Brian Harman has tied a record. One that he wouldn’t have wanted to be in the conversation about. Playing the 2026 Truist Championship, he was in great form for the first eight holes. Starting from the back 9, things went downhill as soon as he reached the 18th hole.
Adam Schupak of Golfweek reported, “Brian Harman hit his tee shot at 18 at Quail Hollow in the water. That’s his 18th career water ball at the Green Mile, Nos. 16-18, and breaks tie with Phil Mickelson for rinsing the most balls on that 3-hole stretch since 2003.”
Harman had scored three consecutive birdies on the 13th, 14th, and 15th holes. With a 3-under par score, he drove the ball straight into the water left of the fairway of the 491 yard par-4 18th hole. After taking a drop on the left rough 200 yards from the cup, he needed four more strokes to complete the hole. In the end, he managed a double bogey to go 1-under par on the leaderboard.
That added to his tally of 17 water balls on holes no. 16th, 17th, or 18th at Quail Hollow. The iconic trio of holes is called the Green Mile, the most challenging stretch of holes on the course. After scoring his 18th, he surpassed Phil Mickelson, who also often struggled to find the grass towards the end of back 9. While he’s known to do so frequently, the last time Harman scored a waterball in the Green Mile was in the third round of the 2024 edition of the event.
Speaking of Mickelson, his struggles on the course were quite unique. He always performed really well on the entire course. However, Lefty lost control over his game when he reached the 16.
Brian Harman hit his tee shot at 18 at Quail Hollow in the water. That’s his 18th career water ball at the Green Mile, Nos. 16-18, and breaks tie with Phil Mickelson for rinsing the most balls on that 3-hole stretch since 2003. More on the Green Mile here: https://t.co/ZEzWsLT6OB
— Adam Schupak (@AdamSchupak) May 7, 2026
That said, Harman had more hardship to suffer after that. And he wouldn’t have been happy how things quickly turned around.
Brian Harman’s misfortune didn’t end on the Green Mile
After the excellent performance he delivered till the 17th, Brian Harman would have believed that he was enroute to end Thursday at the top of the leaderboard. However, no one, including him, could have imagined how the script got flipped.
His misery didn’t end on the 18th. On the very next hole starting out on the front 9, he got stuck in between the trees on the right of the fairway. What should have been an easy par-4 495 yard 1st hole turned into a series of short wedge shots that finally escaped the dense forset.
In the end, he looked defeated as he made out of the trees and towards the cup. At the end of the hole, he had already managed a two-over par. The way he started things, Harman wouldn’t have imagined that Thursday would turn out to be this way a little over midway through.
