Brian Harman battled cold, windy conditions Sunday to earn his fourth PGA Tour victory at the 2025 Valero Texas Open. When he tapped in from less than a foot away for par on the closing hole at TPC San Antonio, the victory was one of the last things on his mind.
On Sunday, Oct. 13, Harman was in China, and his wife took their kids with family friend Cathy Dowdy to Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, for some vacation time. Harman's 6-year-old son was boogie boarding with a friend when a rip current pulled him out, and that's when Dowdy sprung into action. She went into the water after Harman's son. However, she couldn't get to him and was injured. Another bystander, Crane Cantrell, jumped in and saved them both.
Dowdy was in a coma for months after the accident. This week, she was put into hospice care.
"I think that bravery and doing something like that for people who aren't your blood is just the most beautiful thing you can do in this life," Harman said in November.
Harman gave Dowdy plenty to be proud of Sunday.
Harman's round was anything but smooth, but the conditions contributed to treacherous scoring conditions for the entire field in the final round.
How Brian Harman on the Valero Texas Open
His lead was trimmed to one shot at the turn following a double at the ninth, but he steadied the ship with birdies on Nos. 12 and 14 to get back to three ahead of Andrew Novak, the closest chaser for much of the afternoon who finished four shots behind. Harman, similar to what he did at the 2023 Open Championship, was stellar in the wind and cold and took punches before throwing them back.
"It was more kind of a game of attrition," Harman said. "The conditions just wouldn't allow for a super low score. I didn't have my best stuff today, but good enough to make a few putts, and a couple birdies on the back nine helped a lot."
The 38-year-old wasn't in great form on the greens this season, coming into the week 145th in Strokes Gained: Putting, which is normally his strength. For the week, he was fifth in putting and second in approach, not allowing his lack of length to hamper his ability to find pins in any spot.
"I changed putters this week. Like I said, I looked at my stats from last year and I probably had the best iron game of my career, approach to the green, and probably my worst year from 10 to 20 feet putting," Harman said. "So still really good inside 10 feet, but that section there is where I was getting all my looks and I wasn't making any of them. I had toyed with the idea of switching putters for a while.
"Picked that one up on Tuesday this week, it felt really good and it rolls nice, just kind of freed me up a little bit."
Novak, who hasn't won on Tour but has been in contention a couple of times this season, faded late. He was 2 under thru 5 holes, but seven bogeys in his final 13 holes were his ...
