ve been a hunter all my life,” says Harman. “I enjoy the strategy of it, and we eat a lot of wild meat at my house. I enjoy the butchering – we do a lot of hunting.”
This isn’t the first time Harman has shared of his love for hunting and the outdoors with the media. Nearly a decade ago, in a Golf Digest interview, he spoke of his passion for the hunt.
“I’m a big outdoorsman,” Harman said. “My brother and I do a lot of turkey hunting. We love to deer hunt, and I do a lot of bowhunting. I killed the biggest deer of my life two years ago. For me, I don’t shoot deer that aren’t mature. Once a buck gets to 4 1/2 years old, I’ll shoot him.”
“Instead of depending on a grocery store, I go and I kill an animal that’s been roaming free its entire life and is about to die anyway,” says Harman. “I butcher it myself. I take care of all the meat myself, and then I eat it or I give it to someone to eat, or I cook it for someone else to eat.”
With this recent win for Harman, and the barrage of media questions that followed regarding his hunting, Golf Digest raised the question of whether the controversy over Harman’s favorite hobby has been overblown.
They noted, Harman isn’t simply going out in the woods and firing his gun at will. He respects the process and the strategy behind it, and it’s something he’s quite passionate about.
Listen to Golf Digest’s debate and critique of the hunting controversy in the podcast below…
What about you? What are your thoughts on the never-ending push by mainstream media to hate on hunters?
Comment below, and let us know what you think.
